Zachary Claman De Melo Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief INDIANAPOLIS – Zachary Claman De Melo has been officially announced as the replacement for the injured Pietro Fittipaldi at Dale Coyne Racing for the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. After making his Verizon IndyCar Series debut at ISM Raceway (formerly Phoenix International Raceway) last month, Fittipaldi was originally slated to make his first run at the Brickyard. However, he was injured after a heavy crash during FIA World Endurance Championship qualifying for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belguim onRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer Zachary Claman de Melo isn’t sure if he’ll be in the No. 19 Honda for the Indianapolis 500. But the rookie made his case for a Month of May drive with his best Verizon IndyCar Series performance to date on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Claman de Melo avoided any on-track incidents and put together a consistent drive to earn a career-best 12th-place finish in Saturday’s INDYCAR Grand Prix. “I’m really happy with the result,” he told Motorsports Tribune. “We probably could have beenRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Scott Dixon did not have the best setup in his car for qualifying ahead of Saturday’s INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and that showed when he ended up 18th on Friday. That result required a lot of car setup changes. “Dampers, springs, geometry, closed cambers, it was pretty much everything,” said Dixon. “I think we actually threw in a kitchen sink on most of them, too. It was definitely a lot of changes. There was no session we didn’tRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer Zachary Claman de Melo will be back in the No. 19 Paysafe Honda for Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – at least for the road course race. DCR announced Thursday that Claman de Melo will replace the injured Pietro Fittipaldi in this weekend’s INDYCAR Grand Prix, adding an additional race to the Canadian’s schedule after three prior starts this season. He was originally slated to be out of the car until Detroit. The call-up comes after Fittipaldi was injured in a qualifying crash forRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Friday practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama has concluded for the Verizon IndyCar Series and there’s a lot of interesting storylines following the hour and 45 minutes of practice that the competitors were granted. First of all, the reduction of downforce with the new Universal Aero Kits is felt almost immediately with many drivers losing control of their cars heading to Turn 5. Sebastien Bourdais, Zach Veach, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Gabby Chaves among others had issues with theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California — Sebastien Bourdais had the most entertaining move of Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He also had some of the worst luck in the Verizon IndyCar Series field after penalties, an ill-timed caution and contact ruined his day. Bourdais started ninth but climbed his way to second before making his first pit stop on Lap 30. After his tires heated up, Bourdais raced his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda to third place before making a pass that looked like somethingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California — Zach Veach’s weekend at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was flipped on its head as the Ohio native managed to race home fourth for his first top five finish in Verizon IndyCar Series competition. Veach started 16th in his No. 26 Group One Thousand One Honda and parlayed a two stop strategy mixed with a small amount of luck into a career-best finish, which brought congratulations from numerous people on pit lane after starting so far back. “I think theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California —The opening day of practice for the 44th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach kicked off with two practice sessions with Andretti Autosport on the fast end of the grid. The duo of 2010 Long Beach winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi were second and third in the morning session but in the afternoon Rossi led the field from Hunter-Reay. 2015 Long Beach winner Scott Dixon led the first session with a 1 minute, 8.4112 second lap around the 1.968 mile street circuit.Read More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer With the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season rapidly approaching, Motorsports Tribune is previewing each of the teams competing on the tour. The site’s IndyCar staff will break each team down, laying out their results from the previous season while previewing the year to come for the organization and their driver(s).  Team: Dale Coyne Racing Drivers: Sebastien Bourdais, Pietro Fittipaldi, Zachary Claman de Melo What Happened Last Year: A season that began with unexpected promise was undone by an injury for Dale Coyne Racing. The company entered the 2017 IndyCar seasonRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer The No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) entry is “TBA” no more. The organization announced Wednesday that young stars Zachary Claman De Melo and Pietro Fittipaldi will share the the No. 19 Honda throughout the entire 17-race Verizon IndyCar Series slate, running with sponsorship support from Paysafe. “We are very pleased to have a leading global payments provider like Paysafe come on board to the exciting sport of Indy car racing as part of their North American expansion strategy,” DCR Owner Dale Coyne said in a team release.  “With ZachRead More