Auto Racing – Page 130 – The Pit Window by Mike Silver

Abel Motorsports Officially Confirms 500 Entry

April 21, 2023 thepitwindow

Abel Motorsports today officially confirmed the 34th entry for the 107h running of the Indianapolis 500 with R C Enerson as the driver. Car number 50 will have Chevrolet power, giving each manufacturer 17 entries.

Abel Motorsports also runs an IndycNXT team driven by Jacob Abel. They have have expressed interest in a full time Indycar effort for 2024.

Enerson,a five time Indycar starter, attempted to qualify for the 500 in 2019 with Top Gun Racing.

“I can’t thank Bill and John enough for this opportunity to be back at the ‘500,’ Enerson said. “In the works for many months, the Abel Motorsports crew is top notch and loaded with experience well beyond my years. I’m honored to carry the banner for the organization during the Month of May, and while it’s going to be a few more weeks until we go on track, I expect we’ll be up to speed quickly at the Speedway. I’m just so looking forward to climbing behind the wheel of an NTT INDYCAR SERIES machine at IMS once again – so cool!”

Enerson led the Indy Lights championship in 2015 in a field that included four current Indianapolis 500 starters.

The announcement comes a day after the Indycar Open Test at Indiuanapolis Motor Speedway. The team did not participate. Enerson will need to complete a refresher test when practice for the 500 begins May 16.

Rain Brings Early End to Indy 500 Open Test

April 21, 2023 thepitwindow

From Indycar Series PR:

INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, April 21, 2023) –
Due to rain showers moving through the Indianapolis area, Day Two of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Indy 500 Open Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been canceled, concluding the test.During Day One on Thursday, 33 drivers combined to turn a total of 3,522 laps in sessions that featured extended hours in anticipation of weather Friday.

Teams will return to IMS on Friday, May 12 for practice and qualifying ahead of the GMR Grand Prix on Saturday, May 13 on the IMS road course. Practice for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is scheduled to begin Tuesday, May 16, with the race scheduled for Sunday, May 28.

The next event for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, April 30 at Barber Motorsports Park. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock and INDYCAR LIVE. Coverage is also available from the INDYCAR Radio Network via the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

Open Test Day 2

April 21, 2023 thepitwindow

Wweather is the question for today at IMS. it is currently raining and 50 degrees. rain is expected to continue until around 1 pm/

Today’s schedule: All times Eastern

10-4 Testing- all cars eligible

I will keep you updated throught Twitter and Facebook as to the status of the day.

The good news is that all rookie tests and refreshers were completed yesterday.

Since I don’t have any dreadful wait music to insert, here are links to my stories from yesterday:

Day 1 Wrap Up

Day 1 Wrap Up

Kirkwood: A Different Kind of Pressure

Kirkwood: A Different Kind of Pressure

Veteran Session Complete-Ericassaon on Top

Veterans Session Complete- Ericsson on Top

Day 1 Wrap Up

April 20, 2023 thepitwindow

It was one of those glorious days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. An overcast morning led to a very brief rain shower which ended the Rookie Oreintation Program a bit early. It was followed a warm, windy, sunny afternoon of constant running.

Some notes:

The turn 2 viewing mounds were packed. I went over there this afternoon.parking was at a premium,and latecomers parked far down the road course backstretch. IMS had a ticket booth open just opposite the museum lot. Sales were slow, just four tickets sold in two hours according to the sellers. They did tell me that the main ticket office was very busy.

Augustin Canapino completed his rookie test soon after action resumed this afternoon.

Team Penske showed more strength on the IMS oval than they have in a few years. Josef Newgarden led the afternoon session, Scott McLaughlin was 10th, and Will power was 13th. Newgarden said after the session that the htree cars each worked on different things.

Arrow McLaren may have a bit of work to do. Pato O’Ward worked his way up to ninth at the end of the day, but Felix Rosenqvist was 20th and A;exander Rossi was 22nd.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s troubles continue. Graham Rahal led the team at 23rd on the speed chart.

A good day for Dreyer and Reinbold as the 500 only team saw Stefan Wilson finish sixth and Ryan Hunter-Reay come home 14th.

Andretti Autosport may be in line for their best May in awhile. Kyle Kirkwood was fourth and Colton Herta seventh this afternoon.

Chip Ganassi Racing had three drivers in the top 10-Scott Dixon was third and led a lot of the session, Alex Palou was eighth, and Takuma Sato was fifth.

The action during the last hour had a Carb Day intensity to it.

Tomorrow’s forecast looks iffy for running. Starting at 10 looks doubtful right now, and the temperature may impede track drying.

Some Photos

Results:

Kirkwood: A Different Kind of Pressure

April 20, 2023 thepitwindow

Kyle Kirkwood has a d a few days to enjoy his first career Indycar victory. In2022, he felt the pressure of a highlytouted rookie trying to ucceed in not thebest of equipment. His move to Andretti for 2023 is beginning to pay dividends. In St. Pete Kirkwood told me he flt less pressure in his new team. I asked him today if the win eased the pressure even more.

“Depends on how people perceive it. Right? I think It relieves something. I don’t know if that’s pressure. Because now it’s almost seems like there’s more pressure because people are like, Okay, now that he’s proved that, let’s see him continue to do this, you know, and and there’s pressure from that as well. So it’s a new type of pressure. So it’ll continue.”

As for when nhe might win again, Kirkwood doesn’t have a particular trackm in mind.

“I mean, I have my favorite tracks, right, that I feel like I’m better at than others. But it really depends on the weekend, how we roll out. And I’ve yet to run a road course with them (Andretti) except for at Thermal, which we were really fast. So there is promise there too. We could be really good at Barber.”

The morning session began with some issues, but the team appeared to have figured them out near the end of the practice.

“They’re (running conditions) okay. I mean, we only did four laps at the end. We were having some gremlins that were fighting which is very normal for not running a car for a year then rolling it out here. So you’re always fighting some little things, but we got through it. We ran like four laps there at the end and then and then yeah, the car fell awesome. I thought it was like Man, this thing is planted. Like we got a fast race car. “

The amount of pressure doesn’t seem to bother Kirkwood. I think his win last Sunday was the start of a multi win season.

As of 3:53 pm Kirkwood is sixth fastest with a lap of 224.8906 mph.

Rookie/Refresher Session Done; On Hold for Rain

April 20, 2023 thepitwindow

All refresher tests were completed and two of the three rookies have successfully completed their rookie tests. The next test period was scheduled to begin at 2 pm, but precipitation stopped the rookie/refresher phase with about 30 minutes to go.

Update: the track just reopened for activityand is scheduled to run until 6:30 Eastern

Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Katherine Legge, Stefan Wilson, and Marco Andretti completed theirnrefresher phases.

Sting Ray Robb and Benjamin pederen have completed their rookie tests.

Augustin Canapino is in the middleof phase 2 of his rookie test.

Veterans Session Complete- Ericsson on Top

April 20, 2023 thepitwindow

The first session of the day just finished with Marcus Ericsson posting the fast time of 224. 330 miles per hour, folowed by Helio Castroneves at 224.280 miles per hour. 25 cars took part in the session. Takuma Sato was allowed to run with the veterans since he raced at Texas.The three full time rookies- Augustin canapino, Sting Ray Robb, and Benjamin Pedersen, have begun their rookie tests. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Katherine Legge, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, and Stefan Wilson are also on track for their refresher tests.

Notes

The weather is warm and overcast. Drivers noted the wind was a factor.

Marcus Ericsson hit 235 mph in the turn 3 speed trap.

The three Penske cars led the no tow list. Josef Newgarden was the fastest at 221.353 mph.

Results

1	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	224.330	36
2	6	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	224.280	26
3	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	224.088	27
4	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	Chevy	223.965	37
5	33	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	223.765	35
6	60	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	223.540	39
7	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	223.466	33
8	26	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian	Honda	223.409	31
9	18	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	Honda	223.390	59
10	20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	223.114	26
11	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevy	222.874	22
12	12	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevy	222.593	38
13	6	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	222.515	32
14	5	Pato O’Ward	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	222.377	31
15	21	Rinus VeeKay	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	222.126	44
16	11	Takuma Sato	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	222.012	33
17	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	Honda	220.920	23
18	77	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevy	220.911	21
19	14	Santino Ferrucci	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Chevy	220.571	30
20	45	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	220.223	28
21	30	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	220.181	27
22	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	219.670	32
23	7	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	219.516	31
24	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	Honda	219.463	5
25	28	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	Honda	219.359	11

Photos

A bit of a shock to see Pato in a black car

Helio Castroneves was second quick this morning

It’s May in April

April 20, 2023 thepitwindow

Cars get on the IMS oval at 10 this morning for the first time sinece May 29, 2022, The turn 2 viewing mounds are open for public viewing.

A reminder of the new schedule:

Thursday, April 20

10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET

Veterans 10 a.m.- noon

Rookie Orientation Program and refresher noon-2 p.m.

All eligible cars- 2-6:30

Friday, April 21

10 a.m.-4 p.m

All eligible cars

All track is streamed on Peacock.

If you can, I would get out today. The weather forecast for tomorrow is not promising, with a high of 55 degrees and morning rain, followed by more rain in the afternoon. Today’s weather is sunny to partly cloudy with a high in the low 80s.

Today we get our first look at the liveries for the 500.

33 cars will participate n the test.All full time teams will joine the 500 only entries for Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Tony Kanaan, and Marco Andretti. All but Sato will need to take the refresher test.

Sting Ray Robb, Augustin Canapino, and Benjamin Pedersen will be taking their rookie tests this afternoon.

We may get an idea of who will be fast next month, and we will posibly w=see how the new aero parts help in traffic and passing.

IMS Revises Open Test Schedule

April 19, 2023 thepitwindow

IMS has evised the hours for the open Indycar test tomorrow and friday in light of the weather forecast.The new imes:

Thursday, April 20

10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET

Veterans 10 a.m.- noon

Rookie Orientation Program and refresher noon-2 p.m.

All eligible cars- 2-6:30

Friday, April 21

10 a.m.-4 p.m

All eligible cars

The 34th entry from Abel Motorsports with driver R C Enerson will not participate in the test this week. Enerson will need to take his refresher whent the track opens for practice in May.