Category: Uncategorized

Herta Leads Practice 2; Goes for 3 Straight Poles

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Colton Herta lowered the best lap of the weekend to 1:00.5657 to lead the morning practice before qualifying. Herta edged Andretti teammate Kyle Kirkwood by0.0315 seconds. Kirkwood led Friday’s practice as Andretti continues to assert itsel=f on street courses.

When qualifying begibns at 2:50 eastern time this afternoon, Herta will attempt to win his third consecutive pole position.

Felix Rosenqvist brought out the first red flag of the weekend when hit the wall in turn 5 with just a little more than seven minutes to go.

Cars returned to the track to run out the time, but no one got in a clean lap.

Tom Blomqvist improved one second from yesterday.

Qualifying Groups will be up in a bit.

The top 6:

  1. Herta 1:00.5657
  1. Kirkwood 1:00.5972-sec
  2. Ericsson 1:00.6350-sec
  3. Palou 1:00.6802-sec
  4. O’Ward 1:00.7954-sec
  5. Lundgaard 1:00.7366-sec

Kirkwood Continues Andretti Street Dominance

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Kyle Kirkwood led practice session 1 at Toronto this afternoon as Andretti Autosport continues its season long mastery of street circuits. The team has two poles and one win this year on the street circuits.

Kirkwood’s fast ;apof 1:00.8075 was just a tick slower than he 2022 fast Friday time of 1:00.6. Teammmate Romain Grosjean was second, 0.05 seconds behind. Colton Herta in a third Andretti car, finished fourth.

F3lix Rosenqvist from Arrow mMcLaren was third fastest. The Arrow mcLaren team showed quickness as Alexander rossi and Rosenqvist both led the session late. Rossi ended seventh, and pato O’ward was just behind in eighth.

Rahal Lettermman Lanigan drivers showed promise early as Christian Lundgaard led the round early, but graham rahal led the team in sixteenth, followed by Lundgaard. jack harvey was 21st.

Tom Blomqvist’s Indycar debut was decent. He was 26th on the chart, two tenths of a second ahead of Santino Ferrucci, 2.9 seconds behind Kirkwood. Blomqvist is subbiing for the imjured simon Pagenaud, who will be reevaluated this weeekkend by Indycar to detrmine if he can race at iowwa next weekend.

Notes

The cars of Will Power and Josef newgarden are hard to tell apart this weekend. Newgarden’s Snap-On livery is very simlar to Power’s verizon scheme.

Rinus VeeKay was taking some odd lines. His path fortunately did not cause an issue, but there were some close calls.

I hope race officials can repair the manhole cover in that dip in the road. That looks unsafe.

Points leader Alex Palou was 12th fastest today.

Results

Road America Schedule

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Times are Eastern. Road America is in the Central Time Zone


Friday
2:50-3:35 pm: Indy NXT Practice
4-5:15 pm: INDYCAR Practice Peacock

Sat
9:50-10:35 am: Indy NXT Practice
10:55-11:55 am: INDYCAR Practice Peacock
1:15 pm: Indy NXT Qualifying
1:55 pm: INDYCAR Qualifying Peacock

Sun
10:15-10:45 am: Indycar Warmup Peacock
11:15 am: Indy NXT Race Peacock
1 pm: INDYCAR Race USA Peacock

Daly, Carpenter Part Ways

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A release from Ed Carpenter Racing:

ED CARPENTER RACING DRIVER UPDATE
ECR, Conor Daly Mutually Agree to End Their Relationship, Effective Immediately
(INDIANAPOLIS) June 7, 2023 – Ed Carpenter Racing announced today that the team and Conor Daly have mutually agreed to end their relationship, effective immediately. The No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet will continue as a full-time entry in the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. 
Team owner Ed Carpenter stated, “This is the most difficult decision I have made as a team owner because I respect Conor and know what he means to INDYCAR and its fans. Our team has not been performing at the level we are capable of this year, and despite making technical changes and investments in the offseason, 2023 has been extremely challenging. I have put a great deal of consideration into the current state of our team and realize it is my obligation to our employees, partners, and supporters to do whatever is necessary to elevate our team’s competitiveness. We sincerely wish Conor continued success and will cheer him on wherever he goes next.” 
“Although we’ve mutually decided that it’s in our best interests to take different paths, I’d like to thank ECR for the past three and a half seasons,” said Daly. “I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me – past, present and into the future. I look forward to taking on the next opportunities that await, and I want to thank the fans for being with me on this ride.”
The status of the No. 21 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet is unaffected, as well as the ovals-only program of the No. 33 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet. Information regarding the driver of the No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet for the upcoming event at Road America will be released in due course. 
About Ed Carpenter RacingEd Carpenter Racing (ECR) first entered the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in 2012. The Indianapolis-based race team has proven its versatility by collecting eight wins across each type of track the series competes on – street and road courses, short ovals and speedways. ECR is led by IndyCar’s only team owner/driver, Ed Carpenter, three-time pole winner for the Indianapolis 500 (2013, 2014 and 2018). The 2023 season will see the team continue to compete with two full-time entries: the No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet and the No. 21 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet, driven by Rinus VeeKay. Carpenter will round out the team’s three-car effort on the ovals, campaigning the No. 33 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet. More information may be found at http://www.edcarpenterracing.com/.

Qualifying Day Update 2

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The long day for RLL cars continues. Christian Lundgaard was just bumoled out of the top 30 by David Malukas. Three cars from the team will a=have to fight for the last row to morrow.. Malukas is now on the bubble. UPDATE- Lundgaard just knocked Malukas out and put himself on the bubble.

Katherine Legge is still the nly RLL car in nthe field. She sits 29th. Legge is probably safe.

Kyle Kirkwood has moved into the top 12. he knocked Ed Carpenter rto 13th. Tony Kanaan tied Carpenter with a speed of 232.620 mph. Carpenter slots ahead of Carpenter since he posted the speed first.

Agustin Canapino went out to try to mprove hios time. he brushed the wall in turn 2 and the run was called off. I don’t understand sending a rookie who was safe out for a second run.

75 minutes remain.

Herta Paces Warmup

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Colton Herta turned the fastest lap in the final tunme up for this afternnonm’s Firestomne Grand Prix. Pole siteer Romain Grosjean finished the session 11th.

The 30 mminute perod ran without incident, but some drivers ran into runoff areas. Allwho did were able to get their cars back on track

\Kyle Kirkwood, who crashed on the first lap of the Fast Six, ended the morning second quick. Scott McLaughlin, who also ha an on ttack incident in qualifying, was 17th.

Callum Ilott and Josef Newgarden were the two fastest Chevrolets in fifth and sixth respectively. Newgarden could be a factor in the race despite his 14th starting spot.

Results:

I’ll be back in a bit with tire choices/