A statement from the NTT Indycar Series:
Newgarden crashed on while leading on lap 235 of Sunday’s HyVee Salute to Farmers 300. He was released from the track medical center, then later lost conscious and received a cut to the back of his head.
Santino Ferrucci remains on standby should Newgarden not be allowed to continue after tomorrow morning’s practice.
News bulletin from Team Penske:
MOORESVILLE, NC – Team Penske has announced that Santino Ferrucci will be on standby for INDYCAR SERIES Championship contender Josef Newgarden heading into this weekend’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Newgarden was released from MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center earlier this morning and returned to his home in Nashville. Per series protocols, Newgarden will be reevaluated by the INDYCAR Medical Team on Thursday to determine his status for the Gallagher Grand Prix. Should Newgarden not be able to race, Ferrucci will take the wheel of the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet.
Ferrucci has 43-career INDYCAR SERIES starts with four of these occurring at the IMS road course where he has two top-10 finishes. His career best IndyCar finish is fourth, on four occasions, and he has made three starts in 2022, with two top-10 finishes.
Indycar photo by Joe Skibinski
Another Iowa race, another Josef Newgarden victory. Newgarden dominates this track like Scott Dixon used to rule Mid Ohio.
Chevy has a tremendous advanatge over Honda this year. Several Honda cars challenged Newgarden, but did not have enough to make a serious run. Chevys finished 1,,2,3,4 today.
Colton Herta’s oval misfortunes continued. After his first early pit stop it was fun watching him carve his way through the field. Herta looked like he would be a contender.
What a drive for Jimmie Johnson. He spun on lap 14, recovered to lead 19 laps, and spent much of the race in the top 10 before finishing 11th.
The standings have tightened up. Mafrcus Ericsson’s lead has shrunk to 15 pointsover Newgarden and 22 over Will Power.
Pato O’Ward earned his second runner up spot on an oval. it was a much needed result for O’Ward, who had an average finish of 20th in his past three races.
Overall, it was a good race with many battles for position.
Newgarden, Power, and O’Ward all noted how quickly the tires went away today. They expect the same situation tomorrow.
Newgarden has won four races in 2022. This is the first year a driver has four wins since 2020. Today’s win was also his fourth at Iowa. His first win here came when he drove for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Indycar announced there were 722 passes on track today, 372 for position.
Only five cars finished on the lead lap.
Today’s race marked the sixth time this year that the driver starting second has won. The pole winner has not won since the first race of the year in St. Pete.
I will have a follow up story with quotes and final results up later. Thanks for following along. Another race tomorrow.
Indycar photo by Joe Skibinski
Another Iowa race, another Josef Newgarden victory. Newgarden dominates this track like Scott Dixon used to rule Mid Ohio.
Chevy has a tremendous advanatge over Honda this year. Several Honda cars challenged Newgarden, but did not have enough to make a serious run. Chevys finished 1,,2,3,4 today.
Colton Herta’s oval misfortunes continued. After his first early pit stop it was fun watching him carve his way through the field. Herta looked like he would be a contender.
What a drive for Jimmie Johnson. He spun on lap 14, recovered to lead 19 laps, and spent much of the race in the top 10 before finishing 11th.
The standings have tightened up. Mafrcus Ericsson’s lead has shrunk to 15 pointsover Newgarden and 22 over Will Power.
Pato O’Ward earned his second runner up spot on an oval. it was a much needed result for O’Ward, who had an average finish of 20th in his past three races.
Overall, it was a good race with many battles for position.
Newgarden, Power, and O’Ward all noted how quickly the tires went away today. They expect the same situation tomorrow.
Newgarden has won four races in 2022. This is the first year a driver has four wins since 2020. Today’s win was also his fourth at Iowa. His first win here came when he drove for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Indycar announced there were 722 passes on track today, 372 for position.
Only five cars finished on the lead lap.
Today’s race marked the sixth time this year that the driver starting second has won. The pole winner has not won since the first race of the year in St. Pete.
I will have a follow up story with quotes and final results up later. Thanks for following along. Another race tomorrow.
Josef Newgarden led the openeing practcie round for the Honda Indy 200 nwith a lap of 1:07.0549. Alex Palou was second, 0,2061 seconds behind. Newgarden was fastest on both the primary and alternate tires.
Takuma Sato brought ot the only red flag of the session when he spun going into turn 1 about 35 minutes into the session.
The temperature reachede 91 degrees during the practice. Newgarden said he felt it and couldn’t wait to get out of the car. He also felt it affected the grip.
“I think the temp definitely made the track grip low. It felt very difficult to drive the car today, to bring it up to temperature. Firestone has a new tire here from last year, and it’s tougher to bring up to temp.
Feels like a little less grip.”
Colton Herta, who was fifth fastest today, reflected on last year’s pit issue and what the team hopoes tro find this year.
“We were very fast last year. Up until that pit stop we
were able to stay with Josef. We just need to find a little bit
more time. I think I know what I’m looking for in the race
car, and it’s going to be — if we can find it or not.”
David Malkukas, who had the eightth fastest time, is extremely happy wqith his rookie season.
“…, everything has gonebetter than I was expecting to be honest. I’ve been in here, I wasn’t expecting to be in here at all for this season, and
the fact that we are and being more consistent, it’s making
me very happy, and honestly from start to finish it’s gone
better than I was expecting.”
Tomorrow and Siunday the temperatures will be between eight to ten degrees coolere. Newgarden believes the cooler temperatures will increase the grip.
Results:
Andretti Autosport is back. With finishes of third, fourth, and fifth today, the team is beginning to regain its form at the front. Alexander Rossi now has two straight podiums and a pole.
Josef Newgarden got rid of a lot of frustrastion today. Newgarden wasn’t happy at Detroit not winning the race after winning the pole. His frustration mounted when rossi edged him yesterday for the pole.
Is Rossi making a lateral move for 2023? Once again today, slow fueling cost him the lead on the first pit stop. He never regained the lead. His new team, Arrow McLaren SP continued their pit stop issues today with some slow fueling.
Rhahal Letterman Lanigan racing had their best day in quite some time. Graham Rahal finished eighth, Christian Lundgaard was 10th, and Jack Harvey was 13th.
Newgarden is the only driver with multiple wins in 2022.
Simona DeSilvestro finished 21st in her season debut, and on the lead lap. It was a fine start for Paretta Autosport.
Marcus Ericsson is beginning to do championship things. He had a third secured, bit got to second and now leads the title fight by 27 points. It is at least the sixth time the leader has changed after a race this year.
Callum Ilott finally had a decent race and fiished 11th. It was nice to see him run without issues today.
Today’s crowd had to be one of the biggest I’ve seen since Indycar returned in 2016.
Turn 5 saw lots of passing action and a couple of mishaps today, including Alex Palou going off track and Will Power’s spin.
I will have a full wrap up tomorrow. Thanks for following along this weekend. The next race isn’t for three weeks. Enjoy the break.
Indycar photo
Today’s schedule: All Times Eastern
10:15-10:45 Indycar Warmup/ Peacock
12:10-1:05 Indy Lights Race Peacock
3:30- Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (Green Flag t 3:45) USA Network; Peacock
Health Update: I’m feeling a bit better overall today, and I hope to improve as the day goes along.
Belle Isle’s final race begins this afternoon. It is fitting that a Team Penske car is on the pole. Josef Newgarden edged Takuma Sato on his final lap as time expired in the the Fast Six. Newgarden was fortunate to be in the last round.
In Round 2, Newgarden was in the pits as several cars were on laps pacing quicker than his best time. Romain Grosjean clipped the wall in turn 12, breaking the rear toe link and sending the car hard into the outside wall. The cars that might have knocked Newgarden out, including Scott Dixon and Colton Herta, were trailing Grosjean, thus did not get to complete their laps.
Qualifying Results:
DETROIT – Qualifying Saturday for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 2.35-mile(s) Raceway at Belle Isle Park, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:15.2153 (112.477 mph)
2. (51) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:15.3490 (112.278)
3. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:15.3951 (112.209)
4. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:15.4538 (112.122)
5. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:16.3301 (110.834)
6. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:16.6104 (110.429)
7. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:15.1043 (112.643)
8. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:15.2279 (112.458)
9. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:15.4057 (112.193)
10. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:15.8670 (111.511)
11. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:16.2179 (110.998)
12. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:16.9740 (109.907)
13. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:16.0154 (111.293)
14. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:15.5482 (111.981)
15. (14) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 01:16.1255 (111.132)
16. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:15.5731 (111.945)
17. (77) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:16.1390 (111.113)
18. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:15.6121 (111.887)
19. (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:16.3068 (110.868)
20. (45) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:16.8347 (110.107)
21. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 01:16.3374 (110.824)
22. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 01:17.5499 (109.091)
23. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:16.4265 (110.695)
24. (11) Tatiana Calderon, Chevrolet, 01:18.3657 (107.955)
25. (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, No Time (No Speed)
26. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:18.6291 (107.594)
Kyle Kirkwood led Friday’s practice session, but he didn’t get very far in yesterday’s practice. He collided with David Malukas on the first lap of the practice. He rebounded to qualify 15th.
In the afternoon, he was the winning co driver In IMSA’s GTD class, driving the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus.
I think today’s winner comes from row 2 today. Simon Pagenaud will win his first race in two years this afternoon. Today will be another day which jumbles the points standings. The top four are separated by just 24 points.
The sun escaped its cloud prison and the Indycar series team got in a four hour practice at IMS today. The session saw cars running in groups and practicing passing. Teams ran together to get a feel for the draft..
Just two caution periods for track inspections interrupted today’s practice period.
Josef Newgarden led today’s session with lap at 229.519 mph. Takuma Sato also had a lap over 229 mph, just 0.0157 seconds slower. The next five drivers had speeds in the 228 mph range.
Newgarden has won the last two races and feels good about his chances in the 500. After the test ended, he told the media<
“I can’t deny things feel really good on the 2 car. They’re just progressing. It’s not like two steps forward, two steps back, or vice versa. I feel like it’s going forward every single time, and we’re just getting better.
We’ve been on a good trajectory at the moment. I don’t want to see it flatten too much; I want to see it go the other way. I feel confident with what we’ve got, feel good at showing up anywhere. Being at Team Penske makes that easier. I always feel confident in our group.”
Unlike Wednesday’s string of yellows for incidents, today was issue free. Drivers completed 3,267 laps. Marcus Ericsson completed he most laps, 148.
The top 10 had three Chevys and seven Hondas. All five cars from Chip Ganassi Racing were in the top 10. Tony Kanaan was the fastest from the team at third place with a lap of 228.767.
Helio Castroneves did not run today. He is uninjured, but his car was not repaired in time from yesterday’s crash.
Marco Andretti was the only Andretti Autosport driver in the top 15 in sixth place. Romain Grosjean finished 16th. Alexander Rossi was 23rd and Colton Herta was 28th. Puzzling results for a team that used to be really good at IMS.
Sato was not driving the car he will drive in the 500 this week. The team did not want to risk damage to their speedway car.
Santino Ferrucci showed some speed . he finished twelfth today but was in the top 10 for a good chunk of the session. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have a full time ride.
Callum Ilott again led the pure rookies. Keep an eye on him next month.
Will Power pointed out at the end of the day that today’s results mean nothing for qualifying. The cars ran without their qualifying boost, and qualifying is one car on track, not several that can give the trailing car a tow.
“You need (extra boost for qualifying), with everyone going on single runs on exactly the same fuel load with no draft, all that. That’s the only way you’ll know,” Power said.
Thanks for following along these two days. It was great to be back at IMS with cars running on the oval.
Today’s time sheet
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 