Per Carlin Racing on Twitter R C Enerson will drive their second car this weekend at Mid Ohio in the Honda Indy 200. Enerson did well a couple years ago at this track driving for Dale Found Racing. Lucas Race School is the sponsor.
Reminder – The race is on NBC. You may need to set your DVR.
Photo: Kyle McInnes
Josef Newgarden led most of the first practice session for the Iowa 300 this morning. Ryan Hunter Hunter-Reay led briefly during the middle portion of the NTT Indycar Series practice period. In the final 20 minutes, Newgarden’s teammates Simon Pagenaud and Will Power moved into second and third.
Newgarden’s fastest lap was 17.8961 seconds, 179.838. Pagenaud finished 0,1308 seconds behind. Alexander Rossi, Newgarden’s closest competitor for the series championship, struggled early but came back to finish fourth in the session, 0.2 seconds behind. Rossi was third fastest without a tow.
Following the three Chevys were three Hondas. After Rossi was Dixon and the Hunter-Reay. Tony Kanaan, James Hinchcliffe, Felix Rosenqvist, and Zach Veach complete the top ten.
Qualifying begins at 2:15 EDT on NBCSN.
Cars were lifting in the turns. Some of it could be due to traffic, but it was noticeable when there was no one in front of a car as well.
Indy Lights driver Rinus VeeKay will test with Ed Carpenter Racing August 7 at Portland International Raceway. VeeKay won the Indy Pro 2000 in 2018.
Colton Herta has blank sidepods.
It is not difficult to tell Dixon’s and Rosenqvist’s cars apart.
Back after qualifying with Quick Thoughts and a full report.
Above: Pato O’Ward at Road America last week.
Indycar began a three week summer break after Road America last weekend. The Series returns to action in Toronto July 14. What do drivers do in their weeks off? They go to Europe. One may not return. It’s complicated, and we’ll discuss that last.
The week before the REV Group Grand Prix Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais went to Le Mans to participate in the 24 hour race for Chip Ganassi’s Ford GT teams. It was the last Le Mans for this car. Ford is shutting the GT program down. My hope is that they return in another class, preferably the prototypes.
This coming week (July already? Really/) Marcus Ericsson will participate in a Pirelli tire test in Austria on Tuesday. Ericsson is still a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo. When the Indycar season ends he will spend more time at the remaining F1 races.
Pato O’Ward’s weird itinerant season continues. This weekend he is driving for MP Motorsport in Formula 2 in Austria. O’Ward replaces Mahaveer Raganathan, who accumulated enough penalty points to earn a one race suspension. Jordan King is O’Ward’s teammate this weekend. O’Ward qualified 17th Friday, one second off the pole speed and just 0.25 seconds slower than the more experienced King. It was O’Ward’s first time in this type of car, first time at this track, and of course first time on this particular tire. Overall, he did a great job.
F2 runs two races this weekend, a race on Saturday which includes a pit stop, and a sprint race on Sunday.i am anxious to see how Pato does in the two events.
News from japan’s Super Formula that Dan Ticktum is losing his Red Bull backed ride has led to speculation that O’Ward will finish the season there. Nothing is confirmed. Ticktum has scored just 1 point this season. His teammmate has out performed him significantly.
Since O’Ward is under contract to Red Bull, he may complete his season there. That would be a big loss to Indycar, which thought they had a rising star. Considering Ticktum’s struggles, this may be a difficult situation for O’Ward. doesn’t work out, will there still be room for him back in Indycar? Let’s hope so.
I’ll be back next week with a look at another past Indianapolis 500 program.
The post Road America hangover is becoming as bad for me as the post 500 hangover. This is definitely my second favorite track after IMS. I decided this in 2016 after about the first five minutes I was there. This year was the best year for me of the four Indycar events as experience goes for many reasons.
First, my friends Leigh and Bob were there for the first time. They found some places I had never seen in turns 7 and 10. It was nice to see the track through fresh sets of eyes. We also had a great time visiting establishments in Elkhart Lake. I’m sure they will be back.
I also spent some time in the kink and I was impressed by the speed the cars carry before braking for Canada Corner.
The race behind Alexander Rossi was great. Third through sixth were contested all day. Dixon’s charge from the rear after the turn 5 incident was exciting to watch. His teammate Felix Rosenqvist had an excellent drive moving from 18th to 6th. Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe had steady drives and fought hard all day.
Colton Herta had an eventful day. After losing the lead to rossi in turn 3 of theopening lap, he had contact with both Power and Pagenaud in separate incidents and seemed to spend a lot of time off track in turn 5. Herta’s eighth place finish was his second best result of the season.
Rossi was probably not given any consideration for the drive of the day, but he should have been in the conversation. Winning margins like this don’t happen often in today’s NTT Indycar Series. His drive was a thing of beauty.
The crowd looked to me to be the biggest since 2016. I thought the bowl at the bottom of turn 5 was fuller than it had been the last two years.
I’m about halfway through the NBC broadcast and i am very impressed. The cameras were on the Herta-Pagenaud skirmish all the way, including the point when Dixon blew past both of them. Great work.
So I will say good bye to Road America until next year and leave you with some photos.
That was quite a bold move Alexander Rossi made to take the lead over Colton Herta. Then an F 1 race broke out.
Rossi did what he needed to get done today- f inish ahead of Josef Newgarden and Cut into the lead as much as possible.. The gap is down to seven points.
Dixon is not quite out of the points race, but he is edging closer to waiting another year for title number 6.
There was great racing and action in position three through six most of the day.
Will Power and Newgarden knew they had nothing for Rossi. Power said, “I never saw Rossi all day. A yellow or rain might have helped.”
Newgarden was satisfied that he got all he could out of the car and third was the best they could do.
Simon Pagenaud had an impressive drive finishing ninth after starting 16th.
Dixon made a great comeback for a top five after spinning on the opening lap.
Turn five was a very busy, action packed area today.
Santino Ferrucci finished a lap down, the third lap he hasn’t completed this season.
Rossi has now won the three crown jewels of Indycar circuits- Long Beach, Indianapolis, and Road America.
Look for my full report on Wildfire Sports tomorrow. I will also have a Road America postscript with photos in this space Tuesday. Thanks for following along this weekend.
Good morning from Road America. We are about six hours from the green flag. There is still a chance of rain but the timing is uncertain.
Yesterday’ s qualifying sets up some interesting situations. Can Colton Herta get his second win of the year? Can Alexander Rossi get his second win of the year and gain ground on Josef Newgarden? What strategy will Newgarden and Tim Cindric use to get the lead?
The results could give us a hint of how the rest if the season will go. Will Scott Dixon starts with a new engine and need a good result to keep his chances of repeating as champion alive.
I’ll be back after the race with Quick Thoughts and my full race report will post tomorrow on Wildfire Sports. Enjoy the race. Remember it’s on NBC at noon ET
Josef Newgarden laid down the quickest lap of the weekend in the last few minutes of practice 3 this morning with a time of 1:42.882. Coton Herta was second 0.35 seconds behind. Will Power had the third best time 0. 38 seconds off Newgarden’ s lap. NTT Indycar Series qualifying for the REV Group Grand Prix is at 3:0 pm Central Time.
Yesterday’s session leaders, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi, were fourth and fifth respectively. Four rookies finished in the top ten. In addition to Herta, Felix Rosenqvist was seventh, Santino Ferrucci eighth, and Patricio O’Ward tenth.
I am not surprised by the results of this session. Penske cars have been pretty dominant here, and Newgarden and Power were the front row last year. We could see a repeat of that lineup.
I did some more exploring this morning and found two great viewing spots. One is at the top of the inside of turn seven. There is a large bleacher from where you can see turns six and seven plus the beginning of the carousel after the Speedville bridge.
The other location is somewhat secluded with few spectators. I will just say it is an amazing spot to watch from, but I’m not divulging where it is.
Back after qualifying with Quick Thoughts. Watch for my full report on Wildfire Sports later tonight.
It’s a very busy day today. On track action begins at 9 ET and is continuous throughout the day. The Road toi Indy has a full slate with race 2 qualifying for Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. Following the Indycar practice at noon ET all three RTI series hold their first races of the weekend. USF 2000 at 1, followed by Indy Pro 2000 and then Indy Lights.
Indycar qualifying for the REV Group Grand Grand Prix starts at 4 ET. There is little threat of rain today, but Sunday still looks iffy.
I’m looking at the combined practice results from yesterday. Four drivers had their fastest lap in Practice 1, including Ryan Hunter-Reay, who led that session. Hunter-Reay is sixth on the combined chart. Jack Harvey, Marcus Ericsson, and Max Chilton were at the bottom of the charts in both sessions. Harvey had a couple of incidents in Practice 1.
Will Power and Josef Newgarden are the only Chevys in the combined top 10 at second and third.
Back with an update after Practice 3.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 