Tag: NTT Indycar Series

Rossi Leads Warmup as O’Ward, Herta Continue Off Road Adventures

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Alwxander Rossi has now lead every session except qualifying, making hin the odds on favorite for todau’s race. Polesitter Colton Herta had the second best lap, despite once again getting off track again.

Pato O’Ward took two excursions intomtheavel but kept going. He finished the session seventh.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Romain Grosjean brought out red flags, Hunter-Reay for getting stuck off course, and Grosjean for spinning and stalling in turn 13.

It was a busy warmuo with 1,116 laps turned.

Tire selections will be out after the Indy NXT race which just started.

Results

Race Day at Road America

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Today’s schedule: Times are Eastern. Road America is in the Central Time Zone

10:15 am: IndyCar warmup Peacock

11 am: Indy NXT Race Peacock

1 pm: IndyCar Race USA

Another friendly nreminder that the race is on USA. Green fkag is at 1:30 Eastern

Happy Father’s day to all the dads who read this. Today’s Sonsio Grand Prix promises to be one of the more interesting races at Road America. A perfect storm is brewing for another wild day.

The Repave

Drivers loved the full track repave until they hated it. Drivers who got off line and ended up in the sand traps didn’t seem as enamored with the new surface as they did after Friday’s practice. With cars going two wide in some places, the recipe for caution periods is there, It has been a yellow filed year, but Road America doesn’t normally produce many caution periods. Today could be different.

Tires

The alternate tire doesn’t seem to be faster than the primary this weekend. Putting on the reds di not improve qualifying times. The driver who figures out the correct stire trategy will havet a great advantage.

I would start on the alternates and hope for an early yellow, then use the primaries the rest of the way.

Today will be the warmest day of the weekend with a temperature of 77 degrees at race time. It has been a most pleasant wekend weather wise.

Starting Lineup

Herta Takes Pole on a Dusty Smoky Day

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There was dust. There was smoke. Five cars, incuding Colton Herta ,lost laps in qualifying. In the end, Herta survived to win his first pole of the season. It was the fourth pole in eight races for Andretti Autosport.

Herta had three off track excursions today. Two were in the morning practice, includin sending a Weather Tech sign to an untimely death.

He spun in qualifying, losing his fastest lap in round 2, yet still advancing to the Fast Six. His teammate Kyle Kirkwood was not as fortunate. On the last lap of round 2, kirkwood had secured a spot in the Fast Six, only to have his engine let go on the backstretch. The car stopped after the checkered flag came out, avoiding a penalty. Still kirkwood had another superb qualifying effort ruined by misfortune. This time it wasn’t his fault, but other than winning the pole at Long Beach, his luck after advancing has been abysmal.

Herta siad, “This place with the repave is not easy. To have a car that was stable enough to really attack in that last Fast Six was impressive. It’s been way too long this year for us to get a pole, so it’s nice to finally get one.”

From earlier:

Rossi Stays on Top

https://thepitwindow.blog/2023/06/17/rossi-stays-on-top-says-car-has-more-left/

Speaking of abysmal, Will Power would love to turn the clock back and start this day again. Power was involved in a crash near the endof practice with Scott Dixon, who moved in front of Power to avoid Romain Grosjean. Power angrily got out ofm his car and confronted Dixon, even givng him a shove. Before getting to Dixon he gave the Loudon salute..

Neither repaired car was up to qalifying. Power will start 22nd and Dixon 23rd. Power’s attempt to advance ended with a wild ride off track min turn 2.

Pato O’Ward will start second, just 0.17 seconds behnd Herta.

Some Positives

The day was not all bad. A. J. Foyt Racing advanced both cars to the second round for the first time since St. Pete in 2018. Benjamin Pedersen will star 10th and Santino Ferrucci lines up 11th tomorrow.

Marcus Armstrong starts eighth. The fourth ganassi driver has been getting closer to a Fast Six appearance each time out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the final round at Mid Ohio or Toronto.

Christian Lundgaard just missed the last round and will start seventh. Lundgaard has been carrying the RLL team in qualifying this year.

Notes

Eight races into the season and Team Penske has yet to win a pole. The team has won three races. It’s the first year in some time Ithta I can remeber when Penske drivers have not won the majority of the races.

Alexander Rossi fell to fifth after leading both practice sessions. David Malukas, strong in the two practices, failed toadvance and will start 13th.

Points leader Alex Palou recovered froma morning spin into the turn 14 tire barriers and will start third. Tomorrow will be Palou’s sixth straight top four start. Texas was the last time Palou started outside the second row. He has not started lower than seventh in 2023.

Rossi Stays on Top; Says Car has More Left

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In a disjointed practice session with four interruptions, Alexander Rossi continuede his strong nweekend, keeping the mtop spot for the second day in a row. Rossi lowered the fast time to1:40.9112, still a second slower than the track record.

Colton Herta, despite twom off track excursions, finished second, 0.04 seconds behind Rossi. Herta spun early in the round, destroying a sign in the process. The session ended early when Herta spun and got stuck in the gravel with less than two inutes left in the session.

The most serious incident involved Will Power and Scott Dixon. Dixon was moving over for Romain Grosjean and didn’t see Power coming. Power and Dixon collided, sparking an angry reaction from Power,whi shoved Dixon after they both got out of their cars. I can’t imagine what his reaction would have been if nthat wopuld have happened during the race.

Alex Palou spun in turn 14 and hit the tire barrier. He climbed out of mthe car and is okay, and he stillcould be na factor in qualifying.

I hope the race is half as action packed as this practice session was. It will be great if it were.

I spent most of the round in turn the carousel just past the Speedville bridge. There is a new trail on the outside of the turn, which by next year will rival Canada Corner in popularity. The red flags gave me ample time to move to the inside of turn. This is a proper road course corner- it is sweeping wih a sand trap on the drivers’ left and a low guard rail on the drivers’ right. very old style. Iwould love tpo see more corners like this mone at other tracks.

I ended the morning at the bottom of turn 5, which had a crowd of near race day proportions. This morning I could sense today’s attendanxe would be huge, and it is.

I will end with results, qualifying groups, and I will be abck min just a bit with some photos from this morning’

Results

Qualifying Groups

Road America Day 2

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Today’s schedule: Times are Eastern. Road America is in the Central Time Zone

9a: USF2000 Pro Qualifyimg

9:50a: NXT Prac

10:55a: INDYCAR Prac tice

12:10p: USF2000 Race

1:15p: NXT Qualifyimg

1:55p: INDYCAR Qualifyimg

3:40p: USF2000 Pro Race

4:45p: USF2000 Race 2

5:45p: BMRC Race 2

6:50: Vintage Indy Registry

Yesterday’s Indycar practice favored the teamsthat practiced last week, Arrow McLaren and Coyne. Today we will see what the other teams learned Friday and how they apply their findings. Alexander Rossi said after practice that the alternate tires were not faster, and that could change qwalifying strategy.

I’m going to try viewing from the new turn 8 *carousel) this morning. I had a brief view of the area yesterday afternoon, and it looks amazing.

The weather today is beautiful. Slightly warmer than yesterday morning and then temperature shouldreach the upper 70s. We have not seen any haze from the Canadian wildfires.

The crowd today looks significantly arger tha Friday’s already.

I’ll be back with a post practice report and the qualifying groups.

Rossi Leads Opening Road America Practice

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Alexander Rossi had the fastest lap on a perfect afternoon in the first practice of the weekend for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America. Under ideal conditions Rossi had the quick time of1:41.779. his teammates, Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, also place in the top 10 at fith and eighth respectively. Chip Ganassi Racing again put all four of their cars in the top 10 with lex palou third, Scott Dixon fourth, Marcu Ericsson sixth, and Marcus rmstrong 10th.

David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD, was second fastest, 0.086 seconds behind Rossi. Christian Lundgaard was seventh in a nice showing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and Colton Herta was ninth for Andretti Autosport.

Graham rahal was 11th, just 15 hundredths behind Lundgaard.

The session ran clean. Santino Ferrucci did a 360 spin in Canada corner, but he was able to keep the car riunning and drove off.

Mid Pack for Penske

Scott Mclauhghlin led a 15-16-17 result for Team Penske with Josef Newgarden, then Will Power. It seems odd to see all thre of them pakced so low. I wouldn’t count them out just yet, thou Slightly better than expected

Hunter-Reay a Little Better than Expected

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s debut with Ed Carpenter racing resulted in 20th place today, slightly higher than I expected. He finished higher tha Rinus VeeKay, who was 26th.

The Day

I missed Friday here last year, but today’s crowd semed larger than the 2021 Friday attendance. I watched most of practice from Canada Corner, which is usually pretty sparse on Friday. Today the crowd there approached Saturday size.

I talked to several fans attending their first Road America Indycar race. They were all in awe of the track.

Some track changes. The repaving looks great and the track is quite smooth. We’ll see how it changes theere racing Sunday.

There appears to be new fencing inTurn 5, which is a nice improvement.

Turn 8 now has a sand trap on the outside and viewing areas on that side of the track. It might be worth a look during tomorrow morning’s practice.

The runoff in turn 5 has been paved.I don’t like that change at all. It is less of a challenge to a driver who goes off course.

Tomorrow is an early start with Indycar practice at 9:55 Central time.

Results

Road America Race Preview

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Today’s Schedule: Times are Eastern

9:40a: USF2000 Practice

10:20a: USF2000 Pro Practice

11a: BMRC Practice

11:45a: USF2000 Qualifying

12:30p: USF2000 Pro Qualifying

1:15p: Radical Cup Qualifying

2p: USF2000 Qualifying

2:50p: NXT Practice

4p: INDYCAR Practicw

5:30p: BMRC Race

6:35p: Vintage Indy

Good morning from Elkhart Lake on a crisp xool morning. Weekend temperatures will will be in the 70s but the mornings will be cool, in the 50s.

A new wrinkle for this year’s race is a completely repaved track. Teams that tested here were about four seconds quicker than the track record.

This weekend is the 34th Indycar race at Road America, Indycar returned 8n 2016 after several years away. The fans who came thaqt year for the first time felmin love with it. Older fans embraced the return.

The Sonsio Grand Prix traditonally marks the halfway point of the season. Alex Palou will seek to increase his 51 point advantage over Marcus Ericsson in the championship. Palou won here in 2021. We have seen big leads evaporate before, and I’m not expecting Palou’s lead to last.

Josef Newgarden is 70 points behind Palou. He won last year and was leading in 2021 when a mechanical failure on a late restart pushed him to 21st.

Hunter-Reay Debuts for ECR

Ryan Hunter-Reay makes his first start for Ed Carpenter Racing this weekend, replacing Conor Daly n the 20. HUbter-Reay and the team are using this weekend as a test session. I am not going to worry about nthi=eir performance until Mid Ohio.

Hot Seat Drivers Need a Good Weekend

It’s getting warmer for certain drivers who are essentially auditioning for 2024 rides.

Jack Harvey, probably in the warmest seat, needs to have some consistent good results over the next few races. Romain Grosjean, thought to have a new deal with Andretti, has crashed four times in seven races, but has two poles and two second place finishes. He needs to keep the car on track.

Can Felix Rosenqvist back up his Detroit podium? He won here in 2018 in a battle with current teammate Pato O’Ward. Rosenqvist deserves a ride in Indycar. Where that will be next year is anyone’s guess.

Time for Arrow McLaren to Shine?

This team has teased us all season. It started at St. Pete, when an engine hiccup on thelast lap cost Pato O’Ward the victory. O’Ward lost at Texas when the caution flags didn’t fall his way. The red flag mess at Indianapolis probably cost him the victory there.

This team is due. I’m going to waffle a bit on my pick for this week. Either Pato o’Ward or Alexander Rossi will win Sunday. O’Ward was strong in 2018 and Rossi dominated in 2019.

Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR Fast Facts    

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From Indycar:

Race weekend: Friday, June 16 – Sunday, June 18

Track: Road America, a 4.014-mile, 14-turn permanent road course (clockwise) in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin

Race distance: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 55 laps / 220.77 miles | INDY NXT by Firestone: 20 laps / 80.28 miles or 55 minutes

Push-to-pass parameters: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. INDY NXT by Firestone: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation

Firestone tire allotment: Seven sets primary, four sets alternate for use during the race weekend. One additional set of primary tires may be used by teams fielding a rookie driver. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race.

Twitter: @RoadAmerica @INDYCAR, #SonsioGP, #INDYCAR Event website: www.roadamerica.com INDYCAR website: www.indycar.com

2022 race winners: NTT INDYCAR SERIES Josef Newgarden (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet) INDY NXT by Firestone Christian Rasmussen (No. 28 Andretti Autosport)

2022 NTT P1 Award winner: Alexander Rossi (No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda) 1:44.8656, 137.799 mph

Qualifying lap record: NTT INDYCAR SERIES Dario Franchitti, 1:39.866, 145.924 mph, Aug. 19, 2000 INDY NXT by Firestone Colton Herta, 1:52.0034, 129.018 mph, June 24, 2017

USA Network race telecast: 1 p.m. ET Sunday, June 12, USA (live). Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for USA’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe.

Peacock live streaming: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice sessions and qualifying will stream live on Peacock, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product. NBC’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR race telecast also will be simulcast on the streaming service. The INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America will be streamed on Peacock with practice and qualifying shown on INDYCAR LIVE.

INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the anchor alongside driver analyst Davey Hamilton. Jake Query, Nick Yeoman and Michael Young are the turn announcers. Alex Wollf, Joel Sebastianelli and Georgia Henneberry are the pit reporters. The Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR race (1 p.m. ET Sunday), INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America (11:05 a.m. Sunday) and all NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone practices and qualifying sessions air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

At-track schedule (all times Central Time):
Friday, June 16
1:50-2:35 p.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Practice 1, INDYCAR Live
3-4:15 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 1, Peacock
Saturday, June 17
8:50-9:35 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Practice 2, INDYCAR Live 9:55-10:55 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 2 (45 minutes of green flag or 60 total minutes), Peacock
12:15-12:35 p.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying (10 minutes of green flag running or 17 minutes), INDYCAR Live
12:55-2:25 p.m. – Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (Three rounds of knockout qualifying with segments lengthened by two minutes – Segments 1 and 2 – 12 minutes; Firestone Fast Six – eight minutes), Peacock
Sunday, June 18
9:15-9:45 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Final Practice, Peacock
10:10 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America Command To Start Engines
10:15 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America (20 laps/55 minutes), Peacock
11:45 a.m.  – Driver Introductions
12:23 p.m. – Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR Command To Start Engines
12:30 p.m. – Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR (55 laps/222.64 miles), USA Network (live)
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Notes: · There have been five different winners in seven NTT INDYCAR SERIES races in the 2023 season. Marcus Ericsson (Streets of St. Petersburg), Josef Newgarden (Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis 500), Kyle Kirkwood (Streets of Long Beach), Scott McLaughlin, (Barber Motorsports Park) and Alex Palou (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course-1 and Streets of Detroit) have all won in this season. The record for most different winners in a season is 11 in 2000, 2001 and 2014. · There have been five different winners in the last 10 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races (Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood).
Newgarden (WWT Raceway 2022, Texas 2023 and Indianapolis 500 2023), Palou (Laguna Seca 2022, Indianapolis GP-1 2023 and Detroit 2023) and McLaughlin (Portland 2022 and Barber 2023) have won multiple races over that stretch. ·
The Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR will be the 34th INDYCAR SERIES event conducted at Road America since it hosted its first INDYCAR event in 1982. 
Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi have three wins, the most by an INDYCAR SERIES driver at the track. · Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden have won twice at Road America – most among active drivers.
Other previous Road America winners entered include Will Power, Alexander Rossi, Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou.

Eight drivers have won the Road America race from the pole: Mario Andretti (1983, 1984,1987), Danny Sullivan (1989), Paul Tracy (1993), Jacques Villeneuve (1995), Bruno Junqueira (2003), Sebastien Bourdais (2007), Will Power (2016) and Josef Newgarden (2018).

The driver who has gone on to win the championship has won at Road America six times: Mario Andretti (1984), Michael Andretti (1991), Jacques Villeneuve (1995), Alex Zanardi (1997), Cristiano da Matta (2002), Sebastien Bourdais (2007) and Scott Dixon (2020). · 
Scott Dixon and Will Power have competed in 10 previous races at Road America, most of any driver. Thirteen entered drivers have led laps at the track (Josef Newgarden 149, Alexander Rossi 70, Will Power 60, Pato O’Ward 43, Scott Dixon 43, Helio Castroneves 41, Felix Rosenqvist 15, Alex Palou 5, Graham Rahal 5, Marcus Ericsson 4, Simon Pagenaud 2, Romain Grosjean 1 and Christian Lundgaard 1. ·
Chip Ganassi Racing has won three of the last four INDYCAR SERIES races at Road America and is one of three current teams with wins at the track. Overall, Chip Ganassi Racing has won six times at Road America (1997, 2001, 2017, a sweep of the 2020 doubleheader and 2021). Team Penske has also won six times at Road America (1989, 1992, 1993, 2016, 2018 and 2022) while Andretti Autosport won its first in 2019. ·

Rookies Marcus Armstrong, Agustin Canapino, Benjamin Pedersen and Sting Ray Robb will race an NTT INDYCAR SERIES car at Road America for the first time this weekend. ·
Milestones: Scott Dixon will attempt to make his 313th consecutive start, the second-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history.

INDY NXT by Firestone Notes: · Christian Rasmussen and Nolan Siegel will bring the close INDY NXT by Firestone title fight to Elkhart Lake when the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Road America hits the track Sunday. Rasmussen, who scored his first career INDY NXT by Firestone win at Road America in 2022, leads Siegel by just two points heading into the 20-lap race. The ultra-competitive 2023 season has seen five different winners in five races to start the season. There were seven winners in 2022. · Push-to-pass could play a key strategic role at Road America as INDY NXT by Firestone drivers will have a bank of 150 seconds to use an added 50 horsepower to assist in overtaking, similar to the drivers in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The maximum amount of time for each press of the overtake system is 15 seconds. · Qualifying takes on a new look in 2023 with Saturday’s qualifying session featuring just 10 minutes of green flag running or 17 minutes total, whichever comes first. As the five previous sessions have yet to feature a red flag stoppage, drivers will need to get up to speed early or risk having to beat the clock and the opposition.