Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Milwaukee Indyfest 2015

At the famed Milwaukee Mile, Indycar had a busy day on Sunday. Practice was held in the morning, qualifying in the early afternoon, and the race later in the day.  



 Josef Newgarden earned his first Indycar pole and led 109 laps before finishing 5th. 
(He is only the second non-Penske driver to win the pole in the last 15 races.)
Helio Castroneves started last after his car missed inspection and finished 2nd!
Sebastien Bourdais lapped the whole field at one point in the race and took home his second victory of the 2015 season and his second win at Milwaukee.


 
The top 10 Finishers

1. Sebastien Bourdais  His 34th Indycar career win.

2. Helio Castroneves  His second 2nd place finish at Milwaukee in the last three years.
 
3. Graham Rahal  Jumps to third in season points.
 
4. Juan Pablo Montoya  His eighth Top 5 in 12 races this season.  Not surprisingly he still holds a 54 point lead in the season championship.
   
5. Josef Newgarden  Tied his 2014 best finish at Milwaukee.

6. Tony Kanaan  Started 4th and led 3 laps.

7. Scott Dixon  Led 14 laps for a total of 250 laps led this season.

8. Marco Andretti  The only driver to have completed all the laps this season.

9. Simon Pagenaud  His 7th Top 10 this season.

10. Ed Carpenter  Moved up 12 positions.
 
Top Ten included...

*   8 Chevys and 2 Hondas
*   4 Americans and 2 Frenchmen
*   3 Penskes drivers, both CFH Racing drivers and 2 Ganassi drivers

Shout Outs:

Justin Wilson was having a great run in his first race back in the car for Andretti Autosport.  He led a lap before late mechanical trouble took him out of the race.

Ryan Briscoe had another solid run in James Hinchcliffe's Schmidt Peterson car before contact took him out again.

Josef Newgarden Update Milwaukee Indyfest



His First Indycar Pole!!!


He led 109 laps and finished 5th.
He is still 9th in the Indycar season points standings.





Josef drove the Direct Supply blue & black car.




Before the race Josef had fun touring Milwaukee and making a video about it!

                   




Next up Iowa on Saturday, July 18th.

Josef finished 2nd there last year
and won the Indylights race there  in 2011. 

 


 posted by Alexandra, 
age 8

Friday, July 10, 2015

Indycars at Milwaukee Oval

Paging through one of our pappy's USAC magazines from 1972 we found this great article about the Milwaukee Mile.
 
Cars have been racing there since 1903, and Indycars will be racing there again this weekend, July 12, 2015.
 
We are just hoping it's not for the last time.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Catch the Indycars at Milwaukee
in the
 
on NBCSN Sunday, July 12 at 5:00 EST.
 

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Josef update Fontana

Josef started 12th and finished 21st

He hadn't been running too well all race, but had moved up to 12th before getting caught in a wreck with his teammate (and boss) Ed Carpenter.
  
 
 

 Apparently since finishing poorly at Fontana Josef has to now help build his own helmets. 

Indycar goes to Milwaukee next and Josef finished 5th there last year, so hopefully he can do at least that good this year!
 
post by Alexandra (age 8)

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

MAVTV 500 at Fontana

Indycars took to the 2 mile oval at Fontana on Saturday. 
The race was, unlike other years, run in the daytime in 90 degree heat.  We expected passing and lead changes, and that's exactly what we got.  There were 80 lead changes, a new Indycar record.  The field never really separated, so we had a lot of on track action and three, four and even five wide racing.

Helio Castroneves led 43 laps in the early stages of the race before going out after a crash with Ryan Briscoe.  The rest of the race, the front-runners included Penskes, Ganassis, plenty of Hondas and even rookie Sage Karam.

In the end, it came down to a 3 lap shootout with Graham Rahal winning over Tony Kanaan and a hard charging Marco Andretti who took on fresh tires before the race went back to green.





 
The top 10 Finishers

1.  Graham Rahal - His second career win in his 139th start.  Hadn't won since he was 19 back in 2008.

2.  Tony Kaanan - His sixth podium finish in 12 starts at Fontana.
 
3.  Marco Andretti - It was the first time since 1996 (in Vancouver) that an Andretti and a Rahal were on the podium together.
 
4.  Juan Pablo Montoya - Extends his season points lead to 46 over Will Power who was caught up in a late race crash.
 
5.  Sage Karam - The best Indycar finish of his career.  Led 5 laps, the first in Indycar.

6.  Scott Dixon - Has finished in the Top 10 in 8 of his 9 starts at Fontana.

7.  James Jakes - Moved up 16 spots after starting last because he did not qualify due to an engine issue.

8.  Charlie Kimball -  His best finish in four races at Fontana.  Previous best was 10th.

9.  Simon Pagenaud - Started on the pole for the first time on an oval. 

10.  Jack Hawksworth - His 4th career Top 10 in 29 Indycar races.
 
Top Ten included..
 
* 4 Hondas and 6 Chevys
* 1 rookie: Sage Karam
* Only 2 of this season's previous race winners.
* Six different teams
* Drivers from 6 different countries including 4 Americans, and 2 drivers from England.

Other:
* Fourteen different drivers led at least one lap of the race.
* There were 2,537 passes for position during the race!



Shout Out to:

Sage Karam leading the first laps of his Indycar career! 
Pippa Mann for her 13th place finish.  Her best finish in her 10 race Indycar career.