Josef update 99th Indianapolis 500

Josef qualified 9th and
finished 9th!!!

it's his best finish in the Indianapolis 500.

He is now 6th in the Indycar season points.

Josef did really well all day and was in the Top 10 most of the time but couldn't quite get up to the leaders.  It was really fun to watch.  We can't wait for Josef to win the Indianapolis 500! 

 

 

 

 

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 CENTURY 21 CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “Relative to everything that was going on, it was nice to get a solid finish for Century 21. We had them here in 2013 and it just wasn’t the race that we all wanted to have. A top ten is a solid day. We were in the mix there at the end and that’s exciting for us as a group, with everything that we had to go through during the week. I can’t say enough about having teammates like JR (Hildebrand) and Ed (Carpenter), they have really been top notch with helping push the program forward. We struggled a little bit with the conditions. It was hot, greasy, really hard to keep the car underneath you, and we battled that. I can’t ask for a better group than CFH Racing, they’re the hardest working boys out here. We sure showed a lot of heart today and we were at least able to battle all the guys up at the top. A top ten for Josef  is rewarding. --Josef Newgarden



Josef at the Drivers Meeting Saturday before the '500'.

Josef at the Thursday practice before qualifying.
He was uninjured but it was scary.
No more of this please.

 

 

 

Good luck at Detroit Josef

 

-- post by Alexandra (age 7) Josef's #1 fan --

99th INDY 500

 
2015 marked the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500. 
It was a hard fought battle between Penske drivers and Ganassi drivers (all Chevys), but in the end, Juan Montoya prevailed over Will Power in the fourth closest 500 finish in history.
The victory gave Montoya his second Indy 500 victory (in just 3 starts) and car owner Roger Penske his sixteenth '500' win.  

With the new aero kits for Indycar this year, no one knew what they would see at the 500.  We saw three cars flip upside down in early practice sessions, giving us a preview of the race to come.  Or did they?

The expected crashing and flying did not happen on Sunday at the 500.  Instead, we saw one of the best races in a long time.  
There was a ton of passing into turn 1 and 3 and along the front straightaway.  
It came down to one of the greatest battles for the win ever between three drivers.  Penske's Juan Montoya and Will Power and Ganassi's Scott Dixon battled till the final laps.  Montoya took home his second 500, Will Power's came in a close second trying for his first '500' win, and Ganassi's Charlie Kimball was able to get around his teammate Scott Dixon for third when Dixon's car started overheating.

 

 

The top 10 Finishers

1.  Juan Pablo Montoya - Set a new record for the most years between two Indy 500 wins at 15 years.

2.  Will Power - Got his best finish ever in his 8 attempts at the '500'.

3.  Charlie Kimball - His best finish ever in the '500' and the highest finishing of the 4 Ganassi cars.
 

4.  Scott Dixon - Started from the Pole Position to get his 8th 'Top 6' finish in 13 Indianapolis 500 starts.
 

5. Graham Rahal - His third 'Top 5' in the last three races, and the top finishing Honda.

6.  Marco Andretti - Battled hard for his 6th 'Top 6' finish in 10 Indy 500 starts.

7.  Helio Castroneves - Didn't really contend all day in his 6th try at joining the 3 four time winners of the '500'.  Led 2 laps.

8.  J.R. Hildebrand - The highest finishing of the three CFH Racing cars as a part time driver for the team.

9.  Josef Newgarden - Finished where he started in ninth.  His best finish in his three previous 500's was 25th.

10.  Simon Pagenaud - Led 35 laps and battled for the lead most of the day until a broken wing necessitated a very late race pit stop.

Top Ten included..

* Four Penske Drivers & Two Ganassi Drivers & Two Carpenter Fisher Hartman drivers
* 8 Chevys and 2 Hondas 
* Drivers from 6 different countries
* 3 past winners

Saturday's Public Drivers Meeting

Other:

*  Montoya became the only driver to win two races this season.

*  There were 6 cautions for 47 laps.

*  This win was the 3rd win for Team Penske this season ( The first was Montoya, the second Power)

*  There were 37 lead changes among 10 different drivers.

*  Average Race Speed:  161.341 mph

*  Fastest Lap: 226.712 mph by Charlie Kimball


Shout Out To...
Simon Pagenaud who led 35 laps while trying to become the first driver to win both the GP of Indianapolis (2014) and the Indy 500.  Looked like he would contend for the win until a late pit stop dropped him back to 21st with just 15 laps to go when the green flag came out and he moved up to 10th by the race's end.

GP of Indy recap

 Josef crashed in the first turn in the first lap at the GP of Indy.  
Nothing else matters. 

That would have been the only thing the GP of Indy race recap would have said if our little sister Alex was writing it.

Thankfully, we wrote it. This is our version.

2015 Marked the second running of the GP of Indianapolis. Will Power was the winner after starting on the pole and leading 65 of the 82 laps. 
 Graham Rahal came in a strong second (1.502 seconds behind). 
Juan Montoya finished in 3rd.

 

The top 10 Finishers

1.  Will Power:  Started from pole for the 38th time and collected his 25th Indycar win

2.  Graham Rahal:  His second 2nd place finish in a row pushed him to 5th in points


3.  Juan Pablo Montoya: Juan's third podium finish this season

4. Sebastien Bourdais:  His fourth Top Ten in the five races this season
 

5. Charlie Kimball:  He matched his finish of fifth from the 2014 Indy GP

6. Helio Castroneves:  Overcame the Turn 1 incident he triggered to finish strong

7. Tony Kanaan:  A fourth Top Six this season has Tony 6th in the season points standings

8. Stefano Coletti:  The first Top Ten for this rookie driver from Italy


9. Takuma Sato: Started way back in 22nd


10. Scott Dixon:  Ran a great race despite being damaged in the first turn melee

Top Ten included..

* Three Penske Drivers & Three Ganassi Drivers
* Drivers from 5 different teams
 * Drivers from 8 different countries

* 8 Chevys and 2 Hondas (The top ten qualifiers were all Chevys)

* 1 rookie (Stefano Coletti)


Other:

*  Will Power became the 5th different winner in 5 races this season

*  There was only 1 caution. The 5th race this season that had 2 or fewer cautions

*  This win was the 2nd win for Team Penske this season ( The first was Montoya in St. Pete)

*  There were 11 lead changes among 6 different drivers

*  Average Race Speed: 116.842 MPH

*  Fastest Lap 123.911 MPH (James Hinchcliffe)


Shout Out To...
JR Hildebrand had a great run going for CFH Racing in his first Indycar race in a year.  JR ran 6th most of the day before a small issue caused him to pit late in the race dropping him to 21st. 

 

Billy Boat 1998 Indy 500 Polesitter

Billy Boat won the pole for the 1998 Indy 500 

with an average speed of 223.503. 

He was driving for A.J. Foyt Racing.

Foyt's other driver Kenny Brack (1999 '500' winner) also qualified on the front row in 3rd.

Unfortunately Boat suffered mechanical problems after just 111 of the 200 laps and finished in the 23rd position.

 

Boat went on to win the next race at Texas Motor Speedway to record the only Indycar victory of his career.

Josef Update. GP of Indy

Josef's GP of Indy went ugly in the first turn.

Alex does not like to do these posts after he has a bad race, so we will make it brief.

Josef qualified 12th and finished 20th.

Josef got caught up in a first turn crash started by Helio (we still love him though).  All he needed was for a yellow to come out so that he could catch up to the end of the field, but just like last year's GP of Indy, the yellow never came for him and he ended up going a lap down.

Luckily he is still 7th in Indycar season points.

And now moving on to the Indy 500.

Hopefully Ed Carpenter can share some of his secrets on winning the pole with Josef (Ed has won the last two Indy 500 poles).

Good Luck in Indy 500 Qualifying Josef!

12 Days till 99th Indy 500

Only 12 DAYS

till the

99th Running of the Indianapolis 500!

 

Two drivers have won the Indy 500

starting from the 12th position.

 

In 1992 Al Unser Jr. took the checkered flag 

starting from the outside of Row 4

to win his first of two Indy 500s.

 

 

In 2013 Tony Kanaan finally won his first 500 starting from the 12 position in his 12th Indy 500 start.

 

 

Josef Newgarden's First Win. Alex's view

The 2nd GP of Indy is almost here,

 but Alex is still so excited about Josef Newgarden's first win

at Barber Motorsport Park

that we made a little video commemorating the occasion.

 

Good Luck in Indianapolis, Josef,

We can't wait to see him get his next win!

Indianapolis Month of May 2015

The month of May 2015 is here!!!

 

Opening Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was Sunday, May 3 as Indycar teams took to the oval track
to test out the new oval aero kits.

Robin Miller interviews Juan Montoya (Chevy) and Marco Andretti (Honda)  to see what they thought of the new cars.

 

 

 

Juan Pablo Montoya

 

 

And here is a more comedic take
on the first day of practice at IMS.

ICYMI: @TonyKanaan, Miller on #Indy500 test, ConorDaly busts up Hinchcliffe impression [WATCH] http://t.co/0o7GEKHsPA pic.twitter.com/8SuOxn5qMe

— Dave Furst (@DaveFurst) May 4, 2015

 

 

 

 

Practice begins Thursday, May 7th on the Indianapolis road course

for the GP of Indy on May 9th.

Lyn St. James 1998 Indy

Lyn St. James

 

became the first female Rookie of the Year at the 1992 Indy 500. At 45 years old, she was older than most drivers in the field.

 

Running for Team Pelfrey in 1998, she failed to make the field for the race.

Qualifying attempt for the 1998 Indy 500.