Fontana MAVTV 500 Pre-race

The season finale is lined up and ready.
Helio Castroneves on pole
(gaining him a valuable extra point for the championship),
Juan Montoya 2nd,
and Josef Newgarden will start on the outside of the front row. (a qualifying podium is what Alex calls it.)
 

 

 

Championship leader Will Power struggled in qualifying, after having been fastest in practice and is starting second last. 

 

 

Helio Castroneves has to finish 3rd or better if Power finishes last if he wants this championship. 
If Simon Pagenaud were to win it, he has to win the race, and Will Power and Helio Castroneves have to finish last-18th. 

 

We're hoping that guys like Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter, and Takuma Sato can finish off the season on a high note.

Final Practice was shortened by an accident involving Mikael Aleshin.  Aleshin is not able to race tonight, wish him well.

 

Helio Castroneves has 41 poles, now 5th all time.

 

Watch the race at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on NBCSN


Final Practice:

Unfortunately, Mikhail Aleshin crashed in the final practice session on Friday evening and is in the hospital with fractured ribs, a broken clavicle, a concussion and chest injuries.  Charlie Kimball was also involved in the crash but was uninjured and will still race on Saturday night.


 

We will be keeping Mikhail in our prayers for a good recovery and hope to see him back at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2015.

 

 

 

 

The 2 in TO

The 2 in TO (Toronto) was awesome!!

 

Race 1 got postponed from Saturday to Sunday because of rain,
so it made for a real double header on Sunday.





Race 1's were dominated by the French Drivers.

Sebastien Bourdais won the Indycar Race.

Alex Baron won the Indy Lights race
and the USF2000 race was won by Jake Eidson

Race 2 was run a few hours later in the afternoon
and after some sun and some rain and some more sun,
 Mike Conway won for his second time this year.

 

Race 1 - The Top Ten

  

1st. Sebastien Bourdais - 33 career win. First since 2008.

 

2nd. Helio Castroneves - Still championship points leader (6th podium in 2014)

 

3rd. Tony Kanaan - 9th Top Ten this year

 

4th. Simon Pagenaud - Led 6 laps after being involved in 1st lap incident

5th. Scott Dixon 

 

6th. Graham Rahal
 

7th. Charlie Kimball
 

8th. James Hinchcliffe
 

9th. Will Power - moved up 14 positions after starting in back after damaging his car in the rain Saturday before the race started.
 
10th. Justin Wilson

* No Rain
* 3 lead changes
* 3 different leaders
* 60 laps under green
*5 laps under yellow

*6 Chevys
*4 Hondas



Race 2 - The Top Ten:

1st. Mike Conway  - Second win of the year
                                  - 3rd win for Ed Carpenter Racing this season

2nd. Tony Kanaan - 2nd double header weekend this year that he had 2 podiums

3rd. Will Power - Gained points on his teammate Helio in the Indycar standings

4th. Charlie Kimball - Finished in the top ten both races

5th. Takuma Sato - moved up 17 places after starting 22nd

6th. Jack Hawksworth - 3rd in Rookie points standings

7th. Scott Dixon - 8th top ten this year but still no win

8th. Marco Andretti - finished where he started

9th. Sebastien Bourdais

10th. Justin Wilson

* 6 lead changes
* 5 different leaders
* 36 green laps
* 20 yellow laps

*6 Chevys
*4 Hondas





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Sage Karam's 2014 Indy 500

Sage Karam was in his first Indy 500!
and he finished 9th!

To see his Indy 500 post race Banquet interview check out the 1:42:30 mark in the video

Stats:

* Was the biggest mover (moved up the most positions) in the race

* Moved from 32nd to the top ten and than fell back after a yellow came out just after a pit stop, then he worked his way back up and finished 9th.

* He restarted 12th after a red flag which is when he moved up to 9th in just the final 6 laps

* He got 2nd in the pit stop competition.

* We thought he was going to get a top 5!

* He finished the race in 2 hours, 41 minutes and 51 seconds

He's gotten really popular around here in the Lehigh Valley, and even threw out the first pitch for the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs (the Phillies AAA team).  And there was a lot more Indy 500 coverage in our local paper thanks to Sage.

Wish he were running in his 'home' race at Pocono in a few weeks.

 

Texas 600 Race Re-cap

 The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway was awesome Congrats Ed Carpenter!

 

Will Power led the most laps, but after a late race penalty for speeding in the pits he was last on the lead lap (6th).  A yellow for Takuma Sato's engine expiring allowed Power to get fresh tires and he made a great charge to the front and almost caught Ed Carpenter.

 

What was exciting:

 

* Marco Andretti flew around the outside of lots of cars on the opening 2 laps...unfortunately his engine blew shortly thereafter

 

* There were a lot of green flag runs meaning lead cars had to deal with lots of lapped traffic.  There were only 6 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race. 

 

* Ed Carpenter won, giving Ed Carpenter Racing its second win for the year (Mike Conway won on the streets of Long Beach) and it was Ed Carpenter's third win of his career!

 

 

The top Eleven (because Josef finished eleventh):

 

Ed Carpenter (3rd career win)

 

Will Power (led most laps)

 

Juan Pablo Montoya (first podium and first laps led since returning to Indycar this season)

 

Simon Pagenaud (5th top 5 this year)

 

Scott Dixon ( 4 top fives this year)

 

Tony Kanaan (his car was charcoal gray. On the gray track it was like watching black and white tv)

 

Mikhail Aleshin (only rookie in the top ten in only his 2nd oval race ever! Wow!)

 

Helio Castroneves (last year's Texas winner)

 

Ryan Briscoe (10 Verizon Indycar series seasons)

 

Charlie Kimball (2nd top ten finish this year)

Josef Newgarden (after a career best P2 start he struggled with the rear of the car all night)

 

 

 

Facts:

 

* 8 Chevrolets & only 2 Hondas were in the top ten

 

* Only 3 different drivers led:

 

Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Power, and Ed Carpenter

 

* There were 11 different lead changes

 

* 6 penalties were handed out:

 

-1 to Power

-2 to Saavedra

-1 to Newgarden

-1 to Kimball

-1 to Briscoe

 

* There were 3 cautions for 23 laps

 

* The fastest 1-lap average speed was 214.824 set by Tony Kanaan

 

* The biggest mover was Graham Rahal, who moved up 9 positions

 

 

Varying Pit stops:

 

* 3 drivers made 8 stops

 

* 4 drivers made 7 stops

 

* 5 drivers made 6 stops

 

* 5 drivers made 5 stops

 

 

Josef Update #7 Detroit & Beyond

Why Detroit and Beyond you might ask....

well because as a Josef fan Detroit Race 1 and Race 2 were not something to remember.

('nough said)

 

BUT

 

Jump ahead a few days and head south to Texas and put Josef in his super shiny 'spacey' Strike car (because Alex says it looks like a spaceship)

and Josef had his BEST EVER Indycar qualifying effort!!!

 

He will start the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway from P2 alongside Will Power on the front row!!!

 

 

Catch the race on NBCSN Saturday June 7th at 8:00 EST!

 

 

Alex's Josef Update #6 Indy 500

The 'Indy 300' went really well for Josef as he started 8th and ran in the top ten for most of the first 300 miles....
Then things turned ugly.

First Josef came sputtering down pit lane and ran out of gas, and apparently when you run out of gas in an Indycar it's really hard to restart it.   So he sat in the pits for about 10 laps.

He was then in 29th place until a yellow came out on lap 167 for a spin by Dixon and Josef was rear-ended by rookie Martin Plowman as he slowed in Turn 4.   OUCH. 
He was done for the day....and finished 30th.
(and since the '500' was worth double points he dropped to 14th in the Indycar standings).
 
(Don't worry Martin, Alex forgives you since Josef was already way behind....it's not like he was leading like when a certain future Indy 500 winner ran into him)

 

But as upset as Alex was about Josef's finish in the 500 she did have a very nice memory from the weekend to keep her in good spirits.

 

JOSEF HELD ALEX!!!!

  

Oh wait, in case you don't already know about Alex's obsession for Josef, go to our post 'Josef Newgarden and Alex'. (But please be quick, Alex is going to get upset if we don't tell you about Josef picking her up soon)

 

 

Okay then, so Alex saw (and talked to) Josef thru the fence at his pits right before he went out for carb day practice, but she was a little disappointed she couldn't get a hug.   We had to break it to her that she probably wouldn't because he's "kinda busy all weekend" with a little race thing.

 

So you can imagine her excitement when, while waiting for her dad to come down the elevator by the media center, she saw Josef coming down the steps. 

 

He immediately scooped her up and gave her a hug and Alex didn't want us to say this, but Josef said that she had gotten quite a bit heavier.... uh oh, maybe next time Alex will just have to settle for a ground hug.

 

 

THANKS JOSEF FOR MAKING OUR LITTLE SISTER'S INDY 500 WEEKEND SPECIAL!!!

and

We know that first Indycar win is coming really soon!

 

 



Indycar Offseason #3

Indycar meetings are going on in Indianapolis this week. 

Yeah, that means the season is getting closer!

Andretti Autosport unveiled it's 2014 cars today at their shop in Indy.  Can't wait to see them on the track!

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is still looking for a second driver for their team alongside Graham Rahal.

Indycar hasn't confirmed it yet, but there might be a new qualifying format for the Indy 500 this year! The pole might be decided on Sunday instead of Saturday.

Sure wish we could be in Indianapolis this week just hanging around to see some of the goings on.