ABC Supply 500 Indycar at Pocono

An exciting race at Pocono was marred by the fatal crash of fan favorite Justin Wilson when he was hit by flying debris from Sage Karam's single car crash. 

Ryan Hunter Reay beat the arguably stronger car of Josef Newgarden to the finish line.
Deja vu from Iowa a few weeks ago.
Only 10 cars were running at the end of the race.


 
 

The top 10 Finishers

1. Ryan Hunter-Reay - His second win in the last three races after a terrible start to the season.

2. Josef Newgarden - Led the most laps (47) and would have had a strong chance of passing Hunter Reay had the race stayed green for the last three laps.  Josef was super passing cars on the outside of turn 1 all day including jumping from 4th to 1st on lap 1.
 

3. Juan Montoya - Ties his average finish in 500 mile races, 3rd.  Although he didn't lead a lap he was steady all day and not surprisingly finished on the podium increasing his season points lead to 34 over Graham Rahal.
 

4. Will Power - A spin in the pits and a near stall in the pits didn't deter him from hanging out near the front most of the day.  His 7th Top 5 in 15 races this season.

5. Carlos Munoz - Ran in the Top 5 most of the race.  Has finished in the Top 5 in 25% of the Indycar races he has run in his career (9/36).

6. Takuma Sato - His 4th Top 10 of the season.

7. Simon Pagenaud - Simon led 30 laps and ran in the Top 3 most of the day.  It looked like he might be able to get his first 500 mile win, but he fell back after a late race pit stop.
 

8. Ryan Briscoe - Led 3 laps and ran solid all race after starting 18th on the grid.
 
9. Scott Dixon - The 2013 Pocono winner was uncharacteristically quiet all day.  Didn't ever contend during the race.

10. James Jakes - His fourth Top 10 of the season, the most in one season in his four year Indycar career.
 

Top Ten included...

*  5 Chevys and 5 Hondas

*  Drivers from 7 different countries

*  1-2 Finish for Americans

*  Both Schmidt Peterson cars

*  3 Penske cars



OTHER

Lead Changes: 33

Caution Laps: 74

Fastest Lap: 219.927 mph by Juan Pablo Montoya

Average Speed 146.245


Shout Out To:

Gabby Chaves  He had such a good race car and was leading laps, but his engine blew with three to go.

Takuma Sato  It looked like he might be able to get the win for his sponsor, at their title race.  The ABC Supply car was out front with just 7 laps to go before falling back to 6th.

Honda  They have won 4 of the last 5 races going into the finale at Sonoma. 

Alex's Josef Newgarden Update Pocono

Josef had a great racing weekend at Pocono.

 

He started 4th, finished 2nd and moved up to 6th in season points.

 

But none of that really mattered by the end of the race.

A special special person. Until next time #BadassWilson pic.twitter.com/F5AkKmzdHV

— Josef Newgarden (@josefnewgarden) August 25, 2015

I hope Josef does really well at the final in Sonoma this weekend, but I more just want him to stay safe. 

 

 

Posted by Alex (age 8)

2015 Pocono Qualifying Day

 

GOOD THINGS ABOUT TODAY AT POCONO:

1. Alex got to see Josef (more on that in a future post)

2. We got to meet Sage's dog Max!  (He was so cute and gave lots of kisses)

3. There were drivers everywhere signing autographs and taking photos with the fans, or riding around on scooters (I think we counted Graham Rahal 10 times)

4. Alex finally got to go in the garages this year because they removed the age limit (Thanks Pocono!)

5. All the really cool vintage cars racing on the infield track

6. The weather was really nice (although we still got sunburned, so don't forget your sunscreen)


NOT SO GOOD THINGS ABOUT TODAY AT POCONO:

1. Charlie Kimball crashed in qualifying (but he wasn't hurt, which was definitely good)

2.  We didn't get to see Tricky at the track today  (I hope we see you tomorrow Tricky!)



Qualifying and practice

 

We had a really good view for qualifying and practice (we were right across from Josef's pit) and it was really cool how we could see almost the whole track even though we were on a lower level!
Alex was really happy for Josef when he got fourth, which was only behind three Penske drivers. 
Congrats to Helio for the pole, it will be another addition to the  Penske P1 display on the back of their truck!

And thanks to the Holmatro crew for making sure Kimball was okay and for cleaning up so quickly so that qualifying could continue. 
Although when you were cleaning you blew the sand into Jarod and our dad (actually, that was pretty funny)

Thanks Pocono for a great day and we can't wait until the race tomorrow!!

2 Days Till Pocono!!!

The #2 car driven by Juan Montoya

will start the ABC Supply 500 in 2 days

with a slim lead of just 9 points in the Indycar championship.

 

As the defending Pocono winner and with an average finish of 3rd in 500 mile races, he seems to be an easy bet to come out of the weekend still in the lead.

 But Graham Rahal is on a roll, coming off a win at his home track at Mid Ohio.   He will no doubt have a lot of support in the mountains of Pennsylvania from fans eager to see the second generation Indycar driver go for the championship. 

So things may not be as predictable as they seem.

 

 

 

 

 

Montoya returned to Indycar last year and won at Pocono

in his first ever Indycar start at the Tricky Triangle.

 

 

3 Days. Indycars. Pocono!!!

Only 3 days left till the

#3 Helio Castroneves can attempt

to win the
ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway

 and keep his

Indycar Championship hopes alive.
(he is currently 58 points out of first)

 

 

He finished 2nd behind teammate Juan Montoya last year,

and 8th in 2013 so a good finish is to be expected.

 

Indycars at Pocono in 4 DAYS

 

 

The #4 KV Racing car

will be driven by rookie Stefano Coletti

at Pocono Raceway this weekend.

 

 

 

Despite having never raced at Pocono before,

he does have his best Indycar finish of 8th on another

2 1/2 mile superspeedway earlier this year, in the Indy 500.

KV Racing's best finish at Pocono was 11th
with Simona DiSilvestro in 2013. 
Tony Kanaan finished 13th for KV that same year. 
Last year KV's drivers Sebastian Saavedra and Sebastien Bourdais finished 15th and 16th.
 

 

It would be great to see Stefano have a good finish at Pocono

after he's had a pretty rough rookie season.

8 Days till Pocono 500

8 Days till one of our local drivers,
Sage Karam,

gets a chance to win at his home track
 in Long Pond, PA at the ABCSupply 500!

 

It will be the first Indycar start at Pocono for Sage driving the #8 car for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He finished 2nd in Indy Lights there in 2013.
 

 

Can he best his first podium, a 3rd place finish at Iowa?

Can he catch Gabby Chaves in the Indycar Rookie of the Year standings?  He is currently 49 points back, but with Pocono and double points at Sonoma maybe he can still pull it off.

 

15 Days till Indycars at Pocono

The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono is in only 15 days!!!

 

Can

#15 Graham Rahal

win his third race of the season.

 and join his dad, Bobby (1988) as a Pocono winner?

 

 

 

To take the season points lead away from Juan Pablo Montoya Graham will need much better results than he's had in his previous two trips to the Tricky Triangle.

 

 

He finished 18th in 2013 and

19th in 2014 when he spun in Turn 2 on lap 157

to bring out the only caution of the race.

 

Good Luck, Graham.

We'd love to see a tight season points race

come down to the last race of the season.

 

 

Indycar Pocono 500 Videos Getting to the Track

 

We decided to have a little fun at Pocono before the 500.

Enjoy our two short videos!

Thanks Brandon Igdalsky and Pocono

for letting us run around outside your track unquestioned!

 

 

 

Pocono 500 Indycar Mission

 

 

 

Pocono 500 Weekend is Here!

Pocono Indycar 500 Re-cap

The Pocono Indycar 500 was amazing!!

 

Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Juan Montoya and Tony Kanaan dominated the race, with a determined rookie Mikael Aleshin running in 5th for much of the day.
The race stayed green for the first 168 laps until Graham Rahal brought out the only caution of the day.

It was the fastest 500 mile race in Indycar history at 202.402.
The fans at Pocono seemed really got into the closing laps and seemed thrilled to see Montoya win in Indycar for the first time in 13 years.
 

 

 

After starting from the last position, Josef Newgarden led with just 6 laps to go, but had to make a splash and dash pit stop and finished 8th.  Kanaan took over the lead but also had to stop for gas. Will Power was penalized for blocking Helio.

So pole sitter Juan Montoya won the race, Helio Castroneves 2nd, and rookie Carlos Munoz finishing 3rd.

How many Montoya's does it take to win at Pocono? Just Juan.... Congrats @jpmontoya on the win! And @CarlosMunoz034 on another great run!
— James Hinchcliffe (@Hinchtown) July 7, 2014

 

 

The Top Ten:

5 Chevys, 5 Hondas
5 Different Teams
7 Different Countries

 

1st Juan Montoya 

 

-First driver this year to win from the pole

-His 12th Indycar win
-Can he win the championship?

 

2nd Helio Castroneves

 

-Now tied with Will Power in the season points

-His 5th podium this year

 

3rd Carlos Munoz 

 

-He has 3 podiums this year                                                                              

-Is 6th in points         

 

4th Ryan Briscoe

 

-Highest Ganassi Racing finisher

-His best finish this season

 

5th Scott Dixon

 

- Last year's Pocono winner

- Is this the turning point in his season?

 

6th Simon Pagenaud

 

- 3rd in points

- Can he beat the Penske team to the championship?

 

7th Mikhail Aleshin

 

- Was running fifth all race till the last 10 laps

-  For someone who has never been to these tracks he is amazing!

 

8th Josef Newgarden
 

- Led laps 188 to 194
- Previously had only led 1 lap in his Indycar career

 

*9th Marco Andretti

 

- 2nd top ten in 2 years at Pocono
- Had a drive through penalty for speeding on pit lane early in the race

 

10th Will Power

- Seriously blocked his teammate late in the race

- His 5th penalty of the season cost him a podium finish


 

 

 

 

 



4 more days!

It's only 4 more days
Till the
Pocono Indycar 500!
 

We never thought four days would seem so long... at least we have plenty of time to get ready!
(that means bug our mom and dad to leave earlier)

And luckily it's only 3 more days till the
Pocono Indy Lights 100 Race
which is Saturday!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Pocono Indycar 500 Countdown 5 Days

 

The Countdown from 5 to the

Pocono Indycar 500 has begun!!

 

 

 

 

Check out the Pocono Fan Store! 

(off Rt 113 across from the track)

Lots of Pocono Raceway stuff for sale

plus

They give track tours most weekdays. 

 

 

9 Days till Pocono Indycar 500

Only 9 days remaining till the Pocono Indycar 500!!

 

Can Marco Andretti win the pole again?

Can he dominate the whole race this year,

or will fuel mileage play a role again?

 

 

One thing we know for sure?

The race will be exciting and we can't wait!

 

 

 

10 Days till the Pocono Indycar 500

 

Only 10 days

till the Pocono Indycar 500 fueled by Sunoco!

(9 till the Indy Lights race)

 

 

 

We love all the old programs and stuff

that our grandparents have (who can say this isn't cool?)

 

Pocono 500 Countdown 11 days!!

 Yes! Its almost here!
The Pocono Indy 500 is only 11 days away.
Last year was awesome, and it was only 400 miles. 
This year, its 500!
More Miles.  More Racing.  More Fun!

 

 

And yes, Alex, Josef Newgarden will be there again.

 

Pocono Kids Club

Check out Pocono Raceways new (and awesome) Kids Club!

When you become a member you get

*A Welcome bag with:
   - A membership card
   - A stuffed Tricky animal (Yay, now we can take selfies!)
   - A two-pocket folder
   - A Tricky autograph card
   - Writing tools (That's fancy talk for "pens and pencils")

* Benefits at the track:
   - Free admission to all weekend race events on a Friday or Saturday (with your membership card)
   - An automatic entry for a chance at being the “Honorary Starter” for a Pocono ARCA or Indy Lights race.

Weekend events (non-race):
Pocono is working on two weekend events for members of the Kids Club. The dates and what kind of events are not decided (But we bet they're going to be great!)

* And just plain fun!

 

 

 

 

Pocono countdown 27

Yeah!!

 

It was cool seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. win the NASCAR race at Pocono yesterday

and now we can not wait to see the

 

INDYCARS running around there again

 on July 6th!

 

And for

 

500 Miles this year!

 

AND

 

It's part of the Indycar TRIPLE CROWN!

 

AND

 

It's worth Double Season Points!

 

 

 

Fun stop:

We saw 11 'Pocono' words in this picture, find them all, and then try and find more!

Then find:
5 FUZZYS signs
2 Pocono logos
3 water bottles
9 TARGET circles

and... try to recognize as many logos as you can on that banner in the middle of the photo!

Brandon Igdalsky - Indycar Behind the Scenes

Best thing about last year’s Indycar season for us….Indycars returned to Pocono Raceway!

Coolest thing…Brandon Igdalsky, President of Pocono,

invited us up on July 4^th to watch Indycars test before the race.

Recently we asked him if we could interview him for part
of our ‘Behind the Scenes in Indycar’ interview series.

He said yes!

(Brandon Igdalsky is the grandson of ‘Doc’ and Rose Mattioli, the founders/builders of Pocono Raceway)
 

 

Q:  What kind of odd jobs did you have when your grandfather owned the track?

A:  I worked in the sewer plant, I pumped the poop. I did garbage. I’m not allowed to paint anymore, I’m banned from painting. I was supposed to paint the ceiling and after the job was done, we had to paint the whole wall and get new carpet.  

Q:  What are your favorite memories at the track?

I was six or seven and in victory lane for the first time. I had my little pen and notepad and was getting all the autographs from the drivers.  That’s my first big memory.

Q: Who was your favorite driver as a kid?

A: A.J Foyt was actually my favorite driver.  I had my whole room decorated in A.J Foyt stuff.  My brother liked Richard Petty, and I liked Foyt. I also really liked Tim Richmond

Q: What are your favorite memories at the track with your grandfather?

A:  Him firing me…laughs…three times, and I deserved it each and every one of them.

Q:  Did you race karts as a kid?

A:  Yes, I ran Beril Roos, which is here at the track, but I wasn’t that good at it, my brother was faster, so I didn’t race, I would just go out for fun. I would go out and race the go karts, anything I could climb into and have fun.

Q:  Did you always want to work at the track?

A:  Nope. (Laughing) I had always been interested in the restaurant business, but my Grandfather always had me at the track every summer.  When I turned 18, my grandfather said “Go do something else when you get out of college”. Like I said, I had always been interested in the restaurant business, but for some reason like moths to a flame, I wanted to come back to work at the track every summer and have fun at the races.

Q:  What was your first job away from racing?

A:  I was a bus boy at a Mexican restaurant, and I helped my dad.  He had a dental lab and my brother and I would go over there and file.   We’d put the filing cabinet in alphabetical order and organize….Ughh.

Q:  What has been your favorite task at the track?

A:  Well there are a lot of them, but one time at a NASCAR race one of the ad banners on the safer barrier was loose, I ran up the hill, took my headphones off, climbed the fence and fixed it during the race, and the whole fencing was shaking. After I was done I put my headphones back on; called my boss and said “Okay, the ad banners fixed” My boss answered “Don’t ever do that again.”  So the next year it happened again and they made me wait 130 laps until a caution came out to go fix it.  That’s the fun stuff.

Q:  What do you do in your job?

A:  Lots of planning.  Some days are interviewing like today, and others we are in meetings.  We plan for lots of different things that are coming up.  Sitting down on twitter, talking to the fans.

Q:  Do you go to any other races?

A:  Yes. I go to four or five NASCAR races a year and two to three Indycar races. This year I’m going to St. Pete and Indianapolis (Indycar) and I was at Daytona (NASCAR) and I am going to Darlington and New Hampshire (NASCAR)

 Q: As track owner, do you get privileges to interview all the drivers at the tracks?

A:  No.  We don’t ask. We just do it.  (Laughing)

Q.  Are there any tracks you are not allowed to interview at?

A.  No, not yet.  But we’ll get there…I’m sure we’ll be there soon… (Laughing)

Q: As a track owner, what are your duties in the offseason?

A:    We get ready for the season.  There’s a lot of work to do putting sponsorship plans together, selling tickets.   Figuring out what we’re going to do new for the fans and for ourselves.  How we’re going to grow.  We’re all planning all winter long because we have a quick little summer season where everything that you have to do has to get done easily without any snafus and without any issues.

Q:  What about on raceday?

A:  Race day’s non-stop.  It starts before the sun comes up, I walk around to make sure everything’s in its place, and give a lot of high-fives.   I go to the drivers meetings and intros, that kind of stuff.  Then once the race starts I can relax until the end.  So once the race starts I’ll actually go sit with my family and watch the race.  I usually have lunch with my kids, meet with some sponsors and people I have to see, then, after the race I run down to victory lane to hand the trophy to the winner…. Then I go to sleep for the next three days. (laughing)

Q:  How excited were you to have Indycar back at Pocono?

A:  As excited as you were.  I grew up watching Indycar racing here, so to have them back was really great.  But seeing the new fans, that’s great, that’s what makes it more exciting.  That’s what it’s all about.

Q:  What do you think about the new double points for the Triple Crown races in Indycar this season?

A:  It is exciting because it puts pressure on the teams to get up there and run good.  It is also better because Indycar is more weighted to road and street, and it’s like a double header on the ovals.

Q:  What is your favorite thing about Pocono Raceway?

A:  It’s a triangle.  What’s cooler than that? And the fact that everyone is family.  All of our family works here.  Our staff is like family, the fans are like family, you guys are like family, you know, just come over and hang out.  It’s like coming home.

 

THANKS BRANDON!!!

 Here's a video of how much fun we had doing the interview

 

 

Catch the Pocono Indycar 500 Fueled by Sunoco 

July 6th, 2014

and Kids (14 & under) can join the new

Kids Club at Pocono.

 

2014 Indycar Season Begins

The 2014 Verizon Indycar Season
starts this weekend in St. Petersburg, FL!!!
 

 

And as long, cold, snowy and snowy and snowy

as this offseason was, it's hard to believe Indycars are back already.

 

 

And as bummed as we are that we can't be there (thank you Pennsylvania State School Assessments),

we will be glued to the tv and Indycar.com site all weekend to follow the action since

 we'll be guest posting for Pocono Raceway's site about the race.

 

 

There will be lots of Racing action all weekend in St. Pete:

 

Pro Mazda
USF2000
Indy Lights

 Pirelli world challenge

 Stadium super trucks

All Leading up to the INDYCARS on Sunday afternoon!

 

 

 

  

   Some new drivers to the Indycar series in 2014:

 

Mikhail  Aleshin

 

Ryan  Briscoe (back from a one year hiatus)

 

Jack  Hawksworth (from the Indy Lights Series)

 

 Carlos  Munoz (runner up in the 2013 Indy 500)

Carlos Huertas (from Formula Renault 3.5)


WATCH THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX of ST. PETE

at 3:00 EST on ABC

and follow along all weekend at

INDYCAR . com
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Leonard Samsonite ad 1971

We love that our Pappy saved all his old Indycar stuff.

Today we found this in a Pocono program. 

 

Joe Leonard began his 'second career' as an

Indycar driver in the early 1960's

after being a motorcycle champion.

 

He went on to race for greats such as

Andy Granatelli and Parnelli Jones.

He won the USAC (Indycar) Championship in 1971 and 1972.