Indycar at Phoenix 2016

 

In the first race at Phoenix Raceway for Indycar since 2005, Scott Dixon led the action packed race for his 39th career Indycar win, tying for third with Al Unser Sr. on the All-Time Indycar wins list.

As the green flag dropped at Phoenix Raceway for the Verizon Indycar Series return, pole sitter Helio Castroneves took the early lead, leading the first 39 laps.  Castroneves surrendered the lead on lap 40 to fellow Penske teammate Juan Montoya when his right front tire went down.  Montoya then held control until lap 95, when his right front tire also went down, giving the lead to Scott Dixon, who took it all the way to victory lane.  

 

Huge night for @CGRTeams first win for us at @phoenixraceway can't thank the team enough.… https://t.co/nKWrJXPJyf

— Scott Dixon (@scottdixon9) April 3, 2016

Phoenix Grand Prix TOP 10

1. Scott Dixon: His 39th Indycar win, tying Al Unser Sr. for third on the all time wins list

2. Simon Pagenaud: Takes over the points lead with 2nd place finishes at St Pete and PIR

3. Will Power: Solid start to his season after missing the first race at St Pete.

4.Tony Kanaan: One of only 2 drivers in the race to have previously won at Phoenix.

5. Graham Rahal:  Highest finishing Honda. (sounds familiar to a lot of races last year.)

6. Josef Newgarden:  A good finish considering A rough pit stop and an incident on track with Charlie Kimball were major setbacks.

7. Max Chilton:  Highest finishing rookie in his first ever oval race. 

8. Sebastien Bourdais:  A good finish considering he hit the wall midway through the race.

9. Juan Montoya:  Had a tire go down while leading and never got back up front.

10. Ryan Hunter-Reay:  Some phenomenal passing had him towards the front but some equally crazy bad luck on two yellows left him in a disappointing 10th place.

 

Different Teams: 6 (Andretti, Penske, Ganassi, ECR, KV Racing, RLL)

Different Countries: 7 (New Zealand, France, Australia, Brazil, US, England, Columbia)

 

 

Fun Facts

 

Cautions: 6

Caution Laps: 46

Lead Changes: 3

Leaders: 3

Average Speed: 139.822

 

 

Next race.  April 17th at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama

Next oval race.....

The 100th running of the Indianapolis 500!!!!!!  May 29th!



 

Dan Wheldon Memorial Kart Race

Dan Wheldon Memorial Pro Am Karting Race in honor of Justin Wilson

Each year, top-tier Indycar drivers return to their roots for the Dan Wheldon Pro-Am Karting Challenge at the 1 mile New Castle Motorsports Park.  The event raises money for the Alzheimer's Association, a cause that Dan dearly supported.  This year, the event also raised money for the Wilson Family Foundation. 

Each kart team has 3 amateur drivers and one pro driver.  The amateur drivers take the first three 15-minute stints, and then the pro drivers battle it out to the finish line.  This year, the likes of Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter, Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe, back for his first race since his accident at Indianapolis, took to bumping, bruising and some trash talking in 6 hp karts. 

A really cool part was when Dan's Wheldon's son, 6-year old Sebastien paced the field to the green and his youngest son, Oliver waved the green and checkered flags.  Cutest moment was when Oliver gave his big brother the thumbs up as he drove past.  After the race the Wheldon boys helped Poppy and Tilly Dixon hand out the trophies to the winners.

Our favorite shot from the Robopong weekend at New Castle Motorsports Park.

The first three stints of the race were dominated by the 27 car.  Josef Newgardens team stayed in the top four the whole first three stints and Scott Dixon was lagging behind mid pack. (Pay attention, he's sort of important.)  The teams could buy back a lap that they lost for $100.  All the teams that were a lap down did, so that it came down to a full out sprint involving all the pros.  Marco Andretti, in the dominant 27 car, took the early lead but was sidelined late in the race when he was tapped off course and did his first front-flip in a go-kart.  Josef Newgarden stopped to check to see that Marco was unhurt, and then Marco got out from under the car, flipped it back over and managed to finish the race.  Matthew Brabham and Sage Karam fought for the lead and didn't notice Scott Dixon until he and Will Power got by them on the final lap. 
 Matthew Brabham came home third.

Indycar Championships 1999 vs 2015

In the 2015 Verizon Indycar Series Championship,

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) tied in season points with Juan Montoya (Penske Racing).  The tie was broken based on wins, Dixon had 3 wins to Montoya's 2.

Ironically, in 1999, Juan Montoya (racing for Chip Ganassi Racing) tied with Dario Franchitti (Team Kool Green) for the season championship. Juan Montoya won his only Indycar title based on his 6 wins to Dario's 3 that season.

 

 
In the same year that Juan won the Championship, Scott Dixon was a rookie in Indy Lights, and had just won his first Lights race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juan Montoya gave Chip Ganassi his 4th Indycar title in 1999.

 



Scott Dixon gave Ganassi Racing it's 11th Indycar title in 2015.
(It was Scott's 4th title)



Sonoma Indycar Race Recap

                                          

Scott Dixon wins the GoPro GP of Sonoma, giving Chip Ganassi his 100th Indycar win.


For the first time the Indycar season finale was held at Sonoma Raceway.  Will Power, who has made Sonoma his playground, dominated in the first practice and throughout qualifying.  Power started on pole and led 26 laps in the early stages of the race. On lap 38, Power and Montoya tangled and both fell to the back of the pack.  Josef Newgarden ran a very strong second most of the day behind either Dixon, who took the lead on lap 51, or Power. During a pit stop on lap 61 Josef stalled the car and had a small fire, putting him a lap down and ending his hopes for a strong finish to the year.  Though Power, Montoya, Newgarden, Rahal and Castroneves all had either bad cars or problems, Scott Dixon lived up to his nickname, The Iceman' and took home his third win in the season and won the Championship on a tiebreaker for most season wins.

 

The top 10 Finishers

1. Scott Dixon was lurking in the top ten the whole race and eventually took the lead on lap 51. He then led 34 of the remaining laps and got the bonus points for leading the most laps. 

2. Ryan Hunter-Reay had an awful first half of the season until a breakout win in Iowa.  He finished the season with 2 wins and a 2nd place in the last four races.

3.  Charlie Kimball He tied his best finish of the year (Indy 500).    A strong way to finish his season leaving him twelfth in the season Championship.

 

4. Tony Kanaan earns his 6th top 5 this year.  He was one of the first people to the #9 car to congratulate Scott Dixon on the Indycar title.  

5. Ryan Briscoe did a great job salvaging a top five and holding off Montoya while on old tires.  Hopefully, Ryan Briscoe can get a ride next year, because he did a great job filling in for James Hinchcliffe. He earned 4 top tens in 8 starts this year.

6. Juan Montoya stayed in the top ten until his altercation with Power put the back to the 23rd and 24th positions.  He made a great comeback to 6th but couldn't get past Ryan Briscoe, which would have given him the Championship. As expected he was a bit upset after the race having lost the Indycar title after leading all year.

I think it's photoshop!!!! LOL https://t.co/ojyoeTEqJo

— Juan Pablo Montoya (@jpmontoya) August 31, 2015

7. Will Power was also eligible for the Championship and got upset at race control for closing the pits under yellow. Will Power ended up finishing 3rd in the Championship.
 

8. Takuma Sato closes off the season with a solid finish, and has a ride at A.J Foyt for next year.
 
9. Rodolfo Gonzalez had a surprising finish for Dale Coyne racing, his best finish of the season. 

10. Mikhael Aleshin was in his first race in an Indycar since his scary crash at Fontana last year, Mikael Aleshin finishes strong and might have a full time ride in Indycar next year.

 

Top Ten included...

*   5 Chevys and 5 Hondas.  Chevy still came out on top with the win and the Manufacturer Championship for the fourth year in a row.

*  Drivers represented 8 different countries.   Two Americans finished on the podium for the second week in a row.

*  There were 6 different teams

 

OTHER

* 7 different drivers all led laps.  There were 10 lead changes

* 7 different cars helped bring out 4 cautions for 14 laps, including

Power, Montoya and Munoz.

 

* Will Power set the fastest leader lap on lap 1 at a speed of 107.930

* Scott Dixon paced the way to an average speed of 94.117 mph

Shout Out To....

Oriol Servia, for getting into the #25 car and racing it in Justin Wilsons honor.  He finished in twelfth position.
 
Mikael Aleshin, finishing 10th in his first Indycar race since his crash at Fontana.  Hopefully, he can get a full time ride in 2016.

 

9 Days till Pocono

9 days remain until the
ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway!

#9 Scott Dixon has two Top Fives

in his two visits to the Tricky Triangle in Pennsylvania.

 

A first in 2013 that turned his season around and began his successful run at his third Indycar Series title and a fifth in 2014.

 

 

 

Dixon still has a great shot at winning his 4th Series title.

He currently sits 3rd in points and
is 34 points back from leader Juan Montoya.


We can't wait to see how Dixon does this year at Pocono!

Firestone 600 at Texas

When Indycars arrive at Texas Motor Speedway, you expect fast, side-by-side racing.   Lucky for us, that's exactly what we got.  The number of passes on track for all the drivers was 1,172.

Though Scott Dixon's showcased his skill at the first oval of the season in Indianapolis, he had no luck when his car overheated near the end of the race.  At Texas his skill and luck came together to make him a 37 time Indycar race winner.

 

 

The top 10 Finishers

1.  Scott Dixon - His second win this season.  Could he be starting his midseason run for the championship like in 2013?

2.  Tony Kanaan - His highest finish of the season jumps him up to 9th in points.
 

3.  Helio Castroneves - His sixth Top Five finish in the last 8 races at Texas.
 

4.  Juan Montoya - 8 Top Tens in 9 races this season.  He still holds a 35 point lead in the championship.
 

5.  Marco Andretti - Highest finishing Honda.

6.  Carlos Munoz - Fourth Top 10 this season.

7.  Charlie Kimball - Another strong oval run to follow up on his 3rd place at Indy.

8. Ryan Briscoe - A solid run filling in for James Hinchcliffe.

9.  James Jakes - Only his second Top 10 of the season.

10.  Gabby Chaves - His second Top 10 in a row.
 

Top Ten included..
 

* 2 Penskes, 3 Ganassi Drivers, 2 Andretti drivers, 2 Schmidt drivers and one Bryan Herta driver.
* 5 Chevys and 5 Hondas 
* Drivers from 7 different countries

Other:

3 – Positions gained by Marco Andretti in the final 23 laps of the race (eighth to fifth).

3.59 – Average running position of winner Scott Dixon for the 248 laps of racing at Texas Motor Speedway.

9 – Drivers who led at least one lap.

10 – Top-five finishes at Texas by Helio Castroneves, who placed third.

11 – # of positions improved by Ryan Briscoe, the biggest mover of the race

37 – Indy car victories for Scott Dixon, which ranks fifth all time.

99 – Indy car wins for cars owned by Chip Ganassi.

1,172 – On-track passes during the Firestone 600.

GP of Long Beach

The 41st running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach ran under sunny skies and with just one caution!

Helio Castroneves, starting from the pole, led most of the first half of the race, but Scott Dixon led the most important one.  The final lap. 
This was Scott Dixon's first win at Long Beach, and before this his average finish there was 15th!

The top 10 Finishers

1. Scott Dixon.  His 36th career Indycar win vaulted him to 4th in the season points.

2.  Helio Castroneves. Pole sitter for the 42nd time in his career.

3. Juan Montoya.  Finished third to maintain his season points lead over teammate Helio.

4. Simon Pagenaud.  His second Top 5 this season.

5. Tony Kanaan. Another strong run keeps him 3rd in points.

6. Sebastien Bourdais.  Led a lap. 

7. Josef Newgarden.  Ran 5th much of the day but dropped a few spots pitting. 

8. Marco Andretti.   A second Top 10 this season, but would love to see him win here where his dad and granddad had such success.

9. Carlos Munoz.  Had a solid run for his first Top 10 of the season.

10. Sebastian Saavedra.  A great run in Ganassi's #8 car especially considering he hadn't been in a car in  9 months.

Top Ten included..

* Drivers from 6 different teams

* Drivers from 5 different countries

* 7 Chevys, 3 Honda

* Both of the CFHR drivers
* Three Penske Drivers
* Three Ganassi Drivers

Can't wait till the Grand Prix of Alabama on
Sunday, April 26th on NBCSN.

Josef update at Mid-Ohio

Josef had one of the best races of his Indycar career at Mid Ohio.

He qualified 2nd in wet conditions, then went on to stay up front and raced for the lead all day, Battling with the likes of Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais.

Unfortunately (there seems to always been an 'unfortunately' in our Josef posts....) there was an error in the pits on his last pit stop.  A hose was laying in the middle of his pit box and he couldn't avoid hitting it.  He got a drive through penalty that ruined his day.

He finished 12th.

 

 

 

 

Apparently the race results did not dampen Josef's usual fun self or appetite as he hit the Indiana State Fair with Mikhail Aleshin, Simon Pagenaud, Robin Miller and Dave Furst the next night.

 

AND

 

On his off weekend of August 10th Josef took part in and won the Formula F 45th Anniversary Race at Barber Motorsports Park.

 

 

 

Now if he can continue that winning momentum at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend.

 

GP of Houston 2014

The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston is here!!

One weekend, 2 days, 2 races!

 

Thanks to NBCSN and Verizon

Practice for the Houston

and all other races this season

will be live on Indycar.com,

and are announced by Paul Page!

(so cool to watch the coverage live and hear Paul Page's commentary!)

 

 

 

Helio, Scott Dixon and Will Power preview the races.

 

Catch both races on NBCSN
Saturday & Sunday, June 28 & 29 at 3:00 EST

Saturday's qualifying will be tape delayed
at 2:00 EST on NBCSN.


 

Past Winners in the 500

We did a young drivers post,
and now we are doing a post
on the older more experienced 
drivers and past winners 

 They include...

Helio Castroneves: 3 time winner
'01, '02, '09

 

Tony Kanaan: 1 time winner
'13

 

Scott Dixon: 1 time winner
'08

   

Juan Pablo Montoya: 1 time winner
'00

 

 

Buddy Lazier: 1 time winner
'96

Jacques Villeneuve: 1 time winner
'95


The record number of past winners in the field for the 500 was 10 in 1992 with a combined total of 20 wins. There were also 3 future winners in the race. (Al Unser, Jr., Buddy Lazier & Eddie Cheever)
The neatest part was that all three 4 time winners were in the 500 that year.



The former winners in that race were:

A. J. Foyt (4 wins)

Al Unser, Sr. (4)

Rick Mears (4)

Gordon Johncock (2)

Mario Andretti (1)

Tom Sneva (1)

Danny Sullivan (1)

Bobby Rahal (1)

Emerson Fittipaldi (1)

Arie Luyendyk (1)

Will we see a four time winner this year?

Or maybe another 2 time champ. 

We can't wait!

Indycar End of Season

 

 

Will Power wins his third race of the season.

 

Scott Dixon wins his third Indycar Championship.

 

Only 8 cars finish the race due to accidents, blown engines and who knows what else.

 

It was exciting!

 

Carlos Munoz won the Indy Lights race and

 

18 year old Sage Karam won the Indy Lights Championship

in his rookie season.

 

Can't wait till next season!

Indycar Championship

We're conflicted...

 

Not sure who we'd like to see win the Indycar Championship in 2013

 

 

One thing we're sure of is we're thrilled it's coming down to the final race for the 8th year in a row!

 

Reasons we'd like to see Helio win.
 
*   Although he has 3 Indy 500 wins he has never won the season championship
 
*  Team Penske has 12 Championships, but hasn't won the the season since 2006 with Sam Hornish
 
*  At 38 years old Helio may not be racing too many more years
 
*  Helio seems super nice and funny
 
*  The Indycar Championship trophy would look good setting next to his Mirror Ball Trophy from Dancing with the Stars

*  He had completed all the laps this season until one really really bad weekend in Houston that unfortunately, for him, had two races.



 Reasons we'd like to see Dixon win.

*   It's been five years again since he's won the championship so he's due for another championship ('03, 08)

*  He's won four races this year.

*  After Ryan Hunter Reay (Andretti Autosport) won the Championship last year, Ganassi wants to get back to winning Indycar every year like he did from 2008-2011.

*  Every other year he has won, he has beaten Helio and it was decided in the final race.

*  His two little girls will look really cute on Championship photos.

GOOD LUCK HELIO & SCOTT!

We're looking forward to the excitement!

PS Alex isn't conflicted....she just wants Josef to win the race....nothing else matters.

 

Notes from GP of Baltimore



Pit Lane along Camden Yard....very cool!



*  Scott Dixon won the pole on the final lap of qualifying, beating Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and rookie Tristan Vautier.


*  Tony Kanaan will make his 212th consecutive Indycar start breaking Jimmy Vasser's record.

*  Stefan Wilson will be making his Indycar debut teaming up with his brother Justin at Dale Coyne Racing.



Stefan was very nice and signed our hats on Friday. 
Thank you Stefan & Good Luck!

 

 



*  Lots of airborne cars during practice and qualifying should make for some interesting racing Sunday!

*  Turn 6 was repaved on Friday night to try to smooth it out.

Who wants to ride around the Indiana State Fair in a beaver costume?

Dixon wins the Power of Two contest!

 

 

 

 

That means that Alex Tagilani rode a tricycle around the Indiana State Fair in a Beaver costume.  

 

 

Here is a video of tagliani riding around:

Franchitti and Dixon at the Grocery Store?

Vrooms, Anyone?

 

 

Walking through a discount grocery today and who did we spy on a stack of cereal boxes but Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

 

There also was another Target Ganassi Driver and Indy 500 winner (2000) pictured, but since he doesn't race Indycars anymore we didn't buy his box of cereal.

 

Funny. 

Power of 2 Charity Campaign

Alex Tagliani and Scott Dixon

are raising money for charities

with the Power of 2. 

The power of 2 is a fun way for two Indycar drivers to raise money for a charity they support. 

 * Alex Tagliani is raising money for Anaphylaxis Canada 

*  Scott Dixon is raising for CanTeen which helps young people living with cancer.

Three in a Row for Dixon!

* Dixon gets his 32nd Indycar win for seventh on the all time list behind AJ Foyt, 2 Andretti's (Mario & Michael) and 3 Unser's (Al, Bobby and Al Jr.)...not bad company.

*  Sebastien Bourdais continued his great weekend with another podium finish...and didn't break the trophy this time.

*  Helio Castroneves finished 2nd to keep a comfortable 29 point lead over Dixon who jumped to second place in the season standings with his recent wins.

*  Top Five.  Dixon, Helio, Bourdais, Franchitti, and EJ Viso

Dixon wins first race at Toronto!

*  Scott Dixon won for the second weekend in a row winning in Toronto for the first time.

*  Dixon passed Sebastien Bourdais in the closing laps and is now tie with Bourdais, Franchitti, and Paul Tracy for 8th on the all time Indycar wins list with 31.

* Dixon sits on the pole for tomorrow's 2nd race in Toronto.  If he wins that race he gets a $100,000 bonus.

* Top five.  Dixon, Bourdais, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan.

Do it Again!

 

Tomorrow.

 

3:00 EST.

 

NBC Sports.

Dixon wins Pocono!

Scott Dixon started 17th.

*  Scott Dixon won the Pocono Indycar 400 today to give Ganassi racing it's 100th victory in motorsports, and Honda its 200th victory in Indycar competition.

*  He led an all Ganassi sweep of the podium. 

*  Charlie Kimball had his best career finish in 2nd and Dario Franchitti was 3rd.

*  Andretti Autosport, which had swept the top three positions in qualifying had a difficult day as James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay were involved in incidents and Marco Andretti had to go into super fuel conservation mode and finished 10th after leading 88 laps.

Marco Andretti's #25 being towed back to his pits after running out of fuel after the race.

*  Dixon became the 8th different winner in 11 races this season.

*  Ganassi became the 7th different team to win this season.

*  Rounding out the top 5 was Will Power and Josef Newgarden, who tied his career best finish of 5th and had our little sister Alex super excited.

 

On to a double header in Toronto Saturday and Sunday!

Scott Dixon fun facts

   Scott Dixon fun facts

* Has a total of 28 race wins and 20 poles in Indycar.

* Is the son of two dirt track racers.


* Wanted to be a race car driver since he was 5 but first climbed inside a car when he was 13.                                             

* His "secret obsession" is chocolate.

* He can't stand airport security lines, or slow people in fast lanes.

* His pets are two Maltese dogs, George and Arthur, named after two kings.

* His nicknames are "Iceman" and  "Dixie".

                                   

 

 

Here's the 2009 ticket showing Scott Dixons 2008 Indy 500 win