Indycar Test Drive videos

The 2017 Indycar season is about to start!!!!

Yay!

If you want to get caught up with some of your favorite drivers before the green flag drops in St. Petersburg, FL check out some funny Indycar videos.

Indycar drivers were asked questions for Indycar Test Drive.  Find out some interesting facts and see which driver can name the most Indy 500 winners and Indycar past champs.

 

1. Josef Newgarden
2. Simon Pagenaud
3. James Hinchcliffe
4. Conor Daly
5. Ed Carpenter
6. Will Power
7. Tony Kanaan
8. Scott Dixon
9. Graham Rahal
10. Ryan Hunter Reay
11. Alexander Rossi
12. Marco Andretti
13. Helio Castroneves
14. JR Hildebrand
15. Ed Jones

posted by Alexandra (age 9)

Josef Update MAVTV 500

Another top ten for Josef this year!

He finished tenth in the last race of the season.

This video is from before Fontana, so it's a little late,
but it is Josef, and this is a Josef post and so Alex insists we include it.

 
He qualified third, which made him the top Honda qualifier in the final four races of the season!
It was also his 4th front row start of the year.

Josef finished out the season with

2 Top 5's
7 Top 10
and he led 20 laps and was in a position to win several races this season!

Can't wait to see how Josef improves next year.
He'll be on the newly formed Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing team and should be able to improve his Super Speedway results teaming with the oval master Ed Carpenter!


 
Alex is disappointed that the season in over, but we're still doing Josef updates because Alex follows along what he's up to during the whole offseason.
(and re-watches video after video after video after video....well you get the idea,  of Josef)


 

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.

 

Josef Update - Honda Indy Toronto

Double Headers this year have not been kind to Josef.

He has four 20th place finishes out of the 6 races and a 17th and 13th.
Needless to say Alex would like all double header races taken off the schedule for next year.

(she would also like for their to be more races at Iowa speedway)

Josef didn't have a good weekend at Toronto, where he ended up finishing 20th and 13th.
In race 1, Josef got hit from behind and got involved in a six car crash on lap 1. They got the car fixed under a red flag and did not lose a lap. Yeah!
He made his way up to 11th (to the delight of  Alex),
but then spun the car on lap 63 and couldn't finish the race. Wah!

In race 2 the weather was very wet and lots of cars went in for rain tires, but Josef stayed out and led laps 14-20, until he spun in turn eleven and then went in for rain tires.
When the track dried, he stayed on rain tires and was running fifth,
but when a red flag came out and the cars restarted, the rain tires weren't working as well as the other cars on reds, and he dropped down to 13th.




 

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!

Drivers in carts

Do Indycar drivers race Indycars or golf carts?

 Ryan Hunter-Reay
(well, the back of him anyway, we'll get a better one)

 Helio Castroneves
(on Will Power's cart!....is this allowed?)

 

 

Helio, on a bike this time.
And still smiling!

 Tony Kanaan defending 500 champion
(love his shoes)

James Hinchcliffe
(glad he recovered from the hit in the GP)

Simon Pagenaud
(congrats on the Indy GP win)

 Rick Mears - 4 time 500 winner!!!
(got his autograph!)

 Ryan Hunter-Reay
(we told you we would get a better one)

 Dario Franchitti - 3 time 500 winner
(miss him on the track but great to still see him at the track!)

 Jack Hawksworth rookie
(awesome helmet)

 

Carlos Huertas a

(another rookie)

 

 

 

 

 

Alex's 'Josef' view of the Indy GP weekend

 

There are two distinct aspects to this Josef post.

 

          The Sad Part

Josef finished 17th on race day, which basically ruined Alex's day.
But she was still happy when he drove by every lap. 

 

 (you're probably expecting some pictures, but Alex wants no reminder of that day.
She barely let us put it in the post)

 

   and

 

The Super Happy, Ecstatic Part

 

 

- ON FRIDAY

- Alex got to see and talk to Josef in his pits (basically because we stood by his pit until he got out of the car and noticed her and came over.)           

- Alex got to talk with Josef's mom and dad before qualifying                                                  

- Alex got to go into Josef's shop and met some super nice ladies who work there.

- Alex got to get a Josef shirt (her first 'official' Josef shirt that wasn't homemade).

 

 

- ON SATURDAY

- Alex got to see Josef & he waved at her in a tweet up

- Alex got Josef's chef's hat that he wore while cooking with Joe Namath in St. Pete because Jarod won it for her at the tweet up.

- We met Josef's web designer who took a picture of her in her 'Josef dress' and posted it to Josef's website. (She was kinda a little excited about that.) Thank you, Rob!

 

 

- ON SUNDAY

- Alex got to see Josef

- Alex got to talk to Josef

- Sadly, she also had to say goodbye to Josef (but only for a week and a half so it was all good.)

 

Josef driving his car in the pits

  

You'll notice some other drivers in the background,
they do not matter to Alex & she was upset that we didn't crop them out

  

Alex wants to sit in this section for the 500
(we're not)

 



Looking for Josef
(wrong way, Josef comes from behind you this is the GP not the 500)

 

Josef's garage.

We admit that we took these pictures just to rub it in to Alex that
we can get in the garage area and she can't....she's too young.



And now Alex is really happy because she gets to go back to Indy to see Josef again (race...what race?)

But she's really super happy because

JOSEF qualified 8th for the Indianapolis 500!!!!

  



Alex's Josef Update #5 GP of Indy

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis was not the best of races for Josef Newgarden. 
so (his #1 fan) Alex was not too happy

& although she did watch the whole race looking for his car each lap, we admit she did get to playing fish school with her goldfish cracker snack as he was stuck back in 17th or so.

 

So To Recap:
After 2 races qualifying in the Firestone Fast Six, Josef Newgarden did not move on from Round 1 qualifying and started the Grand Prix of Indy from the 15th position. 
He moved up to 12th as the race immediately went yellow  but ran into trouble when he made contact with another car on the first restart.  Boo. 

He ended the race in 17th and dropped from 10th to 13th in the Indycar points standings.

 

 

 

Josef's car on Sunday, a bit prior to going out for Opening Day Indy 500 practice.

 

The Happy part, for Alex ,was that she got to see Josef on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (but that's a whole other post that we'll do later because Alex insists)

 

 

 

More importantly Josef has started a video blog series about the days leading up to the Indy 500.

He answers questions and talks about practice and giveaways (like a Mario bobble head) and ... well it really doesn't matter, Alex is just thrilled she gets to see more Josef everyday on the computer.

 

This is Alex's favorite of his vlogs, Day 2, because he mentions us (The 321 Indycar Kids) and answers one of our questions!

 

 

Click here to see his other video blogs

 (Translation from Alex: Click here to see lots more Josef! and Josef! Yeah!)

 

 

 

Catch Josef in qualifying on

Saturday & Sunday (May 17th & 18th) on ABC.

 

 Can't wait to see him in his 3rd Indianapolis 500! 

Sunday May 25th!

 

 

 

GO JOSEF...GO JOSEF...GO JOSEF

 

 

 

Indycar School Video #2

Indycar made simple. 

By kids.

 

Part 2 in our video series.

 

In this 'class' learn more of the basics

of the super exciting and competitive Indycar series.

 

 

(Be sure to watch for Alex's shout out for her favorite driver Josef Newgarden)

 

25 Days till Indycar Season: Target Fix

Only 25 days till the start of the Indycar season.

 

Thank goodness because we're getting desperate.

 

We went shopping in Target and hunted down all the Indycar signs in the grocery aisles.

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Indycar Edition

We're thankful for a lot of things.

Just ask our mom, she makes us write them out whenever we're acting 'ungrateful'.

 

Today we thought we'd do a special Indycar Edition for Thanksgiving.

Here Goes.

 

Were Thankful for...

 

 

* Pocono Raceway Indycar race only an hour from our house! (and great track owners, like Brandon Igdalsky who gave us special access to Indycar testing)

 

* IMS, the best racetrack in the world and we're lucky enough to get to go to the Indy 500 every year to see the race, Carb Day and the parade.

* Racer magazine in our mailbox every month.  They keep us updated with great Indycar articles and super cool photos.  And their great website too!

* Robin Miller, for his weekly mailbag at Racer.com that lets us know all the inside goings on in Indycar.

 

* Piranha Productions and IMS Productions for giving us lots of super Indycar videos to make us laugh (and the drivers willing to make them.) 

 

* Josef Newgarden.

 

* Josef's car.

* Josef's videos

 

* Josef's . . . All right Alex, we get it!

 

          Moving on.

*  The Indycar 36 Shows that follow a driver for 36 hours on race weekends.  We love those!

 

* Track owners, and track workers for giving Indycar great places to race.

*  NBC Sports Network that does a great job televising most of the races and the Indylights races.  Our favorite part...Robin Miller's 'Grid Run' before the start.

* Teams owners and crews and everyone who gets the cars ready for the drivers.  And the sponsors who help make it possible.

* Krystin Wiggs for being our first Behind the Scenes in Indycar interview.  And all the behind the scenes people that help Indycar work.

* Lids for making lots of neat Indycar memorabilia, even if our parents won't let us buy everything we want.

And of course we're thankful for all the friendly, funny and great drivers we love!

 



*NEW VIDEO* Pocono Indy 400 with the 3-2-1 Indycar kids

 

 

Yup, that's the name of our newest video showing all the fun we had at the Pocono Indycar race in July.
 

We had a blast, and can't wait to make another video. 
(At the Grand Prix of Baltimore!!!)

 

 We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

 

 Please, before watching it, make sure you read what "ingredients" are mixed in so you may know whether to laugh (Yes) or cry (No) while watching it.
 

 

* Silliness        * Cuteness

 

* Cheering        * Excitement        * Cool music
 

 

and of course, Alex's favorite driver, Josef Newgarden.

 

 



 

 Hold it!

Don't forget to check out our first video, "A Day with the 3-2-1 Indycar kids"

 

 

Hinchcliffe can't live without...

In a Toronto Life newspaper article, James Hinchcliffe wrote down in his own words what he can't live without, here are a few of them.

My onesie pajamas
 I’ve wanted a pair of these forever. Last year, Kirsten (His girlfriend) finally got me some. They’re the full deal: red flannel, bum flap and everything. When you’re hanging around the house on a Sunday, there’s nothing better to have on.

 
My lighters I’ve been collecting lighters since I was a kid. I have about 80 of them now (just to look at—I don’t smoke). My favourite is from WWII. I love thinking about where it’s been, whose it was and what happened to him.


My hero’s steering wheel It’s from Greg Moore’s first race car, which he used before he made it big on the CART circuit, and it’s signed. I met him after a race in Toronto in ’99. I stood outside his trailer for hours before he finally came out.

 

 

If you want to read more of Hinch's things he can't live without, click here.

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. 

Dario Franchitti

Dario Franchitti Fun Facts

3-time Indianapolis 500 winner 

 4-time Izod Indycar Series champion.

...and he still made time to answer some questions we emailed to him!  Thank you, Dario.

Pocono at Indycar Media day

In the three week lull of no Indycar races we like to watch some of our favorite driver videos.

At the pre-season Indycar media day in March, Brandon Igdalsky, CEO of Pocono Speedway interviewed drivers.

He asked some in depth questions such as:

"What's the biggest bug you've ever hit?"

and

"Do you know what all the buttons in the cars do?"

 

Pocono at Indycar Media Day #1

A Day with the 3-2-1 Indycar Kids

Inspired by Josef Newgarden's 'The Life of a Race Car Driver' (Alex's favorite 'Josef video') we decided to put together our own version of 'A Day with the 3-2-1 Indycar Kids'.

We had a blast making it and we hope you enjoy it!

Mario fan

Are you too hot at the race track?

 

Are you a Mario fan? 

Then let Mario Andretti help cool you off with your very own 'Mario fan'.

 

 

 

(We even got ours signed by Mario himself at Indy.)

Josef & Alex on Indycar 36?

 

 

Yes, the new Indycar 36 episode on NBC Sports is about Josef Newgarden, which we're fine with, however, much to our dismay, our little sister Alex is actually shown on the program. Twice.

 

 

 

Now we'll never hear the end of it. 

It's already all Josef, all the time with her and now that she met him and is on a tv show about him.

 

Ughh.

 

No offense Josef, we all really like you and root for you but Alex doesn't shut up about you, and it's getting kinda old.