Tag Archives: IndyCar

Ryan Hunter-Reay Is 2012 IndyCar Champion

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IndyCar Champion

Early in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Gripping Fontana Race

After an exciting and surprising 500 mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ryan Hunter-Reay is the 2012 IndyCar Champion, and Ed Carpenter won his second ever IndyCar race.  Hunter-Reay entered the race 17 points adrift of leader Will Power.  When Power spun and crashed at Turn 2 on lap 55, Hunter-Reay had his opening – he needed to finish sixth or better to overtake Power and become the first American IndyCar Champion in 6 years.

Power Somehow Rejoins Race

After a simply amazing effort by the Team Penske Crew, Will Power returned to the track on lap 123.  The #12 Verizon car was severely damaged by the lap 55 crash, and the team had to replace the entire rear end plus many other parts to make the car track ready.  Other crews were ‘high-fiving’ the Penske crew members in a mix of awe, amazement, and respect.  I’ve never seen a car so badly damaged return to a race.  Power was able to turn a dozen laps before retiring, and this was enough to move him ahead of E.J. Viso.  Now Hunter-Reay needed to finish fifth or better to be the IndyCar Champion.

 Battle for MAVTV 500 Win and IndyCar 2012 Championship

After Will Power retired, there were two races ongoing – one for the MAVTV 500 win and one to become IndyCar Champion.  In the former, there were 24 lead changes after Power’s crash.  JR Hildebrand ran really well on the high part of the track early in the race.  Unfortunately he had a brush with the wall, which necessitated a repair that put him several laps down and out of contention.  In the middle part of the race, the lead was exchanged multiple times between the likes of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, and Ed Carpenter.  As the race wore on, it was apparent that nobody was clearly dominant, and that promised an interesting finish.

IndyCar Champion

Beautiful Sunset at MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Carpenter Wins With Gutsy Drive

Ed Carpenter was competitive throughout, led the most laps overall, and drove a great race to win the MAVTV 500.  The victory was the second of his IndyCar career.  Tony Kanaan spun into the Turn 4 wall bringing out a red flag on lap 242 to preclude a parade finish under yellow.  Dario Franchitti who had taken the lead from Carpenter on lap 237 would lead from the restart and take the white flag, but Carpenter had a strong run thru Turn 2 from high on the track and passed Franchitti down the backstretch just as Takuma Sato crashed out bringing out a yellow flag for the last half lap.  What a finish!

Hunter-Reay A Worthy IndyCar Champion

Ryan Hunter-Reay is certainly a deserving IndyCar Champion, winning more races than anyone including three in a row during the summer stretch and a win in the penultimate race in Baltimore setting up the showdown in Fontana.  In the run up to the finale, Hunter-Reay also turned down a deal to race with Team Penske and signed a new contract with Andretti Autosport.  For Will Power, this makes the third year in a row that he finished second while going into the final race with a strong chance to win.  It was also the third year in a row that a crash in that final race ruined his chances to win.  Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar Champion for 2012.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway Qualifying

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IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Will Power on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

In the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway qualifying session, Marco Andretti took the pole for the MAVTV 500 with an average speed of 216.069 MPH.  Will Power, series leader and favorite for the Championship going into the final race of 2012 qualified third at 215.940 MPH.  His Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe was second with a speed of 215.058 MPH.  Power’s closest competitor for the series title, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport qualified seventeenth at 212.773 MPH.  Hunter-Reay comes into the race seventeen points behind Power and must have a strong finish combined with Power misfortune in order to take the series crown.  Rookie Josef Newgarden qualified fourth at 215.919 MPH.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Hinchcliffe burns some rubber heading out to qualify at Auto Club Speedway

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Simon Pagenaud on a qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

Brutally Hot Conditions At Auto Club Speedway

Qualifying was tough on the hot day in Fontana with air temperatures over 100 degrees and track temperature reaching over 140 degrees.  Similarly hot weather is forecast for race day on Saturday.  With the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway race being a grueling 500 miles under difficult conditions, many teams opted to change engines while accepting a 10 place grid penalty.  Troubles also forced some drivers into an unplanned engine change.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Jakes heads out for qualifying at Auto Club Speedway

Final Starting Grid

After engine change penalties are factored in, the starting grid looks like this:

  1. Marco Andretti, #26
  2. Ryan Brisco, #2
  3. Tony Kanaan, #11
  4. JR Hildebrand, #4
  5. Ed Carpenter, #20
  6. Rubens Barrichello, #8
  7. Katherine Legge, #6
  8. Oriol Servia, #22
  9. Dario Franchitti, #10
  10. Sebastian Saavedra, #17
  11. EJ Viso, #5
  12. James Jakes, #19
  13. Will Power, #12
  14. Josef Newgarden, #67
  15. Scott Dixon, #9
  16. Alex Tagliani, #98
  17. Helio Castroneves, #3
  18. Graham Rahal, #38
  19. James Hinchcliffe, #27
  20. Simon Pagenaud, #77
  21. Takuma Sato, #15
  22. Ryan Hunter-Reay, #28
  23. Charlie Kimball, #83
  24. Wade Cunningham, #14
  25. Justin Wilson, #18
  26. Simona de Silvestro, #78
IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Helio Castroneves on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

 

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

JR Hildebrand on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

More pictures are posted in a gallery here.

 

Hunter-Reay Win In Baltimore Sets Up Fabulous Fontana IndyCar Finale

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Ryan Hunter-Reay’s late race restart ambush of Ryan Briscoe secured a come-from-behind win at the Grand Prix of Baltimore and set up an exciting IndyCar finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in two weeks.

Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Andretti Autosport - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

With his win, Hunter-Reay now trails IndyCar series leader Will Power by 17 points going into the final race of the season at SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway on September 15th.  With the race winner collecting 50 points, if Hunter-Reay also wins at Fontana, Will Power must finish second or third to take the IndyCar series title – fourth or worse, and Hunter-Reay takes the crown.

WIll Power #12 Team Penske - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power, who has been at the top of the series standings most of the season and was on fire early in the season with three consecutive victories, has not won since Sao Paolo Indy 300 in April.  Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay has gotten hot, winning three in a row himself and four of the last seven races, including Baltimore.

The Auto Club Speedway showdown was set up by Hunter-Reay’s fabulous timing of a restart after a late race caution at Baltimore when he accelerated from second place into the lead past Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe into Turn 1.  Team Penske and Briscoe complained bitterly that  Hunter-Reay jumped the start, but IndyCar race control maintained that Hunter-Reay began the charge after the green flag was waved – a legal restart.  No other drivers are close enough to Power to have a chance to win the championship.  Sure is strange not to have a Target Ganassi driver in contention!

On to the IndyCar finale in Fontana…

Interestingly, SpeedTV has reported that Team Penske is courting Hunter-Reay as a replacement for Briscoe in their third car for next year.  For their part, Andretti Autosport maintains that they intend to have Hunter-Reay resigned for two years by the Fontana finale.  Briscoe’s management has also been aggressively shopping his services to other IndyCar teams as his seat at Penske has been in question for some time.  Sure makes for an interesting build up to Fontana.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (090712): 

Autosport is reporting here that Hunter-Reay will be staying at Andretti Autosport.

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana will be hosting the IZOD IndyCar finale under the lights in September when the series returns to SoCal, and today, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon came to ACS to treat a small group of fans to a lunchtime visit that included interviews, Q&A, a photo session, and a sampling of their signature cuisine.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway was the event host, and she did a nice job of interviewing and engaging the drivers with audience submitted questions. Both of these guys quickly make connections to a crowd and are approachable good sports.

Scott Dixon is currently 4th in the standings and 28 points behind IndyCar series leader Will Power with three races to go.  He has a chance of winning the Championship if he has a couple of good races at Sonoma and Baltimore heading into the finale – especially if Power (1st), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd), and Helio Castroneves (3rd) founder.  Dario Franchitti is currently 8th with no realistic chance of defending his Champion status.  Aside from a fabulous month of May that saw him win his third Indy 500, Dario has had a tough year in which just about anything that could go wrong, did.  Aside from trying to take wins, his main role for the rest of the season will be supporting Dixon, his Target Ganassi teammate.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

During the interview we learned that Dario’s family fled Mussolini’s Italy for the ‘place with the worst weather.’  His maternal grandmother is, in fact, Scottish.  Scott Dixon’s wife Emma was a former top middle distance runner for Great Britain.  Dario favors street courses, while Scott favors road courses.

Dario and Scott are both lukewarm on the push-to-pass. In the recent race, the 5 second push-to-pass delay made it confusing and difficult to use it properly at the start. How do you time the boost that will happen 5 seconds in the future when you don’t know exactly when the green flag will drop?  Everybody got it wrong.  Supposedly the delay is going away.

Both of them felt the finale will be an interesting race with changing conditions as the sun goes down – compromising vision – and the track cools off.  500 miles around the Auto Club Speedway will be exciting and tough.

After the interview and a picture session, fans were invited to sample Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti – really.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

Both of these guys are passionate racers, and the fans love them.  They’re great ambassadors for the sport, and I wish them well for the rest of the season.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

So What About IndyCar Push-To-Pass?

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Well after watching a few races under the revived IZOD IndyCar series push-to-pass system, I can’t say that I am a big fan – at least yet.  At Edmonton, most of the radio chatter in the last few laps of a competitive race was about when to use push-to-pass, how much to use, how much other guys might have left.  Helio Castroneves was able to hold off Takuma Sato, perhaps with the help of conserving his push-to-pass time throughout the race.  Too much like a video game for me.  This weekend at Mid-Ohio, there was a revision in that there would be a 5 second delay between push and effect.  I never heard an explanation for the change, but I would guess that it was to prevent push-to-defend: the overtaking driver would know where he wanted the push-to-pass boost and would push 5 seconds early, and the overtaken driver would not be able to respond.  At Mid-Ohio, it was not easy to determine the effect of push-to-pass on the race.  Winner Scott Dixon had great pace throughout and the Target Ganassi team executed flawlessly on pit stops.  I do have to give IndyCar kudos for how they reflect the use of push-to-pass on live timing and scoring – which is perhaps the best timing display in professional racing.

Personally I would rather see overtaking more dependent upon driver skill and looking after tires that performed more on the edge.  And I think the cars should have much more horsepower all of the time with less dependence upon aero.  Again this would put a premium on driver skill and car control.  Think of what a race is like in the rain.  In fact, on Twitter, there were folks rooting for rain at Mid-Ohio.  Opinions?

IndyCar Reintroduces Push-To-Pass: Good For Action Or Folly?

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IndyCar reintroduced push-to-pass last weekend at Toronto.  Was this a good move or not?  Well, I was skeptical about reintroducing a somewhat contrived way of promoting overtaking.  After all, during the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, there was plenty of passing at a course where historically it has been difficult to overtake.  At Toronto, since there was no indicator on the broadcast of when push-to-pass was being used, it was difficult to determine the overall effect.  We did hear toward the end of the race that Ryan Hunter-Reay had enough of his 100 seconds of push-to-pass time allotment remaining to use it on the main straight for the remainder of the race, effectively making it push-to-defend in his case.  Unfortunately the race ended under caution with Hunter-Reay at the front, so we never saw what was to happen in his case.  I’d say the final verdict is out for now, but my opinion is that it’s not needed and its reintroduction was a mistake.  We’ll see what happens next week at Edmonton.  I’d rather see at least 25% more horsepower which would make the race outcomes more dependent upon driver skill.

I’m eager to hear what Robin Miller or a couple of top drivers have to say…

Fast Friday Results – Marco Sets Fastest Lap of May at IMS

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Marco Andretti turned the fastest time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the final practice day before Pole Day.  His speed of 227.540 mph (39.5535 lap time) put his Chevrolet powered Andretti Autosport #26 on the top of the sheet ahead of the Ryan Briscoe’s Team Penske#2 by a scant 0.1229 seconds.  Four of Marco’s Andretti Autosport teammates are also in the top ten.

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Marco Andretti of Andretti Autosport

The top ten:

  1. Marco Andretti, 227.540
  2. Ryan Briscoe, 226.835
  3. Helio Castroneves, 226.716
  4. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 226.400
  5. Scott Dixon, 226.224
  6. James Hinchcliffe, 225.874
  7. Ana Beatriz, 225.653
  8. JR Hildebrand, 225.571
  9. Dario Franchitti, 225.370
  10. Tony Kanaan, 225.322

Current IZOD IndyCar points leader Will Power was in 11th, rookie Josef Newgarden was 13th, and SoCal’s Charlie Kimball was 14th.

The last time someone named Andretti was on pole at the Indy 500 was in 1987, and his name was Mario.  Incidentally, that was also the year Marco was born.

Fast Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway!

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I’ll be paying extra attention to IZOD IndyCar action throughout the summer because IndyCar is the only major professional racing series to have multiple races in SoCal.  First was the Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, also thought of by many as the ‘Monaco of the US’.  And we are also fortunate in SoCal to have the season finale at Auto Club Speedway in September.

Today is Fast Friday at IMS, the last day of practice before Pole Day.  You can watch and listen to the action live at IZOD IndyCar Series Race Control.  So far Ryan Hunter-Reay is topping the time sheets, and SoCal’s own Charlie Kimball is 25th.  Come on Charlie!

More later…

Power Takes Grand Prix of Long Beach

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The set up for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar race – ultimately won by Will Power – promised something interesting.  All Chevy-powered cars were penalized 10 spots from qualifying due to unauthorized – but evidently necessary – engine changes.  IndyCar rules mandate a 10 spot penalty for an unauthorized engine swap.  Chevrolet’s decision was prompted by the failure of James Hinchcliffe’s engine during a practice session at Infineon prior to the start of Long Beach festivities.  Apparently, the replacement engines are the same spec, and there has been speculation that fuel detonation (AKA knocking) was the problem.

With that backdrop, Parnelli Jones gave that famous command for the drivers to start their engines.  The excitement started shortly after the green flag as Josef Newgarden attempted an outside pass on pole-sitter Dario Franchitti at Turn 1, clipped Dario’s right front, and slid into the tire barriers.  Full course yellow before lap 1 complete!  On the restart, Justin Wilson made a successful Turn 1 pass on Franchitti, which began Dario’s slide over the next several laps.  Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato, and Scott Dixon passed Franchitti in succession while Justin Wilson was simply running away from the field.

On lap 20, Sebastien Bourdais, former four time Champ Car Champion skidded into the Turn 9 tire barriers after having moved up 5 positions from his last row starting spot.  Wilson took the opportunity to dive into the pits and changed from red to black tires.  Franchitti had a horrible restart on lap 23, and Sato took the lead.  Shortly after the restart, EJ Viso tangled with Alex Tagliani, causing Tagliani to pit for an extended repair.  Viso was later penalized with a drive thru penalty.  Later on lap 23, Marco Andretti hit the Turn 8 tire wall in a violent crash that brought out another full course yellow.  Marco had been making a run on Graham Rahal, and as Rahal moved right slightly to defend, Andretti’s left front tagged Rahal’s right rear.  The resulting collision launched Andretti into an airborne 360 degree spin – taking out Rahal’s rear wing – before slamming into the barriers.  While the cars circled under yellow, Bourdais rejoined the race and Dixon left it.  Dixon’s car simply quit on the approach to Turn 8, not far from where Andretti and Rahal collided.

The top 5 on the lap 30 restart were Briscoe, Franchitti, Castroneves, Wilson, & Pagenaud.  Even though Dario was struggling thru the first third of the race, he was still near the front.    Dario, Helio, & Will Power pitted on lap 34, leaving Pagenaud in the lead with Kanaan in second and Wilson third on lap 35.   By lap 40, Power was pushing James Jakes hard for fifth place, and on lap 41, he completed a Turn 1 pass.  Pagenaud was in first and Wilson second as Kanaan pitted.

With 40 laps to go, Pagenaud was still in the lead, but needed to save some fuel.  Wilson was still hanging on in second on his blacks; Sato was third.  Will Power had managed to fight his way to fourth from twelfth.  Rubens Barrichello was all the way up to seventh, and JR Hildebrand was eighth but struggling with handling issues.  Conway’s car just quit – the second Honda to simply give it up.  Pagenaud pitted from the lead with 37 to go; Sato moved up to take the lead once again with Wilson right behind in second.  One lap later, Power took second from Wilson with a Turn 1 pass.  At this point, Charlie Kimball was hanging on in fourth as the top Ganassi car, and Barrichello was right behind him in fifth.

Viso had been holding up Castroneves, who was desperate to get past him.  In a crazy incident between Turns 7 & 8 Helio ended up accidentally chopping his teammate Ryan Briscoe while trying to get past Viso.  Amazingly, there was only minor contact, and all three managed to get thru Turn 8 relatively unscathed – and with Helio ahead of Viso.

Wilson pitted with 33 to go, and Power came in two laps later leaving Sato in first, followed by Hildebrand, Hunter-Reay, and Hinchcliffe.  With 30 to go, Sato made his last stop, leaving Hunter-Reay in first and Hildebrand in second.  Within the next three laps, Hunter-Reay, Hildebrand, Briscoe, and Hinchcliffe all pitted.  Now the top four were Pagenaud, Kanaan, Sato, and Power.  The question remained: of all the fast runners, who had to conserve fuel, and who could make it to the end?

With 20 to go, the top five were Pagenaud, Power, Sato, Jakes, and Wilson – Power having gotten by Sato on lap 26.  From this point, Wilson began slipping back, his tires going away; he was passed by Barrichello (for fourth) then Hildebrand (for fifth).

Pagenaud pitted from the lead with 16 laps to go, promoting Power to the top spot.  He came back out into fourth between Rubens and JR and was charging hard.  By now Hunter-Reay, Kimball, Wilson, and Hinchcliffe were running in a tight pack for sixth thru ninth.  Pagenaud took third from Barrichello with 11 laps remaining.  The final ten would be exciting – still, who was okay on fuel?

With eight to go, Will Power had about a 5 second gap to Takuma Sato in second, but Simon Pagenaud was charging fast.  One lap later, Barrichello, who last pitted on the same lap as Power, came in for a splash of fuel.  How could Power make it seven more laps?  Pagenaud passed Sato for second with six to go at Turn 1.  With 5 to go, he was about 5 seconds behind Power, who seemed to be conserving fuel, and charging very hard.

Kanaan was pushing Hildebrand very hard for sixth; he took a run at Turn 8 but backed out as the two nearly touched.  Finally at Turn 1 with three laps to go, Kanaan took the spot.  Power got the call to put the pedal down; could he keep Pagenaud behind him?

On the final lap, Hunter-Reay spun Sato from third at Turn 6.  What a shame; after such a great run, Sato would lose a podium spot.  Later at the Turn 11 hairpin, Helio punted Rubens into a spin that caused a major conflagration involving those two plus Wilson and Servia – blocking the entire turn!

In the end, Will Power was able to hold off Simon Pagenaud for the win, and James Hinchcliffe took the final podium spot.  Hunter-Reay and Castroneves  were both penalized for their final lap transgressions – small consolation to their victims.  Congratulations to Will Power and Team Penske.

The big story lines for the 38th running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach were:

  • Will Power wins from twelfth after the IndyCar mandated ten spot grid penalty; he was also able to run a hard 31 laps from his last stop while others needed fuel
  • Franchitti finished two laps down at fifteenth after starting on pole; neither Target Ganassi cars were competitive beyond the midpoint of the race
  • Honda could not manage a win even though all Chevrolet powered cars were penalized 10 grid places
  • Team Penske is 3 for 3 so far this season
  • Andretti getting airborne and crashing hard after hitting Rahal’s right rear with his left front

Can’t wait until next year…