Conway Takes IndyCar Long Beach Win

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Chet

IndyCar Long Beach

What a 40th Grand Prix of Long Beach!

In an unpredictable, somewhat chaotic IndyCar Long Beach race, Mike Conway of Ed Carpenter Racing won with a clean and steady approach while those around him were banging each other, scraping the barriers, or running out of gas.

Conway was running 15th when the leaders began cycling thru the pits with 27 laps to go. Up to that point, pole sitter Ryan Hunter-Reay had dominated the race. Hunter-Reay and Andretti Autosport teammate James Hinchcliffe pitted together while running one-two on lap 53. Hunter-Reay exited the pits just ahead of Hinchcliffe while Josef Newgarden pitted behind them from third. Newgarden had done a great in-lap and with a clean pit stop, got out just ahead of Hunter-Reay into Turn 1, but naturally on cold tires. Hunter-Reay and Hinchcliffe on warming tires were stacked up behind Newgarden around the fountain. At Turn 4, Ryan Hunter-Reay made an over optimistic attempt to pass Newgarden and punted him into the left barriers. The ensuing melee took out Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, and Hinchcliffe who were running one, two, three as well as Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato who ran into the pile up from behind.

On the restart, the running order was Scott Dixon, Justin Wilson, Will Power, & Mike Conway. Shortly after the restart, Dixon nudged Wilson into the barriers on the approach to Turn 8. The impact was pretty light, but it was enough to destroy Wilson’s left front suspension. Wilson was furious because even though Dixon had to stop before the end, Wilson was good on fuel and was well positioned for a win.

In earlier action on Lap 32, Will Power helped Simon Pagenaud into the tire barrier at Turn 6 while Pagenaud was running in second place as the sequence below shows:

Pagenaud was about as upset at Power as Wilson was at Dixon. For his part, Will Power apologized, surprised that he wasn’t penalized.

Ultimately, Carpenter took a well-deserved checkered for running a clean and consistent race.

The top 15 at the finish:

Pos  Driver              Team/Engine           Time/Gap
 1.  Mike Conway         Carpenter/Chevy  1h54m41.6418s
 2.  Will Power          Penske/Chevy          +0.9005s
 3.  Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda        +1.5591s
 4.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy          +2.0226s
 5.  Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda         +2.8169s
 6.  Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda         +3.8574s
 7.  Oriol Servia        Rahal/Honda           +4.9621s
 8.  Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda        +8.1948s
 9.  Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy              +8.9029s
10.  Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda          +24.2295s
11.  Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy         +30.0552s
12.  Scott Dixon         Ganassi/Chevy        +30.7310s
13.  Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda             +1 lap
14.  Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy               +3 laps
15.  Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda            +3 laps

Many more pics at IndyCar Long Beach.

Ryan Hunter-Reay Is 2012 IndyCar Champion

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Chet

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.

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

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Chet

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.

James Hinchcliffe burns some rubber heading out to qualify at 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.

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:

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

Helio Castroneves on qualifying lap at 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

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Chet

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.

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, 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

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Chet

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.

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.

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.

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.

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