By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Alex Palou hit for the cycle, INDYCAR-style, not far from the storied cornfields of Iowa on Sunday with his victory in the Farm to Finish 275 powered by Sukup. The mercurial, 28-year-old Spaniard now has won races on street circuits, road courses, superspeedways and short ovals. Actually, “bull-ring” more accurately describes Iowa Speedway’s 0.894-mile layout in bucolic Newton, where Palou paced a staggering 194 of 275-laps/240.625-miles en route to his seventh NTT IndyCar Series victory in 12 events this season. “I’m an INDYCAR driver now, finally,” Palou declared during his post-race presser, echoing…
Author: John Sturbin
John Sturbin
John Sturbin is a Fort Worth-based journalist specializing in motorsports. During a near 30-year career with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he won the Bloys Britt Award for top motorsports story of the year (1991) as judged by The Associated Press; received the National Hot Rod Association’s Media Award (1995) and several in-house Star-Telegram honors. He also was inaugural recipient of the Texas Motor Speedway Excellence in Journalism Award (2009). Email John Sturbin at jsturbin@hotmail.com.
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Dust off the Victory Lane sombrero! Native Mexican Pato O’Ward “got creative” in his battle of wills-and-wits with INDYCAR ovalmeister Josef Newgarden Saturday at Iowa Speedway en route to victory in the Synk 275 powered by Sukup. O’Ward punctuated his 100th career NTT IndyCar Series start with a pair of late-race restarts during the final 14 laps to record the first win of the 2025 season for himself, Arrow McLaren and Team Chevy. “Yeah, for my race, I started getting creative,” said O’Ward, a 26-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico, with family ties to…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio ENNIS – Aspiring drag strip owner Billy Meyer was dealing with house money in the mid-1980s, well before the first shovelful of dirt was turned for the Texas Motorplex. “Actually, I got an NHRA date before I built it,” Meyer recalled during Tuesday’s “Stampede of Speed/Stars of Texas Media Day” event officially kicking-off The Plex’s 40th anniversary season. “They (NHRA) trusted me enough to give me the date for September 1986 and I hadn’t even broke ground yet. They gave me the contract in 1985 to have the FallNationals in ’86.” Indeed, NHRA…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Scott Dixon’s latest INDYCAR victory extended a pair of remarkable streaks and rekindled a somewhat reluctant conversation concerning open-wheel icon A.J. Foyt Jr. Dixon combined his signature fuel-saving prowess with a rare mistake by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou with five laps to go to win The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the All-New 2026 Passport. A six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, Dixon delivered his record 59th career victory Sunday, his first win of the 2025 season and seventh career victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Dixon…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio INDYCAR championship leader Alex Palou received a heated, impromptu pit road lecture from Will Power after Saturday morning’s practice at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Palou later claimed his third pole of the season. Some sage advice from Will _ the NTT IndyCar Series’ acknowledged qualifying ace _ or just coincidence? “He gave me some ‘compliments,’^” Palou joked during his post-qually presser for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the all new 2026 Passport. “No, it was all good. He was frustrated about traffic. Yeah, it wasn’t too bad.” Palou secured his…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood methodically has emerged as “last man standing” between Alex Palou and his bid for a fourth NTT IndyCar Series championship. The only driver other than Palou to win an INDYCAR race in 2025, Kirkwood led an eventful opening practice Friday for The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the All-New 2026 Passport. Kirkwood turned a top lap of 1-minute, 5.8272-seconds/123.487 mph in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda featuring a special Honda tribute livery. SEE: Practice Results “We’re really fast right now,” said Kirkwood, a 26-year-old native of Jupiter,…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Alex Palou stretched his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda’s available fuel supply to the last drop Sunday afternoon at historic Road America, where the Spaniard secured his sixth NTT IndyCar Series victory in nine starts this season. “It was a crazy race. There were moments I thought we were losing a ton of positions,” said Palou, whose victory in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR was the definition of “strategic.” Consider that Palou, who qualified second, led only six of 55 laps around the daunting, 4.014-mile/14-turn natural-terrain road-course in Wisconsin’s…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Rookie Louis Foster always will be able to frame-and-explain his first INDYCAR pole by the reaction of the driver who qualified second Saturday afternoon at Road America. That would be three-time/reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, who admittedly was ambushed by Foster and his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew during Firestone Fast Six qualifying for today’s XPEL Grand Prix of Road America presented by AMR. Foster became the second rookie to earn an NTT P1 Award this season, clicking off a stunning lap of 1- minute, 44.5141-seconds/138.263 mph around Road America’s daunting,…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood remained in relentless championship form Friday during INDYCAR’s opening practice for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR. Winner of two consecutive NTT IndyCar Series races, Kirkwood emerged atop the time sheet with a best lap of 1-minute, 44.9881-seconds/137.638 mph around the 4.014-mile/14-turn natural-terrain road-course in Wisconsin. Kirkwood began the weekend third in the driver standings, two points behind second-place Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren and only 75 behind runaway leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. SEE: Practice Results “Good start,” said Kirkwood, driver of the…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans historically has been manufacturer-cyclical, and the current cycle is all about Ferrari’s “Prancing Horse.” Ferrari freight-trained to its third consecutive victory in the French classic’s 93rd edition Sunday at Circuit de la Sarthe, where the No. 83 AF Corse 499P Hypercar shared by Robert Kubica of Poland, Yifei Ye of China and Philip Hanson of Great Britain topped the 21-car field. AF Corse emerged as the first “customer team” to win the world’s greatest endurance race since Champion Racing in 2005, upstaging the No. 50 and…