Author: Mike Haag

Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – Helio Castroneves reached a level a select few have achieved in Indy car history by taking the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying for the KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America. Castroneves collected the landmark 50th pole position of his Indy car career by running a lap of 1 minute, 41.3007 seconds (142.649 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six, the last of three rounds of knockout qualifying on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn permanent road course in east-central Wisconsin. The driver of the No. 3 REV Group Team Penske Chevrolet broke a tie…

Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion): “It’s a great day for the team. I think it’s Helio’s (Castroneves) 50th pole. Congratulations to him. We seemed to have missed it in the (Firestone) Fast Six. I was pretty happy with the car in Round 1 and Round 2, but on the new set of red Firestone (alternate) tires, in the Firestone Fast Six we had no grip. Not quite sure what happened there, but we tried. I feel like we have a very good race car. Not what…

Courtesy of the NHRA NORWALK, Ohio — Matt Hagan powered to his third No. 1 qualifier of the season Saturday at the 11th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories at the twelfth of 24 events on the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. Hagan secured the top spot after setting the track elapsed-time record with a pass of 3.865-seconds at 333.33 mph in his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger…

By Rob Gray NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa — With six laps to go, John Hunter Nemechek made his bold, last-gasp move. Again. Nemechek, who charged to a Father’s Day win for his dad, Joe, last week at Gateway Motorsports Park, reprised his stirring comeback role in Friday’s pulse-pounding NASCAR Camping World Series M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Store at Iowa Speedway. “Every one of these guys who works on this team, this is awesome,” said John Hunter Nemechek, who passed Johnny Sauter on the high-side with six circuits left. The dramatic ending to a race that ran remarkably…

Courtesy of the NHRA NORWALK, Ohio — Doug Kalitta powered his dragster to the Top Fuel qualifying lead Friday evening at the 11th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also provisional qualifying leaders in their respective categories at the twelfth of 24 events on the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. Kalitta leads the Top Fuel category with an elapsed time track record run of 3.709-second pass at 327.43 mph in his Mac Tools dragster during his…

Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – Team Penske flexed its collective muscle in practice for the KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America, locking down the top four positions on the combined time sheet after a pair of 45-minute sessions. Josef Newgarden led the Penske parade up front, setting the fast lap this afternoon in the No. 2 DeVilbiss Team Penske Chevrolet at 1 minute, 42.8229 seconds (140.537 mph) on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn permanent road course. Action continues Saturday with Verizon P1 Award pole qualifying. The race, the 10th of 17 on this year’s Verizon IndyCar Series…

Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 DeVilbiss Team Penske Chevrolet): “It was a good session for us. I think we’ve had good cars off the truck. Did we end up 1-2-3-4? That shows you that the cars are very good for all of us. I think we’ve got good, strong cars across the board. You know, we’ll try to carry that into tomorrow. It’s going to be hard to be the best of all of us, even just us four, I think, because we’re all quite close with what we’re doing. We’re learning every session from…

KOHLER Grand Prix Fast Facts Race weekend: Friday, June 23 – Sunday, June 25 Track: Road America, a 4.014-mile, 14-turn permanent road course (clockwise) Race distance: 55 laps / 220.77 miles Entry List: KOHLER Grand Prix (PDF) Push-to-pass parameters: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. (for each race) Firestone tire allotment: Seven sets primary, four sets alternate. Teams must use one set of primary and one new set of alternate tires in the race. Twitter: @RoadAmerica @IndyCar, #KOHLERGP, #IndyCar Event website: www.roadamerica.com ; INDYCAR website: www.IndyCar.com ; 2016 race winner: Will Power…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. — Two weeks ago at Dover, Kyle Larson took a painful master class in restarts from Professor Jimmie Johnson. In Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Larson graduated with high honors, using a series of exceptional restarts to win his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season and his second in a row, dating to last August, at the 2-mile track in the Irish Hills. At Dover, Larson lost a race in which he had the dominant car when Johnson snookered him on a late restart and…

Courtesy of the NHRA BRISTOL, Tenn. – Clay Millican piloted his Parts Plus / Great Clips dragster to his first career Top Fuel victory Sunday at the 17th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Alex Laughlin (Pro Stock) were also winners in their respective categories at the 11th event of 24 on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. Millican, a Tennessee native, raced a 3.825-second pass at 316.38 mph to defeat Leah Pritchett, who raced a 3.881 at 307.09 in her Papa John’s dragster. He became the 103rd different driver to…