FORT WORTH – Drivers from the Verizon IndyCar Series will be participating in a test session on Wednesday at the newly repaved and re-profiled Texas Motor Speedway. Twenty-two drivers will take part in a one-day test session that begins Wednesday morning and continues through the early evening, TMS officials said Monday. The drivers participating include Team Penske drivers Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves; Chip Gansassi Racing drivers Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton; Andretti Autosport drivers Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay; Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Graham Rahal; Schmidt Peterson Motorsports drivers James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin; Ed Carpenter Racing drivers Ed Carpenter and JR Hildebrand; A.J. Foyt Racing drivers Conor Daly and Carlos Munoz;…
Author: Mike Haag
Mike Haag has covered motorsports in San Antonio and South Texas for more than 39 years. In addition to covering motorsports for the San Antonio Express-News for nearly 28 years, Mike also has co-hosted TrackSmack with Dawn Murphy for 19 race seasons. In addition to being a writer, Mike taught high school English and Journalism for 30 years before retiring in May, 2020.
LONG BEACH, California – James Hinchcliffe is all the way back now. The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver, seriously injured in an Indianapolis 500 practice crash nearly two years ago, recorded his first Verizon IndyCar Series win since the incident by taking the checkered flag at the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Driving the No. 5 Arrow Honda, Hinchcliffe crossed the finish line 1.4940 seconds ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais, the winner of last month’s season opener. TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH: Box score Hinchcliffe’s last win came at NOLA Motorsports Park in April 2015, a…
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): “It was exciting. At the beginning we were able to pass a lot of cars. The Menards Chevrolet was phenomenal all weekend. I was really excited before the race because I knew we had such a strong weapon. It was all about having the right strategy to make it work. We actually switched strategies because it was going so well at the beginning. The flat tire set us back a little, but it was a good championship day. I’m so proud of the team. Everyone worked really hard to come out of…
FORT WORTH, Texas – Jimmie Johnson proved Sunday why he is a seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. The 41-year old driver of No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet overcame the odds to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson passed Joey Logano for the lead on Lap 318 of 334 and pulled away for his first victory of the season and his first since clinching the 2016 Cup championship in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November. But the victory didn’t come easy. “I guess I remembered how to drive; and I guess this team remembered…
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Jimmie Johnson proved on Sunday that you can’t keep a good driver, a good car and a good team down for long—even if you change the playing field at one of his favorite race tracks. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion passed Joey Logano for the lead on Lap 318 of 334 and pulled away for his first victory of the season in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at newly repaved and reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway. The win was Johnson’s seventh at the 1.5-mile track and the 81st…
FORT WORTH, Texas – A photographic look at the racing action on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. All photos provided courtesy of NASCAR, Getty Images, and Texas Motor Speedway.
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): “It was just one of those unfortunate things. I understand the penalty because I interfered with (Helio) Castroneves’ lap. I backed up a little to set up a second lap on the (alternate tires) and Helio was right there. I was boxed in; there was nothing I could do. The Menards Chevy was fantastic. We’ll start from the back. St. Petersburg was won from the back and we’ll try to do that, too.” JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “The Hum by Verizon Chevrolet was good enough to transfer, but…
LONG BEACH, California – He may be one of the elder statesmen of the Verizon IndyCar Series, but Helio Castroneves isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The Team Penske driver broke his own track record today in winning a third straight Verizon P1 Award to start on pole position in Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. In the Firestone Fast Six, the third and final round of knockout qualifying, Castroneves pushed his No. 3 Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course in a sizzling 1 minute, 6.2254 seconds (106.980 mph). It earned the 41-year-old…
FORT WORTH, Texas – Sam Hafertepe Jr. capped off a historic weekend by sweeping the inaugural Tony Stewart’s Texas Sprint Car Nationals Presented by Machinery Auctioneers, becoming the first driver to earn four wins at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. With the victory the Sunnyvale, Texas native collected his fourth victory in the American Sprint Car Series’ first four races, establishing a new series record. Hafertepe Jr. took the lead on Lap 4 and never relinquished it, holding off second-place finisher Josh Baughman in a seven-lap shootout. “There was lap traffic, so it made it hard to get around,” Hafertepe…
FORT WORTH, Texas – Here is a race preview courtesy of NASCAR for today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Clock Stopper: Keselowski First Driver To Multiple Wins Brad Keselowski became the first driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to win multiple races this season when he passed Kyle Busch with 42 laps remaining and never looked back to visit Victory Lane for his first time at Martinsville Speedway. Keselowski, who notched the first victory for Ford at Martinsville since Oct. 20, 2002 (Kurt Busch, Roush Fenway Racing, 28 races ago),…