By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Arrow McLaren will start The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix Sunday afternoon from the two best seats…even its affluent club members can’t buy. Lead driver Pato O’Ward and teammate Christian Lundgaard collaborated to give Arrow McLaren its first 1-2 start in INDYCAR competition since rejoining the NTT IndyCar Series in 2020, locking-out the front row during NTT P1 Award qualifying Saturday for Round 2 of the 2025 season. O’Ward scored his sixth career pole and first since July 2022 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, with a hot lap of 1-minute,…
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 Alex Palou is working on a perfect start to the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. The three-time/reigning series champion paced Practice 1 Friday for The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix in the California desert. Winner of the season-opener on the Streets of St. Pete in Florida on March 2, Palou posted a hot lap of 1-minute, 40.5486-seconds/109.810 mph around Thermal’s 3.067-mile/17-turn natural terrain road-course. “A really good start to the weekend,” said Palou, driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “We didn’t get many laps (11) because of some red flags, but…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio FORT WORTH – Retired NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick will be honored as 2025 inductee into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame on Friday, May 2, during ceremonies at Texas Motor Speedway. Harvick compiled a stellar 23-year Cup Series career during his tenures with Richard Childress Racing and Stewart Hass Racing, including three victories on TMS’ high-banked/1.5-mile oval. Harvick will be honored during a program scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (CDT) in The Speedway Club Ballroom, with local FOX 4 sports anchor Mike Doocy serving as emcee and PRN lead…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Lee Kunzman’s open-wheel racing resume features four starts in the Indianapolis 500, a combined total of 467 race-day laps completed around Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a best finish of seventh (twice). These are the stats of a journeyman driver, albeit in a benevolent sense. Because the story chronicled throughout Kunzman’s back pages _ a journey from his small hometown of Guttenburg, Iowa, to “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” _ is one of old-school, Midwest, never-quit grit. Lee J. Kunzman died on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 in Indianapolis at age 81. A Celebration of…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Takuma Sato, longtime favorite open-wheel son of Honda Racing, will attempt to join the elite list of three-time Indianapolis 500 champions on May 25th in a one-off ride with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. RLLR announced that Sato will return to its INDYCAR organization for the 109th edition of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge during the Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Amada America, Inc. _ a leading global machine tool manufacturer and supplier in the sheet metal industry _ again will serve as primary sponsor for Sato’s No. 75 Honda-powered Dallara. Sato…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Alex Palou launched his bid for a third consecutive NTT IndyCar Series championship, and fourth overall, with a cool/calm/calculated victory in Sunday’s 2025 season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. In what amounted to a master class in race craft, Palou wheeled his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 2.8669-second victory over teammate and six-time series champion Scott Dixon on the temporary 1.8-mile/14-turn Florida street circuit running through downtown, and including a runway of Albert Whitted Airport. “What an amazing job by everybody,” said Palou, the 27-year-old Spaniard who has…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Scott McLaughlin and Team Penske rallied from a disastrous start to the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season Saturday by qualifying on-pole for today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Call it an example, McLaughlin said, of “immaculate vibes.” McLaughlin’s No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet was parked in the paddock Friday afternoon, its front end in tatters after he had crashed in Turn 3 during Practice 1 on the Streets of St. Pete. “It was a little bit of a mistake on my part, unfortunately,” McLaughlin said after the session.…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Florida native and resident Kyle Kirkwood paced Practice 1 Friday for INDYCAR’s 2025 season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. A resident of Jupiter, Fla., Kirkwood topped an 80-minute session split into three groups with a best lap of 1-minute, 4409-seconds/107.212 mph in the No. 27 Andretti INDYCAR Honda _ the leader of two Andretti Global drivers in the fast five. “In the past three years, this is one of the races that I enjoy coming to the most because it’s a home state for me,” said Kirkwood, whose…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio INDYCAR icon A.J. Foyt Jr. turned 90 on Jan. 16, and rest assured the Houston native did not mark the occasion by swigging a Screwdriver…or two. More on that later. The man synonymous with the Indianapolis 500 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway as driver since 1958 and team-owner since 1965 has watched his namesake NTT IndyCar Series organization go winless since 2013. Enter Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas, a revised pairing of 20-something talents whose intramural rivalry revolves around one pressing question: Who will deliver “Super Tex” his next INDYCAR victory? Japanese ace Takuma Sato…
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio Recognized as a tenacious, championship-caliber driver during his INDYCAR career, Tony Kanaan’s accompanying people skills have taken him to the next corporate level. The man widely known as “TK” will lead Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team into this weekend’s 2025 season-opener as Team Principal. Kanaan has served as Deputy Team Principal since the end of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. Kanaan’s promotion is part of two key leadership appointments at Arrow McLaren prior to the Firestone Grand Prix of St.Petersburg street race in Florida. As announced on Feb. 20, Kevin Thimjon has joined Arrow McLaren…