Vai al contenuto
  • Navigazione recente   0 utenti

    • Non ci sono utenti registrati da visualizzare in questa pagina.

Verizon Indycar Series 2017


Andrea Gardenal

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

Sembra che anche Schmidt possa correre con tre vetture a Sonoma, l'ultima delle quali sarebbe affidata a Juan Pablo García. Il messicano sarà presente nei prossimi test collettivi in California e in quell'occasione dovrebbe ricevere l'approvazione della IndyCar per correre l'ultima gara del 2017.

  • Like 1
Link al commento
Condividi su altri siti

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

INDYCAR's top 10 stories of 2017: Part 1 features farewells, sweeps, bumpy rides

12-27-Top10Stories-HelioWins.jpg?h=564&l

INDYCAR witnessed another year of memorable storylines in 2017 – both on and off the track – as the Verizon IndyCar Series continued its upward trend in worldwide exposure, fan growth and exciting, intense racing.

Selecting the top 10 stories of the year was a difficult exercise, to say the least. But those of us at IndyCar.com – including regular writers Joey Barnes, Jeff Olson, Phillip B. Wilson and a few others on staff – have compiled our subjective consensus of that list. Beginning today, in the first of three parts, we’ll roll out our top 10 stories in reverse order from 10th biggest story of the year to the most important.

Read on and enjoy.

Danica Patrick

No. 10 – Patrick announces finish to her racing career in 2018 Indianapolis 500

By Jeff Olson

Before the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season finale in November, Danica Patrick fought back tears as she announced that 2017 was her last full-time season in professional racing.

While a difficult choice, the decision contained a silver lining for Patrick and fans of the Indianapolis 500 – she intends to end her career at the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in May.

Patrick, who competed in eight Indy 500s before moving to NASCAR in 2012, said her agent, Alan Zucker, asked if she wanted her last race to be NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in February. That’s when Indy became the logical conclusion.

“He said, 'What about finishing up at Daytona?'” Patrick said of her discussion with Zucker. “I don’t know where it came from, but out of my mouth came, 'What about Indy?' I don’t even know why I said it necessarily, but it was really the first idea that got me really excited."

Patrick burst onto the racing scene by battling among the leaders and eventually finishing fourth in the 2005 Indy 500. In 2009, she recorded her best finish (third) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The historic race will be a fitting end to a groundbreaking career.

"I never say never, but that is my plan. After Indy, that’s the end," she said.

In all, Patrick has competed in 115 Verizon IndyCar Series races. She made history by winning at Twin Ring Motegi in 2008, the first victory by a woman in major open-wheel racing history.

“I don’t want to be remembered for the things that didn’t go as well,” she told The Associated Press. “I want to be remembered for the things that went well.”

Chip Ganassi

No. 9 – Chip Ganassi Racing weathers up-and-down season

By Joey Barnes

No other team endured a roller-coaster season quite like Chip Ganassi Racing – literally.

The team’s leading man, Scott Dixon, came out of the gate strong with three podiums through the first five races and was just 10 points out of the top spot. Dixon then won the pole position for the Indianapolis 500.

Things came off the rails on Lap 53 of the great race when contact with Jay Howard at the exit of Turn 1 sent Dixon’s car airborne, hitting a combo of the inside SAFER Barrier and catch fence. Thankfully, the four-time series champion limped away with a lower leg injury that didn’t sideline him for any races. Dixon rebounded with a runner-up finish a week after the spectacular accident in Race 1 of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear and collected his only win of the season in late June at the KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America.

Dixon, however, was outnumbered by the quartet of Team Penske drivers heading down the stretch and finished third in the championship – with two Penske drivers ahead of him and two behind.

“He’s just continued to smash the numbers handily – the wins, the four championships,” retired four-time champion Dario Franchitti said of Dixon, his former teammate. “The fact that he’s been in contention for so many more, he’s a special driver, there’s no doubt about it. The fact he manages, after doing it for so long, to continue to be so motivated, that’s what makes him special.”

When the checkered flag fell on the season, Chip Ganassi Racing announced it was cutting back from four to two full-time cars for 2018 to focus “on our core business of running two championship-caliber teams,” according to a CGR statement. Soon after, the team signed Ed Jones – the series rookie of the year in 2016 and third-place finisher in the 2017 Indy 500 – to team with Dixon in the upcoming season.

Graham Rahal

No. 8 – Rahal sweeps Detroit doubleheader

By Phillip B. Wilson

A “Graham Slam” sweep in the Motor City was not just one of 2017’s highlights in the Verizon IndyCar Series, it was an accomplishment that will be remembered for years to come.

Graham Rahal enjoyed a near-perfect weekend in winning both races of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear the week following the Indy 500. He claimed Race 1 from the pole and triumphed after starting third in the second race to push his career victory total to six.

It was the first time a driver won back-to-back weekend races since Scott Dixon prevailed twice at Toronto in 2013.

“Buckeyes like to win up in this state,” said Rahal, a proud Ohio native and avid Ohio State University sports fan in a reference to OSU’s rivalry with the University of Michigan. “It’s a special day for us. We’re the first one to win the double (in Detroit), it means a lot. It feels great, trust me.”

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver led 96 of 140 laps on the Raceway at Belle Isle Park’s temporary street course.

“He basically dictated the races because he was able to go further, faster and longer on old tires than anybody else,” said Bobby Rahal, Graham’s father and RLL co-owner. “He really forced people’s hands to change their strategies. He’s really good at knowing how hard he can drive a car.”

Graham’s No. 15 SoldierStrong / TurnsForTroops.com Honda won by 6.1474 seconds over Dixon in the first race, then finished 1.1772 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the nightcap.

“I still hear and I still see people who are surprised at our performances, but I don’t think they should be surprised anymore,” Graham said. “We’re not an underdog anymore. We deserve to be there. We’ve proven that.”

Helio Castroneves

No. 7 – Castroneves ends victory drought, announces full-time shift to sports cars in 2018

By Jeff Olson

In July, Helio Castroneves won a race for the first time in three years. Three months after that triumphant day at Iowa Speedway, he announced the end of his full-time Indy car career.

“We’ll go to the next chapter of my life,” Castroneves said in October as he revealed his move to Team Penske’s new sports car program. “I’m really excited. It’s the same racing, but a little bit different. I enjoy challenges and this is going to be a good one.”

A three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, Castroneves will continue to compete in the famous race, but his full-time ride will be an Acura ARX-05 Daytona Prototype International (DPi) next year in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, where he’ll team in a two-car effort with two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, among others.

“For me, it’s a new era,” Castroneves said. “You just had Josef Newgarden, a young American, win the (Verizon IndyCar Series) championship. He’s already a star. People come up. It’s the natural way things happen. I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. But certainly I enjoyed the time. I took advantage of every opportunity I had.”

In 17 Indy 500s, Castroneves has finished on the podium seven times, including victories in 2001, 2002 and 2009. Three drivers – Rick Mears, Al Unser and A.J. Foyt – share the career record with four Indy 500 victories each.

In his 20 seasons in Indy car racing, Castroneves, 42, has competed in 344 races, with 30 victories, 51 pole positions and 93 podium finishes – but no season championships. While it wasn’t easy to step away from full-time work in the series, he’s enthused about his next chapter.

“My career has been building to this,” he said. “I’m excited.”

2018 Universal Aero Kit

No. 6 – Universal aero kit debut builds universal excitement for 2018

By Joey Barnes

On July 25, the world witnessed the birth of INDYCAR’s newest creation in the form of the sleek and sexy universal aero kit.

"From Lap 1, it just felt at home," said Oriol Servia, a veteran of 202 Indy car starts and Honda pilot for the initial series test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "The car felt great. I was flat on it out of the pits, which just says how good the car felt right away.

"I think it’s going to be a fast, good racer."

The praise has been widespread throughout the tenuous testing process, which began with series trials using wily veterans Servia and Juan Pablo Montoya (in a Chevrolet) as test drivers, followed by manufacturer testing in the fall with two cars each from Chevy and Honda.

Many drivers, team members and fans compliment the aesthetics of the body, while others are excited by the development and new challenges the car presents. Each driver who’s had an opportunity to test the car thus far has raved about its performance. The rest can’t wait for their turn behind the wheel when private team testing launches in early January so that every team can be prepared to compete with the same universal kit at the season opener in March, following three years of manufacturer competition.

“I think if you join the series in a reset year (for equipment), it definitely helps because you don’t have a lot of people that have a lot of knowledge,” said Scott Dixon, the four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion, who participated in the manufacturer testing portion. “But saying that, I think the Indy car, especially on the short oval and road course, the amounts of downforce that we had made it a lot easier to get close on time.

“Whereas this (universal kit), especially on the road course … it’s a lot more difficult to put a lap together. The braking zones are much bigger. It’s very difficult to get braking right. The window has become much smaller. It’s better for maybe a rookie coming in because it’s new to everyone, but it’s also a lot harder to hit the mark correctly. I think for the drivers it should be a very good challenge.”

Sebastien Bourdais

No. 5 – Bourdais’ memorable season of highs, lows and miraculous recoveries

By Phillip B. Wilson

A Verizon IndyCar Series season that began with such promise for Sebastien Bourdais quickly took a turn for the worse, then it became frightening.

Or as the four-time Indy car champion would later say, his 2017 was “derailed.”

The Frenchman won the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in an inspiring drive from last place after he crashed in qualifying the day before. He finished second in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach a month later. He still had the points lead entering the fourth race, when his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda was caught in an opening-lap, five-car incident that wasn’t his fault at Phoenix Raceway. An engine issue ended his INDYCAR Grand Prix early.

That’s when the misfortune became painful. Bourdais was on pace to be the fastest qualifier on the first day of time trials for the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil when he slammed the wall exiting Turn 2 in a horrific crash on the third of four qualifying laps. He suffered multiple fractures to his pelvis and right hip.

Team owner Dale Coyne considered Bourdais finished for the season, but the driver vowed to make it back for the season-ending GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma in less than four months. Bourdais healed enough to return for the last three races.

Before he finished ninth in the season finale, Bourdais offered a pointed perspective on the year that was.

“There’s no given in racing,” he said. “All you can do is try your very best and your hardest. Sometimes, you’ll get the reward. Sometimes, you’ll get more reward than you probably deserve. And sometimes, you get nothing. Sometimes, you get a big kick in the ass and you get set down.”

Bourdais blamed himself for the crash at Indy.

“Nobody else was driving the car,” he said.

Coyne won’t soon forget that qualifying run.

“Those first two laps of qualifying were pretty exciting,” Coyne said. “I’ll never forget those two … or three.”

Despite missing nine races, Bourdais finished the year with five top-10s in eight starts. But it could have been so much more.

“We both have unfinished business,” Coyne said, eagerly looking to 2018.

Gateway Motorsports Park

No. 4 – Gateway Motorsports Park returns to schedule with full grandstand, pass of the season

By Jeff Olson

Before the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Valvoline in late August at Gateway Motorsports Park, the Verizon IndyCar Series hadn’t raced at the Madison, Illinois, oval in 14 years. Helio Castroneves remembered that race like it happened yesterday.

Not just because he won it, but because he won it without any electronic feedback.

“I didn’t have a dash,” Castroneves said of his 2003 win at Gateway. “My steering wheel somehow had a glitch. It was blinking from the beginning, and it never stopped doing it throughout the race. I had no information. No RPMs, no information regarding fuel mileage or lap times, no gear pattern – nothing. It was like old times.”

The return to the egg-shaped oval with different turns – Turns 1-2 are much tighter than Turns 3-4 – turned out to be profound for Castroneves’ Team Penske teammates. Josef Newgarden’s controversial bump-and-run pass of Simon Pagenaud for the lead with 30 laps to go didn’t sit well with Pagenaud.

“It's terrible for the team,” Pagenaud said after the race. “That's the kind of thing that's disappointing. At the moment, it's not something I really want to talk about with him. But it will come to a conclusion, I'm sure.”

Newgarden went on to win the race and then, three weeks later, the championship by 13 points over Pagenaud. The victory at Gateway, just across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, was the turning point. But the sold-out grandstand and enthusiastic crowd were just as impressive for INDYCAR’s return to a repaved and revitalized racetrack.

"I don't think I'd be bold enough to predict the kind of outcome we had (in attendance)," Curtis Francois, owner of the track, told RACER.com, "but I was proud of my people and I think we were all thrilled. I know this community and St. Louis is very supportive of its sports, so it was up to us to make sure we got the word out that the stars and cars of the Indy 500 were coming to town. And that resonated."

Takuma Sato

No. 3 – Sato wins thrilling 101st Indianapolis 500, becomes national hero in Japan

By Phillip B. Wilson

Takuma Sato arrived in May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as one of six Andretti Autosport drivers and overshadowed by the media hype surrounding a teammate, two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso.

The 40-year-old Japanese driver known as “Taku” didn’t depart the same way.

A career-defining victory in the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil etched Sato’s name and likeness in history on the Borg-Warner Trophy.

“It’s beautiful,” Sato said. “I dreamed of something like this since I was 12.”

It was an ironic ending for Sato, who won in a late duel with three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves of Team Penske. In this same race in 2012, Sato tried to pass Dario Franchitti for the lead on the final lap but crashed in Turn 1.

“This time, I was pointing in the right direction (exiting Turn 1), wasn’t I?” Sato said, smiling.

It’s the first time a Japanese driver has won the Indy 500. Sato had never won on an oval in the Verizon IndyCar Series, his other victory coming on the streets of Long Beach in 2013. After that win, he went home to Japan and was greeted by about 300 media. This time, thousands of media and fans celebrated his homecoming. He was honored by Japan’s prime minister in August and was joined by the Borg-Warner for a history-making and massively popular victory tour of Japan earlier this month.

“Taku did an awesome job,” said Andretti Autosport CEO Michael Andretti, who boosted his Indy 500 win total as an owner to five, including three of the last four.

Castroneves, bidding to tie A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser with a record-tying fourth Indy 500 win, took the lead on Lap 194. 

“When he had to go, he went,” Andretti said of Sato.

Sato pulled off a slingshot pass just before the iconic yard of bricks start/finish line at the end of Lap 195 and Castroneves couldn’t overtake the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda.

“I knew I could do it,” said Sato, who will drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2018. “But just, you know, waiting (for) the moment. The last few laps, they were the moment.”

Fernando Alonso

No. 2 – Alonso captivates motorsports world by entering, leading Indy 500

By Jeff Olson

Little more than a month before competing in the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in May, Fernando Alonso sat in the conference room of an Andretti Autosport transporter at Barber Motorsports Park and acknowledged how much he had to learn.

“I will need the help to be competitive,” he said. “I’m very open-minded, knowing that the series is completely different, the cars are completely different and superspeedways require a driving technique and a driving feeling that’s completely different and that I don’t have yet.”

His words proved prophetic, and Alonso proved to be a quick learner. The veteran of 32 victories and two championships in Formula One had no experience with Indy cars or Indianapolis Motor Speedway, yet he showed speed from the start of practice. He qualified fifth in the 33-car field, led 27 laps of the 200-lap race and was running among the leaders when a mechanical failure sidelined him just 21 laps from the finish.

But it was Alonso’s embrace of the trappings of the Indy 500 – the demands of the media, the fans and the schedule – that endeared him to a worldwide audience. His one-day test at IMS was streamed live on May 3 and “broke the internet,” with more than two million unique views. He zipped through Gasoline Alley on a motorized skateboard, signed autographs and affably entertained curious fans and even fellow drivers.

The first time he took the race lead, Alonso saw “29” – his car number – atop the scoring pylon, an experience that humbled one of the world’s best racers.

“I was thinking at that moment that if someone from the team was taking a picture of the tower, I want that picture at home,” he said. “It was an amazing experience.”

Josef Newgarden

No. 1 – Late-season tear pushes Newgarden to first Verizon IndyCar Series championship

By Joey Barnes

American. Millennial. Champion.

Never have those three words been combined in the Verizon IndyCar Series, but Josef Newgarden’s hoisting of the Astor Cup at season’s end did exactly that.

The Tennessean enjoyed a banner year during his sixth season in the series and his first with Team Penske. At the age of 26 during the campaign, he sped to career highs in wins (four), top-five finishes (10), top-10 finishes (13) and laps led (390).

It didn’t look like a championship-type season through the first half of 2017, however. Though he did win at Barber Motorsports Park in April and finished second in the second race of the Detroit doubleheader in early June, Newgarden was stuck in seventh in the point standings after crashing out in 13th place at Texas Motor Speedway on June 10.

Not to be denied, Newgarden put together an impressive run to grab the title by the throat. Following the Texas debacle, he ran off a string of three wins and two second-place finishes in six races. The exclamation point came under the lights at a jam-packed Gateway Motorsports Park on Aug. 26, when he bumped his way past teammate Simon Pagenaud for the race lead and drove away to victory.

“Simon gave me a lane to work with,” Newgarden said of the move. “I had a good tow on him, put my car inside in the opening, got about halfway alongside of him. … I tried to get Simon to move over a little when we were coming to the opening of the corner. We both had to slow up. Fortunately, (it) worked out well for us on the (No.) 2 car side.”

Pagenaud, who finished third in the race, was livid immediately afterward but had calmed by the race the following weekend at Watkins Glen International – even apologizing for his emotional outburst. Still, the points swing for that move proved decisive for the championship. When Newgarden placed second to Pagenaud in the season finale at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 17, he clinched his maiden series title by 13 points over the Frenchman.

A new American champion was crowned to lead a new generation of INDYCAR driving stars.

“I’m proud to carry the flag happily,” Newgarden said. “I love the IndyCar Series. It’s got the whole world in front of it.

“It was all year and it took a lot to make it happen,” Newgarden added. “It’s a huge team effort at Team Penske. To finally get it done is a dream come true.”

As the confetti fell during the championship celebration at Sonoma, it was legendary team owner Roger Penske who put the moment in perspective.

“This young kid who just won the championship, you’re just starting to see him,” Penske said. “He’s going to be great.”

Link al commento
Condividi su altri siti

Crea un account o accedi per commentare

Devi essere un utente per poter lasciare un commento

Crea un account

Registrati per un nuovo account nella nostra comunità. è facile!

Registra un nuovo account

Accedi

Hai già un account? Accedi qui.

Accedi ora
×
×
  • Crea nuovo...