News for the Week of June 8, 2015 – June 14, 2015

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Newgarden wins in CFH sweep at Toronto – Josef Newgarden and Luca Filippi led a CFH Racing 1-2 sweep at the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday as Newgarden won his second Verizon IndyCar Series race of the year. Newgarden’s team used a bit of strategy, pitting just before an early caution, to vault to the front and the young American handled the rest on track. Montoya continues to lead the championship. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/14/2015)

Pigot wins Lights Race 2 for sweep in Toronto – Juncos Racing’s Spencer Pigot won Indy Lights Race 2 at Toronto on Sunday to complete his sweep of the weekend’s races. It was a wild race in the wet with only three cars finishing on the lead lap. Harvey, Jones, Piedrahita, and Enerson completed the Top 5. Full results at the link. – Indy Lights – (6/14/2015)

Munoz fastest in Sunday morning warmup – Carlos Munoz led a rare Honda 1-2-3 at the top of the charts in Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series warmup before the Honda Indy Toronto. The Top 5 was Munoz, Rahal, Daly, Kanaan, and Dixon. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/14/2015)

Enerson and his car ready for Lights Race 2 – Amazingly, RC Enerson will be able to race in Race 2 of the Indy Lights weekend at Toronto after his wild crash yesterday. Enerson walked away from the incident and was quickly cleared in the medical center. His team worked through the night to essentially build a new car and he’ll be on the grid for Sunday’s race. – INDYCAR – (6/14/2015)

Pigot wins Lights Race 1 in Toronto – Spencer Pigot won Indy Lights Race 1 at Toronto taking the lead after a horrible crash between leaders Nelson Piquet Jr. and RC Enerson (more on crash below). Pigot held off a valiant fight from Jack Harvey to seal the win. Harvey, Serralles, Kaiser, and Blackstock completed the Top 5. Full results at the link. – Indy Lights – (6/13/2015)

Enerson walks away from wild crash in Lights Race 1 in Toronto – RC Enerson walked away from a wild crash while battling for the lead with Nelson Piquet Jr. during Race 1 of the Indy Lights weekend at Toronto. Enerson is fine but his team, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, does not have a backup car for their Lights program making it unlikely he’ll race on Sunday in Race 2. Video at the link. – @indy44 – (6/13/2015)

Power wins the pole in Toronto – Will Power won the pole for the Honda Indy Toronto on Saturday with a lap of 59.4280. The rest of the order from the Firestone Fast 6 was Pagenaud, Montoya, Dixon, Bourdais, and Filippi. Jakes and Rahal were the only Honda’s to make it out of Round 1. Gonzalez brought caused a red flag ending Round 1 Group 2 early. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/13/2015)

Castroneves takes top spot in final Toronto practice – Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves had the fastest lap of the final Verizon IndyCar Series practice for the Honda Indy Toronto on Saturday with a lap at 59.6424. Montoya, Newgarden, Power, and Kanaan made up the rest of the Top 10. Rahal was the only Honda in the Top 10 in P7. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/13/2015)

Piquet Jr. wins the pole for Toronto Race 1 in his Lights debut – Nelson Piquet Jr. won the pole for Indy Lights Race 1 in Toronto with a lap of 1:04.4194. The rest of the starting Top 5 will be Enerson, Pigot, Harvey, and Serralles. Full qualifying results at the link. – Indy Lights – (6/13/2015)

Piquet Jr. fastest in second Lights practice in Toronto – In his debut weekend in Indy Lights Carlin’s Nelson Piquet Jr. was fastest in Indy Lights Practice 2 in Toronto with a lap of 1:06.9849. The rest of the Top 5 was Serralles, Jones, Ringel, and Blackstock. Full results at the link. – Indy Lights – (6/12/2015)

Toronto Practice 2 cancelled due to rain – Practice 2 for the Verizon IndyCar Series at the Honda Indy Toronto was checkered early after heavy rain swept in right before the start of the session. Rain is not in the forecast for the rest of the weekend so there was very little activity on track before INDYCAR ended the session. – INDYCAR – (6/12/2015)

Montoya tops the charts in Practice 1 in Toronto – Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya was fastest in morning practice for the Honda Indy Toronto with a lap of 1:00.6343. The rest of the Top 5 was Pagenaud, Newgarden, Filippi, and Bourdais. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/12/2015)

Pigot fastest in first Lights practice in Toronto – Juncos Racing rookie Spencer Pigot posted the fastest time in Indy Lights practice at Toronto on Friday morning with a lap of 1:05.7663. The rest of the Top 5 was Harvey, Piedrahita, Enerson, and Anderson. Full results at the link. – Indy Lights – (6/12/2015)

Hinchcliffe named Grand Marshall for Honda Indy Toronto – “Organizers of the 2015 Honda Indy Toronto are pleased to announce that local Canadian race car driver and mayor of Hinchtown, James Hinchcliffe, will serve as the Grand Marshal for the marquee Verizon IndyCar Series race taking place Sunday, June 14. Hinchcliffe was recently medically cleared to travel to Toronto. Hinchcliffe will perform the standard Grand Marshal duties that include giving the famous “drivers, start your engines” command to start the afternoon Verizon IndyCar Series race on Sunday.” More at the link. – Honda Indy Toronto – (6/11/2015)

Lights Toronto entry list is out – The entry list for this weekend’s Indy Lights Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto Powered by Mazda is posted on the Indy Lights website. It does not list 8Star Motorsports and their exciting rookie Sean Rayhall. As previously announced Nelson Piquet Jr. will sub for Max Chilton at Carlin as Chilton is at Le Mans with Nissan. – Indy Lights – (6/11/2015)

Toronto Entry List is out – The entry list for this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy Toronto event is out. Tristan Vautier and Rodolfo Gonzalez will drive for Dale Coyne Racing. – Toronto Entry List – (6/11/2015)

Official INDYCAR Toronto preview – The official INDYCAR preview for this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar Series race in Toronto is posted at the link. Check it out for the schedule, details, and special rules in place for this weekend’s event. – INDYCAR – (6/11/2015)

Norfolk in discussions about street race event? – According to this report from a local TV station, officials in Norfolk, VA are talking about bringing a downtown street race back to the city. Norfolk City spokesperson Lori Crouch says the proposed project is “still in it’s infancy, and that the city and Festevents are always looking for new exciting ways to showcase downtown and bring exciting events to the city”. – WAVY – (6/11/2015)

Marco to drive in Dr. Pepper colors at Toronto – Marco Andretti’s No. 27 will feature a new Dr. Pepper livery this weekend in Toronto. Picture at the link. – Derry Hobson – (6/11/2015)

Hinch speaks about his incident – James Hinchcliffe was on an INDYCAR teleconference on Wednesday and the Indianapolis Star’s Curt Cavin wrote an excellent story on what Hinch shared with the group. Hinch shared that he doesn’t remember anything about the crash or the heroic extraction by the Holmatro Safety Team. Must full story at the link. – Indianapolis Star – (6/11/2015)

INDYCAR announces post-Texas infractions – Stefano Coletti was fined $10,000 and placed on a two-race probation for violating Rules 7.10.1.1 (Pit Safety Violation, improper lane usage) and 7.9.12 (Pit Procedures, pit speed violation at pit in). Tristan Vautier was fined $1,000 for violating Rule 7.10.1.8 (Pit Safety Violation, contact with equipment causing contact with personnel). The No. 5 SPM entry was fined $5,000 for violating Rule 14.8.5 (Rear Wing Main Plane Angle). Chevy and Honda were each docked manufacturers points for engines failing to meet the minimum life cycle. A new Belle Isle penalty was announced as James Jakes was fined $500 for violating Rule 1.2.7.1.2 (Personal Safety Equipment, visor up during pit stop fueling). – INDYCAR – (6/11/2015)

Miller’s Mailbag 6/10/15 – RACER’s Robin Miller’s weekly fan Q&A is a great read as always. – RACER – (6/10/2015)

Dixon to drive Jurassic World livery at Toronto – Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 9 will carry the colors of the new film Jurassic World this weekend at Toronto. Scott Dixon will drive the car as usual. A picture of the livery can be found at the link. – RACER – (6/9/2015)

Chilton considering ’16 options – Carlin’s Lights rookie Max Chilton shared his current thoughts on his plans for 2016 and beyond as he prepares for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend with Nissan. “Mixing the two projects isn’t fully working,” he admitted. “This [Nissan] is my main focus. I was only planning to do one race in Indy Lights, but it’s nice to be helping the team out. I believe you sort of make your own luck. It’s good we’ve had a couple podiums in the last couple meetings, and I’ve definitely shown my pace. But I’m in a weird stage at the moment, figuring out whether I want to do IndyCar. I’ll try to carry [Indy Lights] on as long as I can, but it might not be the whole year.” – NBC Sports – (6/9/2015)

Aleshin open to IndyCar return – MotorSportsTalk’s Tony DiZinno caught up with Mikhail Aleshin as he prepares for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Russian said he misses INDYCAR and hopes he can come back some day. “One day I’m gonna come back there for sure,” Aleshin said. “I’m gonna kick some ass.” – NBC Sports – (6/9/2015)

IndyCar drivers reveal their first car – IMS posted a neat blog entry with selected Verizon IndyCar Series drivers sharing the details of their first cars. It’s an entertaining read. – IMS – (6/9/2015)

Saavedra back in the CGRT No. 8 at Toronto – Chip Ganassi Racing Teams has announced that Sebastian Saavedra will be back in their No. 8 car at Toronto this weekend. “I can’t wait to rejoin the No. 8 team for the Toronto race. The teams have been making big gains in speed the last few races,” said Saavedra. I feel a lot of momentum coming off the Texas race where Scott and Tony finished one-two, so things are definitely clicking. I know the cars are usually good at Toronto after watching Dario and Dixon win consistently there the last several years. My foot is back to 100% after Indianapolis and I’ll be ready to go race this weekend.” – RACER – (6/9/2015)

Rousseau Metal named as primary sponsor on RLL No. 15 at Toronto – “Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) announced today that Rousseau Metal, a leader in storage solutions, will be the primary sponsor of the No. 15 Verizon IndyCar Series entry driven by Graham Rahal for the Honda Indy Toronto race on June 14. Quebec-based Rousseau Metal has been a team partner since 2009 and the cabinets are a mainstay in the team’s Indy car and sports car race shops as well as their transporters. It is the first time the company has been a primary sponsor of an Indy car entry.” – RLL – (6/9/2015)

Briscoe expected to take over SPM No. 5 after Toronto – MotorSportsTalk’s Tony DiZinno reports that Ryan Briscoe is likely to be the permanent substitute for James Hinchcliffe in the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports No. 5 after Toronto. Conor Daly will drive the car this weekend as Briscoe will be racing at Le Mans. – NBC Sports – (6/8/2015)

Piquet Jr. to sub for Chilton at Carlin for Toronto – Nelson Piquet Jr. will drive for Carlin’s Indy Lights program in Toronto this weekend as a substitute for Max Chilton. Chilton is driving for Nissan at Le Mans. “I’m really looking forward to my Indy Lights debut with Carlin,” Piquet said. “I’ve been competing in a broad range of racing over the past few years and this will be another new experience for me. I love open-wheel racing but haven’t yet tried it in a U.S.-based series, so Toronto is going to be interesting.” – RACER – (6/8/2015)

Daly will be in the SPM No. 5 at Toronto – Per his Twitter account, Conor Daly will be driving the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports No. 5 car in replacement of James Hinchcliffe at Toronto. – Conor Daly – (6/6/2015)

Scott Dixon wins Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway – Scott Dixon fired off the guns in victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway ahead of Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Marco Andretti. Dixon and Kanaan battled side-by-side all night long, but Dixon prevailed in the end. Chevy took the Top 4 spots, but Honda rallied and placed five cars in the Top 10. Though the race was largely incident free, CFH Racing had a rough go with Ed and Newgarden taking DNF’s with engine failures. The big winner of the race, besides Dixon, was James Jakes finishing in P9, just inside the Top 10. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/6/2015)

Power wins the pole at Texas – Will Power won the pole position for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway for the third year in a row on Friday with an average speed of 218.519mph. Power will be joined on the front row by his Team Penske teammate, Simon Pagenaud. Castroneves, Munoz, and Montoya complete the Top 5. Full results at the link. – INDYCAR – (6/5/2015)

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