News for the Week of June 15, 2015 – June 21, 2015

SI hails Newgarden’s 2015 season – Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Lawrence highlights Josef Newgarden’s excellent 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season thus far. “If Newgarden keeps his nosecone clean, he could very well be running for a championship at year’s end. “Oh 100 percent I think that’s very possible,” he says. “The thing is we’ve got a lot of improvement that we need to do on our oval kit right now. We’ve got three big ovals coming up, right in a row. We’ve got a lot of smart people. If we do a great job with that, we turn the thing around a little bit, I think for sure, without a doubt we can fight with the top three.”” Always good to see INDYCAR get this kind of national coverage. – SI – (6/19/2015)

Mario calls for return to Dallara aero kit – Mario Andretti had no problems letting his feelings be known about the current state of INDYCAR in an interview with Racing North. “I’m criticizing the series, the management of the series, and I’ve been criticizing because they need to be criticized,” Andretti said. “The so-called aero kit was ill-advised in the way it was implemented in my opinion. There wasn’t enough testing, especially going to Indianapolis, a race where you have a lot of time to prepare yet you don’t in so many ways because you’re restricted by the rules.” Andretti would also like to see the series return to more of the legendary American road courses such as Laguna Seca and Road America: “These are traditional venues that need to continue to be cultivated,” Andretti said. “Let’s face it: I know (IndyCar is) interested in a lot of temporary circuits — which like St. Petersburg or whatever have been successful — but temporary is temporary. I think we need to probably go to Laguna Seca as well.” – Racing North – (6/19/2015)

SB Nation longform on A.J. Foyt back at IMS – SB Nation’s Allison Copenbarger Vance wrote a terrific longform piece on A.J. Foyt’s return to racing for the Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after a long absence after his triple bypass heart surgery. One highlight is A.J. coming close to punching Sage Karam after Karam came to visit the Foyt pits after he and Takuma Sato crashed out of the Indy 500 on the first lap. A terrific read. – SB Nation – (6/18/2015)

Subsidiary of Andretti Sports Marketing sues NOLA Motorsports Park – The New Orleans Advocate reports that a subsidiary of Andretti Sports Marketing, the promoter for the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana, has sued NOLA Motorsports Park for what the promoter believes is a lack of compensation. It remains to be seen what this means for the future of the race. – The New Orleans Advocate – (6/18/2015)

Cavin Q&A 6/18/15 – The Indianapolis Star’s Curt Cavin’s fan Q&A covers Montoya’s chances of hanging on to the points lead, staff volatility at IMS, and more. Cavin confirms Kevin Forbes no longer works at IMS. – Indianapolis Star – (6/18/2015)

INDYCAR issues post-Toronto penalties – “INDYCAR announced the following post-event infractions and manufacturer championship points updates from the Honda Indy Toronto, which was held June 14 on the streets of Toronto’s Exhibition Place: The No. 20 CFH Racing entry was fined $5,000 for violating Rule 14.9.2 (Fuel Capacity).” Beyond that the only noteworthy items involved the manufacturers championship as Chevy was given bonus points for the No. 22 car reaching it’s 2500 mile life cycle and Honda being punished for the No. 26 and No. 27 failing to reach theirs. Chevy now leads Honda by 1003 points versus 840. – NBC Sports – (6/17/2015)

Piquet enjoys Lights car in series debut – Formula E championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr. made his Indy Lights debut last weekend in Toronto with Carlin and enjoyed the experience. “It was a good experience for me to be back in a powerful car. Conditions were very difficult but I enjoyed the challenge,” said Piquet. “The car was good in both races; we had a good chance of winning both of them. It’s just bad luck the way it ended, but at least we showed good potential. If I had another chance I’d do it again for sure.” – INDYCAR – (6/17/2015)

Trackside podcast 6/16/15 – Indianapolis’ 1070 The Fan’s popular Trackside podcast with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee is a great listen as always. – 1070TheFan – (6/17/2015)

Road America in play for INDYCAR race in 2016 – According to a report from RACER’s Robin Miller, Road America is in serious talks for a race on the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. “It’s never been off our radar and it’s one of several places we are seriously looking at for next year,” said IndyCar’s president of competition and operations. “It’s just a matter of finding the right time to sit down and talk through the possibilities to see if it could happen but George is definitely interested.” More at the link. – RACER – (6/17/2015)

Miller’s Mailbag 6/17/15 – RACER’s Robin Miller’s weekly fan Q&A is a great read as always. – RACER – (6/17/2015)

Robin begs for more breaks in the INDYCAR season – RACER’s Robin Miller has a thoughtful editorial posted on their website. In it Miller writes about the toll the compressed INDYCAR schedule puts on the teams and their crew guys. “This is the worst stretch in the 22 years I’ve been a mechanic on Indy cars,” said one veteran when asked the obvious question. “The last time we had two consecutive days off was in April and we’ve all hit the wall.” A must read as the scheduling debate is sure to get louder than ever. – RACER – (6/16/2015)

Toronto draws 0.23 TV rating on NBCSN – The 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy Toronto drew a 0.23 TV rating on NBCSN last Sunday. – ShowBuzzDaily – (6/15/2015)

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)

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)

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