IndyCar
PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon Fastest On Day 2 At Indy
SPEEDWAY, IN (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon posted the fastest lap in the second day of practice for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 present by Gainbridge.
Dixon’s fast lap of 226.102 mph in the No. 9 Honda came late in the session with the aid of an aerodynamic tow.
“Today, we made some minor changes and tried to figure out some different balances,” said Dixon, who opened the season with three-straight victories. “We’re also focusing on how the cars feels. We also worked on finding traffic today to see how the car would respond.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato posted the second fastest lap, 225.693 mph, which came early in the days action.
I’m pretty happy,” said Sato. “I think it was quite a productive day. Obviously the scoreboard was nice, being in the first place and second place felt good. It means nothing, but I think that’s a reflection of the cars getting quite a good adhesion. You get in a big tow, you’re able to follow people with the new tire. Obviously, that pure speed is far off from non-tow situation, but I’m pretty happy with that speed.”
Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti continued his strong start by posting the third fastest lap of the day at 225.249 mph. Andretti was 2nd fastest overall on Wednesday (day 1).
“We tried some things outside the box that didn’t really work,” said Andretti. “The good thing for me at Indy in the past has been what you go back to what you think is good, and it still works. So we went back to what we had, and the car feels good like it did yesterday.”
Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates were a little over a half-second behind their teammate. Felix Rosenqvist’s fast lap in the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda was 222.645 mph and Marcus Ericsson was right behind him in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda at 222.630 mph.
“We’re not where I want to be yet with the balance, and we’ve been going in circles a little bit,” said Rosenqvist, who picked up a win earlier in the season in the second race at Road America. “It always feels bad when you’re running in traffic, but we really have to push it these next few days and put ourselves in the worst type of scenario to get really good in the race. We’re sticking to our program and working hard.”
“I think it was another good day with a lot of laps done,” said Ericsson. “We went through different setups again and tried some different downforce levels. We’ve mainly been gathering information and focusing on the car. I have a good feeling in the car. It feels good in traffic, and that’s what you want.”
Sato’s teammates Graham Rahal was also a half-second behind his teammate in the No. 15 United Rentals Honda at 223.297 mph. Spencer Pigot was a tick behind Rahal in the No. 45 Hy-Vee EMBRACE Pittsburgh Honda at 223.043 mph.
“We had a really good day for the No. 15 United Rentals team,” said Rahal. “We did a couple of long runs, and the last one in particular felt really good. We seemed to be competitive. We tried a lot so we stopped a little bit early because we’ve got a lot of data to go through.”
“The day was okay,” said Pigot. “I think we had a few things that we didn’t quite get a handle on today, but we definitely made some good changes throughout the day to the Hy-Vee/EMBRACE Pittsburgh car, so we will try to build on those for the next time we do race running.”
Teams get additional turbo boost on “Fast Friday” as they begin preparations for qualifying on Saturday and the “Fast 9 Shootout” on Sunday, which will decide the pole position and the first three rows (positions 1 thru 9) for “The Greatest Spectacle In Racing”.
“It’s always exciting when the boost gets turned up,” said Pigot. “It’s definitely a little different going a lot faster with less downforce. We’re just trying to get the opposite of today where we were looking for traffic, running with cars to improve our race setup, and now we’re looking to be all by ourselves. It’s a totally different mindset, but Fast Friday is always a fun day.”
“It’s going to be cool,” said Dixon. “It’s a big jump (in power). I expect to see some pretty big speeds, especially in tows. I’m excited for Fast Friday.”
LEEDS, AL (April 28, 2024) Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin put an emotional week in the rear-view mirror by winning Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix presented by AmFirst.
McLaughlin employed a three-stop, flat-out pedal to the floor strategy while several others attempted a two-stop strategy. McLaughlin’s move paid off with the victory, his second in-a-row at Barber.
McLaughlin, who led 58 of the 90 laps after earning the NTT P1 Award in qualifying Saturday, took the lead for the final time on Lap 76 after his final pit stop.
“Definitely one of my best drives in terms of execution and just knocking out the laps,” said McLaughlin, who had his third-place finish at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding stripped earlier in the week for illegal push-to-pass software and using it. “Very happy we could advance to the checkered flag there and bring home a W for Team Penske and for Roger (Penske).”
Will Power made it Team Penske 1-2 by finishing second in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, 1.3194 seconds behind McLaughlin.
“It was a hard-fought 1-2 for Penske,” Power said. “We were certainly fast, but obviously a lot of strategy played into that. We were able to use our speed to come out in front again.”
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist rounded out the podium by finishing third in the No. 8 American Legion Honda, the best finish of his young career.
“Man, it was amazing,” said Lundqvist of his sixth career start. “I think for the first time ever I was not on the save fuel strategy. I was not the one being passed, which was nice.”
The next race for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 11 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which kicks off the Month of May activities at IMS culminating in the 108th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 26 on the IMS oval.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (April 24, 2024) Scott Dixon and the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing team are leading the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship standings after Team Penske was penalized for violating the series ‘push-to-pass’ parameters.
INDYCAR disqualified Josef Newgarden’s win and Scott McLaughlin’s third place finish in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and docked Will Power 10-Championship points for the infractions.
Dixon’s epic win in this past Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach vaulted him into second position in the Championship standings, 12-points behind Newgarden. That changed following Wednesday’s penalties.
Dixon now holds a 2-point lead over Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and a 12-point lead over teammate and reigning INDYCAR Champion Alex Palou.
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward sits in fourth position, 15-points back, following his elevation to winner at St. Pete. Power sits in fifth position, 20-points behind Dixon despite the 10-point reduction.
Dixon heads into this weekend’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park having never won at the picturesque 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course in Birmingham Alabama.
“Barber has been interesting,” said Dixon, a six-time series Champion. “Second six times. Never won there. The goal was always to try and step on the top step again.”
Dixon is hoping a recent test will help him park the No. 9 Honda in victory lane.
“We had a really good test at Barber,” added Dixon. “Only probably half of the grid did, so it will be interesting to see how that applies.”
The first 75-minute practice session gets underway on Friday from 2:40 p.m. to 3:55 p.m. and will be live-streamed on Peacock.
McLaughlin is the defending race winner.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (April 24, 2024) Team Penske is in hot water for violating NTT INDYCAR SERIES rules regarding push-to-pass and Josef Newgarden has been stripped of his win in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
Team Penske was in violation of the following “Push to Pass” parameters:
- Rule 14.19.15. An indicator to enable Push to Pass will be sent via CAN communication from the timing and scoring beacon on board the Car to the team data logger. This signal must be passed on to the ECU unmodified and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Course Events.
- Rule 14.19.16. Race Starts and any Race Restart that occurs before the lap prior to the white flag or prior to three minutes remaining in a timed Race Event will have the Push to Pass system disabled and will be enabled for a given Car once that Car reaches the alternate Start/Finish line.
The issue came to light at this past weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach when INDYCAR officials discovered the possible violation during the morning warmup. The Series made sure the advantage that was discovered could not be implemented during Sunday’s race.
The series then began an extensive review of data from the St. Petersburg race, which revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts. According to the INDYCAR rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line.
It was determined that Newgarden’s No. 2 and the No. 3 of Scott McLaughlin gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 of Will Power did not. McLaughlin was stripped of his third-place finish and Power was docked 10-Championship points. All three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the Streets of St. Petersburg race.
The integrity of the INDYCAR SERIES championship is critical to everything we do,” said INDYCAR President Jay Frye. “While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, INDYCAR discovered the manipulation during Sunday’s warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Beginning with this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation.”
Team Penske issued a statement where President Tim Cindric blamed the violation on software that was not removed following a test session.
“Unfortunately, the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars. This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted. The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin, both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated INDYCAR rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by INDYCAR.”
Newgarden’s disqualification handed the victory to Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward elevated PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon to the top of the Championship standings.
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