By OVERTIME WITH OWENS STAFF
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– Tapwrit wins Belmont Stakes by 2 lengths for Pletcher
Tapwrit overtook favored Irish War Cry in the stretch to win by two lengths on Saturday, giving trainer Todd Pletcher his third career victory in the Belmont. He won in 2007 with filly Rags to Riches and in 2013 with Palace Malice.
– Brad Keselowski ends drought for No. 22 Ford with last-lap pass
With a dramatic last-lap pass – the first of the season in the NASCAR XFINITY Series – Brad Keselowski won Saturday’s Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway, ending a 46-race drought for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
Keselowski swept the stages in the 100-lap event but couldn’t get past leader Kyle Larson until he reached the Long Pond straightaway on the final circuit. Keselowski powered off the first turn, down-shifted and blew past Larson before the cars reached the Tunnel Turn.
Justin Allgaier followed Keselowski past Larson and finished second, .615 seconds behind the race winner. Larson came home third, followed by Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez.
– Power wins wild IndyCar race at Texas under caution
Will Power, who led 180 of the 248 laps, won Saturday's Verizon IndyCar Series race at Texas under caution after Scott Dixon got wrecked by Takuma Sato, and finished ahead of Tony Kanaan, who other drivers and at least one owner blamed for a big crash earlier that led to a nearly 31-minute red flag.
“It was very intense,” Power said. “I could see Dixon was able to pass me at the start/finish line. So, I was starting to think about what I was going to do there at the end.”
Showing posts with label Verizon IndyCar Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verizon IndyCar Series. Show all posts
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Power wins wild IndyCar race at Texas under caution
AP Sports Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Will Power was trying to figure out how to hold off Scott Dixon for the lead as the two went side-by-side in the closing laps of the IndyCar race at Texas.
Instead, Dixon got taken out in one last crash to end a wild race at the repaved and reconfigured 1 1/2-mile track and Power won under caution. Only eight of the 22-car field actually crossed the finish line Saturday night.
Power, who led 180 of the 248 laps, was the leader when Dixon got wrecked by Takuma Sato, and finished ahead of Tony Kanaan, who other drivers and at least one owner blamed for a big crash earlier that led to a nearly 31-minute red flag.
"Apparently I got blamed for all of them," Kanaan said. "Got a penalty, paid a penalty, and we finished second."
The final caution came when Sato, driving the same car in which he won the Indianapolis 500 in two weeks ago and pushing for another win, got his left side slightly into the grass on the front stretch with five laps to go. That sent him spinning and also took out Dixon.
"It was a pretty intense battle there at the end with Scott," Power said. "I was kind of working out in my head how I was going to get him over the line because he was kind of able to side draft me and be ahead on some laps, so it was really going to be an interesting finish."
Power's 31st career victory, and second this season, was indeed interesting.
Simon Pagenaud was third, ahead of defending race champion Graham Rahal, who was coming of winning both races at Detroit last week to become the first IndyCar driver this season with multiple victories. Gabby Chaves finished fifth and Marco Andretti in sixth was the only other driver to finish all 248 laps at the 1 1/2-mile track.
"It was pretty nerve-wracking out there," Pagenaud said.
With a full moon looming over the track, the red flag came out after an accident involving eight other cars that was blamed on Kanaan, who recovered from the ensuing penalty for his runner-up finish.
James Hinchcliffe got loose on lap 154 after making contact with Kanaan, who appeared to move up the track into him. That put Hinchcliffe in the middle of three-wide, and he made contact with his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate Mikhail Aleshin.
While calling Kanaan someone he trusts on the track, Hinchcliffe said Kanaan drove from inside along the white line and up into him, and pushed him into Aleshin.
"He wasn't driving smart, or respectfully," Hinchcliffe said.
That led to a spark-spraying chain reaction that took out both Dale Coyne Racing drivers, Tristan Vautier and Ed Jones, and sent driver-owner Ed Carpenter and his teammate JR Hildebrand to the garage. Carlos Munoz and Ryan-Hunter Reay were knocked out of the race.
Carpenter, who took his repaired car back on track 12 laps down, also blamed Kanaan. Car owner Dale Coyne went up to Kanaan's car while it was lined up on pit road during the red flag, then leaned into the cockpit and said something.
After the race resumed, IndyCar penalized Kanaan for avoidable contact, holding him in his pit for 20 second during green-flag conditions.
All drivers involved in the crash were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
IndyCar enforced two mandatory stops under caution after that for tire changes after 30 green-flag laps on each set. There was blistering of some tires on the fresh pavement of the track, including Helio Castroneves wrecking out earlier in the night.
The series said in a statement after the race that, after consulting with Firestone, those extra stops were added "out of an abundance of caution as race conditions presented different conditions than seen in earlier tests."
Polesitter Charlie Kimball and Alexander Rossi were already out of the race before then.
Rossi, the 2016 Indy 500 winner as a rookie, spun and made hard contact with the wall after getting pinched between Dixon and Kanaan, then bouncing of both of the Chip Ganassi Racing cars while coming off the backstretch on lap 37.
During stops on the ensuing caution, Sato got pinned into the wall during a pit road collision that damaged the front wing of his car. Hinchcliffe got loose coming out of his pit, then swerved into Castroneves at the same time Sato was pulling out of the first stall.
Hinchcliffe was penalized for avoidable contact.
Before the green flag came out again, polesitter Charlie Kimball's car was pushed to the garage because of an oil leak and done.
Castroneves, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner who was the runner-up to Sato this year, was running third behind Team Penske teammates Power and Pagenaud when his front right tire gave and his car veered into the wall coming out of the second turn on lap 91. Castroneves went hard into the wall and eventually came to rest on the inside of the third turn.
UP NEXT
After three races in two weekends since the month of May at Indianapolis, the IndyCar Series takes a week off before its next race June 25 at Road America, the four-mile, 14-turn road circuit in Wisconsin.
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AP Auto Racing Website: www.racing.ap.org
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Sunday, May 28, 2017
Sato holds off Helio to give Andretti another Indy 500 win
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – At the end of 500 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a former Formula One driver who took the checkered flag.
He even drove for Andretti Autosport.
It just wasn't Fernando Alonso.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday when the former Formula One driver denied Helio Castroneves a record-tying fourth victory in the closing laps.
"It was a tough, tough race. Helio really drives well," said Sato. "It was a fantastic race, hopefully the crowd enjoyed it."
The Andretti family has struggled for decades to win this race, but as a car owner, Michael Andretti certainly knows the way to victory lane.
Sato's victory gave Andretti a second consecutive win in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years.
Last year, it was with rookie Alexander Rossi. This time it is with Sato, who joined the team just this season and had largely been overlooked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Andretti camp expanded to six cars for the 500 to add Alonso, a two-time F1 champion who brought massive European interest to the race.
But six cars never seemed to spread the team too thin, and the main issue facing Andretti Autosport was the reliability of its Honda engines. Alonso put on a thrilling show and even led 27 laps - third most in the race - but he was sent to the paddock when his engine blew with 20 laps remaining.
"We didn't build the thing that was smoking down the front straight," said McLaren boss Zak Brown, who engineered Alonso's trip to Indianapolis. Part of the reason Alonso was able to skip F1's showcase Monaco Grand Prix earlier Sunday for Indy is because the McLaren team - and its Honda power - have grossly underperformed this season and Alonso is not a current title contender.
Alonso did have a spectacular race, and simply fell victim to his engine late in the race. The crowd gave the Spaniard a standing ovation as he climbed from his car.
"I felt the noise, the engine friction, I backed off and I saw the smoke and, yeah, it's a shame," Alonso said. "It's a very nice surprise to come here with big names, big guys, the best in open-wheel racing and be competitive."
He still drank from a carton of milk to close out his experience at Indy, and didn't rule out a potential return.
The Honda teams had a clear horsepower advantage over Chevrolet, but things were dicey in Indy for more than a week and certainly on race day: Before Alonso's failure, 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his Honda and so did Charlie Kimball. Hunter-Reay had led 28 laps and was a strong contender late.
Sato also had to hold off Castroneves in the closing laps. In a Chevrolet for Team Penske, Castroneves briefly took the lead but couldn't make it stick as Sato grabbed it back. Castroneves was disappointed to fall short of the four-time winners club.
"Being second again sucks, being so close to getting my fourth," Castroneves said. "I'm really trying. I'm not giving up this dream and I know it's going to happen."
The margin of victory was 0.2011 seconds - and it was redemption for Sato, who crashed while trying to beat Dario Franchitti on the final lap of the 2012 race.
A joyful Sato dumped a bottle of 2 percent milk over his head, received a kiss from the Indy 500 Princess and raised his finger in the air. Franchitti even stopped by victory lane to congratulate him.
Michael Andretti ran down pit lane to reach Sato's crew, then rushed to hug his driver.
As for the difference between 2012, when Sato crashed in the first turn of the final lap racing Franchitti, Sato said his strategy this year was perfect.
"I was pointing in the right direction into (Turn) One," he said.
Max Chilton finished third, the highest driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, and was followed by former 500 winners Tony Kanaan and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Pole sitter Scott Dixon, already having a rough week because he was robbed at gunpoint at Taco Bell hours after turning the fastest qualifying effort in 21 years, was knocked out of the race in a terrifying crash in which his car sailed through the air and landed cockpit-first atop the inside safety fence. Dixon's car was split in two amid sparks and flames.
The tub of the car remained intact and the 2008 champion was able to climb out on his own to a roar from the crowd. He walked to a waiting ambulance while the race was placed under red flag and crews began to clean up debris scattered over hundreds of feet.
"Just a little beaten up there. It was definitely a rough ride," Dixon said. "We had a great shot. We had gotten a little loose but they had dialed it in."
Dixon had collided with Jay Howard, who blamed the incident on Hunter-Reay. He was a couple of laps down when Hunter-Reay tried to get around him and that forced him to the top of the track, where he wound up hitting the wall.
That impact sent Howard across the track and Dixon had nowhere to go.
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More AP auto racing: http://racing.ap.org
AP Auto Racing Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – At the end of 500 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a former Formula One driver who took the checkered flag.
He even drove for Andretti Autosport.
It just wasn't Fernando Alonso.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday when the former Formula One driver denied Helio Castroneves a record-tying fourth victory in the closing laps.
"It was a tough, tough race. Helio really drives well," said Sato. "It was a fantastic race, hopefully the crowd enjoyed it."
The Andretti family has struggled for decades to win this race, but as a car owner, Michael Andretti certainly knows the way to victory lane.
Sato's victory gave Andretti a second consecutive win in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years.
Last year, it was with rookie Alexander Rossi. This time it is with Sato, who joined the team just this season and had largely been overlooked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Andretti camp expanded to six cars for the 500 to add Alonso, a two-time F1 champion who brought massive European interest to the race.
But six cars never seemed to spread the team too thin, and the main issue facing Andretti Autosport was the reliability of its Honda engines. Alonso put on a thrilling show and even led 27 laps - third most in the race - but he was sent to the paddock when his engine blew with 20 laps remaining.
"We didn't build the thing that was smoking down the front straight," said McLaren boss Zak Brown, who engineered Alonso's trip to Indianapolis. Part of the reason Alonso was able to skip F1's showcase Monaco Grand Prix earlier Sunday for Indy is because the McLaren team - and its Honda power - have grossly underperformed this season and Alonso is not a current title contender.
Alonso did have a spectacular race, and simply fell victim to his engine late in the race. The crowd gave the Spaniard a standing ovation as he climbed from his car.
"I felt the noise, the engine friction, I backed off and I saw the smoke and, yeah, it's a shame," Alonso said. "It's a very nice surprise to come here with big names, big guys, the best in open-wheel racing and be competitive."
He still drank from a carton of milk to close out his experience at Indy, and didn't rule out a potential return.
The Honda teams had a clear horsepower advantage over Chevrolet, but things were dicey in Indy for more than a week and certainly on race day: Before Alonso's failure, 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his Honda and so did Charlie Kimball. Hunter-Reay had led 28 laps and was a strong contender late.
Sato also had to hold off Castroneves in the closing laps. In a Chevrolet for Team Penske, Castroneves briefly took the lead but couldn't make it stick as Sato grabbed it back. Castroneves was disappointed to fall short of the four-time winners club.
"Being second again sucks, being so close to getting my fourth," Castroneves said. "I'm really trying. I'm not giving up this dream and I know it's going to happen."
The margin of victory was 0.2011 seconds - and it was redemption for Sato, who crashed while trying to beat Dario Franchitti on the final lap of the 2012 race.
A joyful Sato dumped a bottle of 2 percent milk over his head, received a kiss from the Indy 500 Princess and raised his finger in the air. Franchitti even stopped by victory lane to congratulate him.
Michael Andretti ran down pit lane to reach Sato's crew, then rushed to hug his driver.
As for the difference between 2012, when Sato crashed in the first turn of the final lap racing Franchitti, Sato said his strategy this year was perfect.
"I was pointing in the right direction into (Turn) One," he said.
Max Chilton finished third, the highest driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, and was followed by former 500 winners Tony Kanaan and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Pole sitter Scott Dixon, already having a rough week because he was robbed at gunpoint at Taco Bell hours after turning the fastest qualifying effort in 21 years, was knocked out of the race in a terrifying crash in which his car sailed through the air and landed cockpit-first atop the inside safety fence. Dixon's car was split in two amid sparks and flames.
The tub of the car remained intact and the 2008 champion was able to climb out on his own to a roar from the crowd. He walked to a waiting ambulance while the race was placed under red flag and crews began to clean up debris scattered over hundreds of feet.
"Just a little beaten up there. It was definitely a rough ride," Dixon said. "We had a great shot. We had gotten a little loose but they had dialed it in."
Dixon had collided with Jay Howard, who blamed the incident on Hunter-Reay. He was a couple of laps down when Hunter-Reay tried to get around him and that forced him to the top of the track, where he wound up hitting the wall.
That impact sent Howard across the track and Dixon had nowhere to go.
---
More AP auto racing: http://racing.ap.org
| Indianapolis 500 | |||||||||
| May 28, 2017 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Indianapolis, Indiana | 500.0 mi | |||||||||
| Pos | Driver | Car # | Make | Started | Laps | Led | Points | Out ? | |
| 1 | Takuma Sato | 26 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 4 | 200 | 17 | 137 | ||
| 2 | Helio Castroneves | 3 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 19 | 200 | 9 | 96 | ||
| 3 | Ed Jones | 19 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 11 | 200 | 0 | 93 | ||
| 4 | Max Chilton | 8 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 15 | 200 | 50 | 86 | ||
| 5 | Tony Kanaan | 10 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 7 | 200 | 22 | 91 | ||
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 22 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 18 | 200 | 1 | 73 | ||
| 7 | Alexander Rossi | 98 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 3 | 200 | 23 | 91 | ||
| 8 | Marco Andretti | 27 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 8 | 200 | 0 | 76 | ||
| 9 | Gabby Chaves | 88 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 25 | 200 | 0 | 53 | ||
| 10 | Carlos Munoz | 14 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 24 | 200 | 0 | 50 | ||
| 11 | Ed Carpenter | 20 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 2 | 200 | 5 | 79 | ||
| 12 | Graham Rahal | 15 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 14 | 200 | 2 | 57 | ||
| 13 | Mikhail Aleshin | 7 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 13 | 200 | 0 | 55 | ||
| 14 | Simon Pagenaud | 1 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 23 | 200 | 0 | 43 | ||
| 15 | Sebastian Saavedra | 17 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 31 | 200 | 0 | 33 | ||
| 16 | J.R. Hildebrand | 21 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 6 | 200 | 2 | 61 | ||
| 17 | Pippa Mann | 63 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 28 | 199 | 0 | 32 | ||
| 18 | Spencer Pigot | 11 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 29 | 194 | 0 | 29 | ||
| 19 | Josef Newgarden | 2 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 22 | 186 | 0 | 34 | ||
| 20 | James Davison | 18 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 33 | 183 | 2 | 21 | contact | |
| 21 | Oriol Servia | 16 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 12 | 183 | 0 | 40 | contact | |
| 22 | James Hinchcliffe | 5 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 17 | 183 | 0 | 33 | contact | |
| 23 | Will Power | 12 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 9 | 183 | 2 | 41 | contact | |
| 24 | Fernando Alonso | 29 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 5 | 179 | 27 | 47 | mechanical | |
| 25 | Charlie Kimball | 83 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 16 | 166 | 5 | 29 | mechanical | |
| 26 | Zach Veach | 40 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 32 | 155 | 0 | 12 | mechanical | |
| 27 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 28 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 10 | 136 | 28 | 35 | mechanical | |
| 28 | Sage Karam | 24 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 21 | 125 | 0 | 23 | mechanical | |
| 29 | Buddy Lazier | 44 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 30 | 118 | 0 | 14 | contact | |
| 30 | Conor Daly | 4 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Chevrolet Tires: Firestone | 26 | 65 | 0 | 18 | contact | |
| 31 | Jack Harvey | 50 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 27 | 65 | 0 | 17 | contact | |
| 32 | Scott Dixon | 9 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 1 | 52 | 5 | 53 | contact | |
| 33 | Jay Howard | 77 | Chassis: Dallara Engine: Honda Tires: Firestone | 20 | 45 | 0 | 24 | contact | |
| 2017 Indianapolis 500 Stats |
| Scheduled Laps: 200 |
| Distance: 500.000 miles |
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