How has the prize fund for the Indy 500 evolved? Since its first running in 1911, the winner’s take-home cheque has ballooned from the $14,250 that Ray Harroun received that year.  Over time, some serious financial barriers were broken, notably in 1957 when Sam Hanks took home $103k, Danny Sullivan’s famous spin-and-win in 1985 was

When former IndyCar racer Sarah Fisher pulls off in the Corvette pace car and Whiplash actor Miles Teller waves the green flag to start the race, the field of 33 will have a single goal in mind – glugging the milk in victory lane and kissing the bricks with their victorious crew after 200 laps

McLaughlin, like team-mate Josef Newgarden, pulled his time to try and improve and join team-mate Will Power in the Top 12 segment after setting the 15th-fastest time with his first qualifying run on Saturday, held in the heat of the day. But in dense, muggy air that followed a rainstorm, his car had too much

After the thrill of seeing the 2008 Indy 500 winner nail a record-breaking lap to take his fifth pole position for the championship’s most famous event, it’s time for the main business to begin. If that sounds like it’s trivialising the efforts of all the teams last week, it isn’t: the thing is, it’s almost

Power and his Team Penske Chevrolet team-mates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin will roll off 11th, 14th and 26th on Sunday, which means all are starting from the middle of their respective rows on the 11-rows-of-three grid. Power will have feisty former winner Takuma Sato to his left and Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson to

In 1935, the Borg-Warner Corporation commissioned a commemorative trophy to honour the Indianapolis 500 winners. The art deco trophy stands 5ft 4.75in high including its base, has handles shaped like wings to represent speed, and weighs in at 110lbs, of which 80lbs is sterling silver. But its most remarkable and appealing aspect is the bas-relief

Under the programme, dubbed ‘Project 91,’ Trackhouse Racing will enter the #91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at least once during the remainder of this Cup season with plans to expand it in the future. The first international driver to participate in the program will be announced with the next few days. Previous international drivers in the

Rossi confirmed to Autosport his new contract could not be disclosed at this stage for legal reasons, leaving questions open about whether he is continuing with Andretti Autosport or making a switch to Arrow McLaren SP. Asked what was his priority when weighing up options for a new deal, the 2016 Indy 500 winner said:

Full-time entries now have their race engines installed, and for the first time this week, cars were pitting off Turn 4 rather than the deceleration lane. This caused a couple of issues, JR Hildebrand locking up the front wheels of his AJ Foyt Racing on pit entry and Christian Lundgaard locking the rears of his

Dixon’s four-lap average around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was 234.046mph, making it the fastest ever pole run in Indy history, and the second fastest run of all time. (Arie Luyendyk’s famous 236mph run in 1996 was not set on Pole Day). The six-time champion praised the whole Ganassi operation for that achievement, and also for

Dixon had booked his place into the Fast Six by going fastest in the preceding Top 12 session, edging Rinus VeeKay for pace with a 233.510mph run. Last to take to the track in the final part of qualifying, the six-time IndyCar champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner delivered two laps over 234mph and even

The two Saturday qualifying sessions at Indianapolis determined the positions outside of the top 12 and track temperatures had dropped by the end of the initial runs of the second segment. Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing was the first to do a retake run and improved by 0.7mph but only gained three places, and lost

Pato O’Ward made the initial run with an average of 233.037mph, but it was eclipsed by the very next runner, VeeKay. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver, who started fourth and third for his first two Indy 500s, delivered an opening lap of 234.702mph, and although his fourth lap dropped to 232.655mph, his average was a

The air at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was dense and relatively still this morning, vastly different from yesterday’s hot and gusty conditions, and the speeds reflected this as drivers attempted four-lap qualifying simulation runs. In Group 1, Jimmie Johnson turned the fastest lap with the aid of a tow, a 233.961mph, and turned a 233.7 four-lap

As the wind started to drop, and track temperature went down, the 2013 Indy 500 winner embarked on a qualifying simulation run and turned laps of 231.392mph, 230.419mph, 230.668mph and 229.589mph. That meant an average of 230.517mph which vaulted him to the top ahead of by far the quickest rookie, David Malukas. Twice he completed

Sato, who led practice on the opening day before Wednesday’s running was called off due to rain, put the Dale Coyne Racing car on top of the speed charts with a lap of 227.519mph, just 39.5572s around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Endorsing the promise shown by the Coyne cars in traffic was his

Last season Helio Castroneves joined an exclusive club of four-time winners, and now sits alongside the likes of AJ Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as the most successful drivers to compete at the Brickyard. Many will be trying to stop him from claiming win number five this year, including reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou

Castroneves went on to score the fourth, record-matching Indy 500 win of his career, while Palou finished half a second down, but believes he learned a lot during his battle with the Brazilian veteran. “There was a lot I was able to learn just because it was my first time doing some stuff like defending,

Dale Coyne’s team has a history of fast cars around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Sato is the first driver to have arrived at the team having already scored triumphs in the Memorial Day Weekend classic and therefore having knowledge of what it takes to succeed there. Sato was second fastest in the test here in

Dixon lies fifth in the championship after the first five rounds of the season and only 34 points off the lead, but has yet to finish higher than fifth in a race. He had to come back from a lap down after running out of fuel in last weekend’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis to finish

Japanese veteran Sato ran only four laps in the morning’s two hour session, unhappy with the aero balance of his car, but shone in the afternoon to top the timesheets at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 2017 and 2020 Indy winner got a strong tow from several cars on his 63rd of 64 laps and lapped

Daly finished fifth in a chaotic race hampered by changeable weather, that was made worse by visibility issues when peering through the aeroscreen, fitted to his Ed Carpenter Racing entry.  Daly reported he had water building up around the dividing ridge in the centre of his aeroscreen in the worst of the wet conditions in

Despite starting from 14th, Herta ended up leading 50 of the 75 laps, on his way to victory in a chaotic weather affected race held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The race started in wet conditions but Herta quickly switched to the red walled slicks on lap 3 before rain showers doused the

The Andretti Autosport driver led 50 of the 75 laps completed before the race hit its two-hour maximum duration. He headed Simon Pagenaud, who scored his best result since switching from Team Penske to Meyer Shank Racing over the off-season, while polesitter Will Power (Penske) took the lead of the championship by finishing third. With a

After the second practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course, 18 of the 27 cars finished within half a second of top spot, so small mistakes were expected to be costly in qualifying. Power took pole in the Fast Six shootout by a mere 0.042s ahead of reigning champion Alex Palou (Chip

The 2014 IndyCar champion’s pole time of 1m09.766s on worn red tyres, just pipping his Chip Ganassi Racing rival on 1m09.809s, was the 64th of his US open-wheel career and leaves the Australian just three poles short of Mario Andretti’s record tally. Palou delivered on a day when his Ganassi team-mates all fell in Q1

The Mercedes driver took advantage of an IndyCar driver evaluation day at Sebring last December, with MSR slotting him into a car for a day-long test at Sebring. De Vries emerged fastest in the four-car test, ahead of Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger), his Formula E team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne (Arrow McLaren SP), and Jack Aitken (Ed

O’Ward pipped Chip Ganassi Racing’s reigning champion Palou to the top spot by just 0.029s to continue the fine form he showed by winning last time out at Barber Motorsports Park with a 1m09.783s lap. He was just 0.058s quicker than Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport) in third, with defending Indy GP winner Rinus VeeKay fourth

Rinus Van Kalmthout’s tweet last June, after he took a strong runner-up finish in the first Detroit IndyCar race, stood out to this writer. Posing with his trophy, his face was fixed in a startled yet thrilled expression, like someone who’d just walked into a surprise party full of friends he hadn’t seen in years.

The four-time Formula 1 World Champion, driving for Aston Martin, remarked in an interview during last weekend’s F1 Miami Grand Prix that he prefers “proper” US tracks such as Road America to the street course in Miami Gardens. Respected IndyCar blogger Matt Archuleta quoted the German ace’s comment on Twitter which drew a response from