Andretti Autosport driver Herta lapped 0.445 seconds clear of nearest challenger Josef Newgarden, as second practice pacesetter Romain Grosjean crashed out of the decisive Fast Six session. Herta’s team-mate Alexander Rossi laid down the first marker in the third segment of qualifying with 1m06.0s, his closest opponent being Newgarden (Team Penske) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren SP) after

When Jack Harvey struck the wall during second practice at TMS last month, Ilott’s Juncos Hollinger Racing car was next through. A pushrod from the broken Rahal Letterman Lanigan car flew up and struck Ilott’s aeroscreen, but managed to leave just a hairline fracture on the screen. “What’s amazing for me is I just came

Herta was the first driver to drop into the 66-second bracket around the 1.968-mile course, clocking a 1m06.5710s on his sixth lap which at the time left him half a second clear of the field. However with 35 minutes to go, a spin at Turn 6 caused last year’s Long Beach winner to strike the

The NASCAR legend appeared to grab too much kerb at the Turn 5 right-hander, and bounced nose-first into the tyre wall on corner exit, his right hand still holding the steering wheel. The incident brought out the red flag, and Johnson initially told NBC that his hand was fine. However, the IndyCar sophomore was unable

Pagenaud, the 2016 Long Beach winner, clocked a 1m07.1991s in the session, eclipsing two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport by 0.4021s. Pagenaud’s best time was two seconds quicker than Colton Herta’s first practice time from last year’s Long Beach in September. Apart from the usual problems of drivers outbraking themselves and having

Rick Mears will join Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, George Follmer, Dan Gurney, Jim Hall, David Hobbs, Parnelli Jones, Roger Penske, Brian Redman and Bobby Unser on the list of legends to be honoured by the Road Racing Drivers Club in Long Beach later today. The evening’s emcee and RRDC president Bobby Rahal, along with organiser

Not for the first time, many of us made pre-season predictions of Andretti Autosport fighting for the championship. “It will be a shock if [Colton] Herta isn’t in title contention come September’s finale at Laguna Seca,” this writer wrote in February and, in time, that form may emerge. But right now, after two rounds, Herta

Although this first test was run in great secrecy, with the current 2.2 litre engine’s alternator in place of the spec hybrid component from Mahle, both companies said they welcomed the chance to at least run their respective internal combustion engine [ICE] element of the 2024 IndyCar powertrain. The two-day test was extended to a

The Honda-powered car was driven by Chip Ganassi Racing’s six-time IndyCar champion, Scott Dixon, while Team Penske’s two-time champion Josef Newgarden drove the Chevrolet machine. Chevrolet driving duties are expected to be taken over by Will Power as testing continues on Tuesday. Monday’s test was conducted on a 13-turn 2.6-mile version of the road course

When it was revealed early in March that the 2.4-litre’s race debut had been delayed until 2024, IndyCar stated its intention that the first test of the engines would be held 30-31 March on the Sebring International Raceway’s short course. However, since around 20 cars are expected for a group test at Indy on those

The team struggled in qualifying, with Dalton Kellett, Kirkwood and JR Hildebrand only 22nd, 23rd and 26th on the speed charts. However, in second practice Kirkwood was 15th with his race setup, and overnight the team made further progress. When the first caution period occurred on lap 12, reigning Indy Lights champion Kirkwood was running 21st so

Ferrucci – who said he expected to be “racing his couch” – stood in for Jack Harvey in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan, who was ruled out of the first oval race of the season following a big crash in practice on Saturday. Ferrucci finished ninth and on the lead lap, despite making four pitstops compared

Newgarden led only three laps compared with his teammate’s 186, but one of them was the final one, as he gained momentum through Turns 3 and 4 to pass McLaughlin around the outside on the run to the checkered flag. His winning margin was 0.0669sec. “I’m telling you, I was yelling!” said Penske’s two-time champion.

Johnson started 18th on the 27-car grid for Sunday’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway, a venue where he scored seven wins during his NASCAR career. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver made good progress on track, making outside passes and rose through the field to run a legitimate fifth, before fuel worries due to faulty

McLaughlin led 186 of the event’s 248 laps when he came up on lapped traffic, with Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden on his tail. McLaughlin couldn’t clear David Malukas’s 11th-placed car entering Turn 3, which allowed Newgarden to get the run on him through the final two corners. Newgarden used that momentum and the outside

McLaughlin, winner of the 2022 IndyCar opener at St. Petersburg, led for 186 laps having taken the lead on the opening lap from polesitter Felix Rosenqvist, but got caught behind traffic which allowed Newgarden in for a late charge. Carrying more momentum through Turns 3 and 4, the #2 Penske caught the tail of the

Harvey shunted heavily in yesterday’s second practice session after qualifying in 24th spot. The Briton stepped from his wreck unaided and spoke to media outside the medical centre after being released, but was re-evaluated this morning and IndyCar medical team did not clear him. An official IndyCar statement reads: “Per IndyCar protocol, all drivers wear

Harvey, who has qualified only 24th yet was fastest of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas in a strangely poor event for the team so far, was on his 26th lap of the 1.5-mile track in final practice when his car understeered in the middle of Turn 2. Harvey downchanged, his car started oversteering, and its right-rear

Oval IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson, the fifth driver to run, was the first driver to crack 220mph on a lap, reaching the 220.006mph mark on his first flyer in his Chip Ganassi Racing machine. A 219.724mph lap on his second tour left him with an average of 219.865mph. This was immediately edged by Andretti Autosport’s

Pagenaud, who joined MSR from Team Penske during the off-season, lapped at 223.087mph to edge Rosenqvist’s 222.878mph effort. Fresh from being announced as part of the McLaren Formula 1 team’s testing lineup, Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta was third-fastest while oval racing rookie Callum Ilott was a remarkable fourth-quickest for Juncos-Holinger Racing with the aid

Since the PJ1 TrackBite was added to parts of the track surface in November 2019 to boost traction for the Goodyear tyres of the NASCAR stock cars, IndyCar drivers have found it thoroughly incompatible with their Firestone rubber, some comparing it to black ice. In effect, IndyCar drivers at full racing speed – as opposed

As IndyCar racing attempted to pull itself apart in 1996, with the infamous split caused by the formation of the Indy Racing League, the CART World Series side of the deal received its best possible gift: Alex Zanardi. From the ashes of Team Lotus in Formula 1, and just a handful of BPR GT and

O’Ward enjoyed a breakout season in IndyCar last year with Arrow McLaren SP, scoring two wins and remaining in title contention until the final round of the season. It led to the Mexican driver receiving his first Formula 1 test at the end of last year in Abu Dhabi, after which he outlined a two-year

For as long as people care about motorsport, there will be multiple stories and memories told of the Indianapolis 500s in 2021, 2011, 1987, ’66 and ’65. They didn’t all feature spectacular battles for victory, but those editions of the biggest race in the world were won by drivers who were one-off or part-time entries

Although AMSP ace O’Ward was thrilled by his F1 test with McLaren in Abu Dhabi and the team was said to be impressed by his performance, it was announced last week that McLaren F1 has signed fellow IndyCar ace Colton Herta to its test program. O’Ward, although stating that he is firmly focused on IndyCar

Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Johnson switched to IndyCar for the 2021 season with Chip Ganassi Racing, contesting a road and street course-only schedule. However the 46-year-old has pledged to contest the full season in 2022, including on ovals – having missed the Indianapolis 500, Texas and Gateway last season, and never competed at returning venue

The team’s #11 entry is raced on road and street courses by series rookie Tatiana Calderon, who finished 24th on her series debut in last month’s St. Petersburg season-opener. But Hildebrand, who finished 15th in the Indy 500 with Foyt’s team last year, will take over from Calderon for oval races at the Texas Motor

Although he raced at Gateway’s oval course last August, ex-Formula 1 driver Grosjean is only committing to the full IndyCar calendar in 2022, his second year in US open-wheel racing, and his first with Andretti Autosport. In yesterday’s six-car test for oval rookies, Grosjean topped the speed chart for laps run without the aid of

IndyCar was set to move to larger 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6s with hybrid units at the start of next season and Chevrolet-Ilmor and Honda Performance Development have been working to that deadline. Engines were originally due to begin testing in the first quarter of this season, with hybrid units from Mahle, a company based in Stuttgart.

Kirkwood, reigning Indy Lights champion, turned a 219.78mph lap in his AJ Foyt Racing on his 116th of 146 laps, but it came with the benefit of a tow. The same was true of Callum Ilott, former Formula 2 championship runner-up, who finished the day second for the Juncos Hollinger Racing team, with whom he