Over the past dozen years, engineer Ben Bretzman became synonymous with Simon Pagenaud. They first worked together in 2010 at the Highcroft Racing sportscar team, reunited in IndyCar for a three-year spell at what was then Sam Schmidt Motorsports and then moved to Team Penske together for 2015. They won the series title in 2016

Two-time Indycar champion and double Indianapolis 500 winner Unser worked with Herta in his role as a driver advisor to Harding Steinbrenner Racing when fellow second-generation racer Herta made his full IndyCar debut in 2019. The 21-year-old Andretti Autosport driver, who won three races last year on his way to finishing fifth in the points,

The only native of Hawaii to start the Indianapolis 500, Ongais was nicknamed “Danny On-The-Gas” and the “Flyin’ Hawaiian” for his bravery and commitment in overpowered late ’70s Indy cars, but his love of speed had shown itself far earlier. At the age of 18, he earned a Hawaiian state title in motorcycle racing and

The three-time Supercars champion won last year’s rookie of the year award, managing a best finish of second at last year’s opening Texas race, but tended to struggle more on the street venues and failed to crack the top 10. On the streets of St. Petersburg – the one IndyCar track he had raced on

Currently the rule allows backmarkers to try and stave off the lead cars until they are a lap down to the whole field, which drew criticism from Power, Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean in Friday’s media conference despite the introduction of new blue flag guidelines. Following the opening round of the season in which he

McLaughlin led from pole position, as team-mate Power slipped back to fourth on an alternate tyre strategy, and held off reigning champion Alex Palou by half a second to take his maiden IndyCar win. Power fought back to finish third, ahead of Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean. St Petersburg IndyCar race results Pole-winner McLaughlin led

Team Penske’s McLaughlin made a clean start from his first-ever pole position in the series, but team-mate Power, the only driver in the top 10 to start the race on the harder tyres, appeared to spin up coming out off the final turn and lost places to both Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay

Herta had vaulted to the top of the session with a with a 59.7104s lap, which was eclipsed by Will Power delivering a lap 0.03s quicker before improving to a 59.6058s time. But Power, a nine-time St. Petersburg polesitter, had got sideways in Turn 9 on his best lap – and that opened the door

New Dale Coyne Racing recruit Takuma Sato was left deeply unhappy after being crashed into by Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean in IndyCar’s second practice at St. Petersburg. Sato was running behind the Penske pair of Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, as well as the Andretti car of Alexander Rossi, the group trying to get enough

Kyle Kirkwood, reigning Indy Lights champion with AJ Foyt Racing, was the first driver of the weekend to duck under the 1m01 second barrier but was soon eclipsed by Will Power of Team Penske, Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing). But it was Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport who hit

Colton Herta is a pleasure to interview, primarily because he can’t help telling the truth. While he’s not going to lay his soul bare and may not reveal everything he’s thinking, if he provides an answer then he means it. For instance, last month during the IndyCar media days, he inevitably had to field questions

It has long been a regular bone of contention among IndyCar front-runners that backmarkers often fight hard to remain on the lead lap when they’re about to be lapped, hoping for a caution flag that will bunch the field, allowing them to latch onto the back of the pack. On road and street courses they

Grosjean, who topped his first-ever practice session as an Andretti driver ahead of teammate Colton Herta, explained his “rebirth” through IndyCar after his ten seasons in Formula 1 – which ended with the horrendous fiery accident in Bahrain. “It felt amazing,” said Grosjean of being voted #1 by fans. “After only one year in IndyCar,

Aside from installation laps, in the first 10 minutes, the action was provided by rookies, as they were granted an extra set of primary tyres for this session. Andretti Autosport’s newcomer Devlin DeFrancesco was the first to break the 62-second barrier around the 1.8-mile course, clocking a 61.8256s lap, an average of 104.811mph. INSIGHT: Five

Like most series veterans, the pair spent just a single day of testing at Sebring Raceway last week, before heading to St. Petersburg for this weekend’s opening round of the campaign. Asked about his offseason, Palou quipped: “We were so busy, it was so tiring. “It feels weird that we only got one day of

Unser, the son of the late four-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Sr, enjoyed considerable success in a racing career that also counted two Daytona 24 Hours victories and two International Race of Champions crowns. But, for all of his on-track achievements, which earned him million-dollar contracts, Unser’s personal life was one of turmoil that

The 2022 IndyCar Series gets underway this weekend in St. Petersburg, with a 100-lap race around the 1.8-mile Florida street track. With 26 cars split 11/15 between Chevrolet and Honda for the final season of the 2.2-litre V6 engine formula before 2.4-litre hybrid engines arrive for 2023, the chess pieces have been assembled on the

The 33-year-old has been an Indy racing regular since 2007, the final season of Champ Car before its unification with the Indy Racing League, and won six races in that time – all but one for the RLL outfit that he joined in 2013. His best season with the team to date came in 2015,

The 2014 IndyCar champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner had a disappointing 2021 campaign to end the season ninth, his lowest finish since joining Roger Penske’s outfit full-time for 2010. But the Australian, who turns 41 two days after this weekend’s season-opener in St. Petersburg, says he’s in confident mood for the new campaign as

In his rookie season, Romain Grosjean was made to feel very welcome in IndyCar by everyone, it seemed –the public, rival drivers, the media, team owners. Equally, he and his family have been captivated by America and bought a house in Miami. Yet you still get the impression that the real reason Grosjean is staying

The 1.7-mile, 13-turn short course at Sebring is the nearest that IndyCar squads can get to testing on a street course. Its bumps and kerbs send the chassis into paroxysms, while putting a team’s shock and damper programme under the spotlight. “It’s not bad – the best representation we’ve got of a street course,” said

Lopez, who was fourth driver in AXR’s #48 Cadillac DPi-V.R in the Daytona 24 Hours, will join Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Rockenfeller for the IMSA Sports Car Championship’s 12-hour classic, which the team won in 2015 and 2019. With the race held on 19 March, some hoped it would be possible for an IndyCar driver

Over the last few years, in conversation and in writing, there have been times when I’ve described Simon Pagenaud as puzzling, troubled, enigmatic, lacking confidence and one of those guys who needs everything au point with his set-up in order to give his best. I’ve also opined that when he is at 100%, he has

The former Penske driver lapped the course in 52.11s to narrowly shade his former and current teammate Helio Castroneves, with whom he won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona last month. Castroneves in turn was just a couple of hundredths faster than the quickest of the Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing quartet, Marcus Ericsson, around the 1.7-mile

The 2006 Indy 500 runner-up stepped down from his full-time drive at the end of 2020 and his drive to 19th in last year’s IndyCar blue ribband was his only single-seater appearance of the season as he focused attentions on the invitational SRX series of short-track stock car races. Third-generation driver Andretti, 34, also made

Magnussen, who made his IndyCar debut at Mid-Ohio last season as a late substitute for an injured Felix Rosenqvist at Arrow McLaren SP, completed 143 laps in Alex Palou’s 2021 title-winning #10 machine. The Dane, who will return to Ganassi’s IMSA SportsCar Championship lineup for the Sebring 12 Hours before taking up his Peugeot Le

Magnussen has one IndyCar start to his name after subbing for the injured Felix Rosenqvist in the Arrow McLaren SP team at Road America last summer. Going off-strategy ensured he even briefly led the race but ultimately suffered a mechanical DNF. The Dane, whose WEC schedule with Peugeot for 2022 is in the balance, was

O’Ward, who scored his first two IndyCar victories last season will continue in the #5 bearing the branding of team title-partner Arrow Electronics, with the black and Fluro Papaya color scheme now including splashes of blue. Rosenqvist’s #7 car will continue to be backed by Vuse, RJ Reynolds’ e-cigarette brand, and its livery will heavily

Last year, NBC Sports revealed that the 2021 IndyCar Series was its most-watched IndyCar season on record and the best combined viewership for the series in five years. For the 15 races across all of the NBC platforms, the 2021 season averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.223 million viewers, up 19% on 2020’s

Ex-Formula 1 driver Chilton switched to the US open-wheel scene in 2015 with the Carlin team, he and the squad entering the Indy Lights series together. Despite missing three races, Chilton finished fifth in the championship, partly thanks to victory at Iowa Speedway. He also took three pole positions. The following year, Chilton graduated to