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Fox Sports
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Scott Dixon Edges Josef Newgarden To Lead Day 1 of Indy Open Test
INDYCAR Scott Dixon has won four of his six NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships in the last 11 years, but his only victory in the Indianapolis 500 came in 2008. His performance during the first day of the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge Open Test could be the first step toward changing that equation. SEE: Test Results | No-Tow Results Six-time series champion Dixon was the fastest driver Wednesday on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, turning a top lap of 225.182 mph during the last hour of testing in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. "It's testing – just trying to get through the test list, lots of changes,' Dixon said. 'We didn't do the October test, so first time with the hybrid here, which definitely adds some elements to it and makes it pretty interesting. I think it is going to determine a lot race-wise, maybe even for the shootout at the end. I think it could determine that. 'So, trying to clarify a lot of those situations to make sure that you're covered muscle memory-wise and memory-wise. It comes down to that. So even in qualifying, I think it be a few different strategies of how to get that right.' Dixon took the top spot from two-time reigning race champion Josef Newgarden, who ended up second at 225.125 in the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet. Two-time series champion Newgarden is trying to become the first driver to win the world's most prestigious auto race three years in a row Sunday, May 25. 'Today was really solid just to start out,' Newgarden said. 'The big thing is you come here with a new car or an existing car that you're taking apart and completely rebuilding it. For most everybody here, putting a car on the track for the first time and hoping it just goes relatively quick … When the car is fast, everything else can be fixed. It's the car's speed that fixes everything. 'For us, it's been a really good start. It doesn't mean it's going to be all smooth sailing, but I hope we can come out of this and be prepared for the Month of May.' Two-time '500' winner Takuma Sato started his 'one-off' Indianapolis 500 effort with vigor, ending up third at 225.069 in the No. 75 AMADA Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Marcus Armstrong led three Meyer Shank Racing cars in the top eight, as he was fourth at 224.987 in the No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda. Colton Herta rounded out the top five at 224.857 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global. Besides MSR putting Armstrong fourth, four-time '500' winner Helio Castroneves seventh and Felix Rosenqvist eighth, another trend line was drawn during the first day of the test: Honda engines are fast. Honda powered nine of the 10 fastest drivers today, with Newgarden the only Chevy driver in that group. Honda drivers also took the top three spots on the 'no-tow' list of drivers' best laps turned without the speed-enhancing edge of an aerodynamic slipstream from a leading car. Rosenqvist was the top no-tow driver at 220.835 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda, followed by three-time series champion Alex Palou at 220.354 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Testing continues starting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Teams will have access from 9:30-noon to the same elevated turbo boost levels as 'Fast Friday' practice May 16 and PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying on May 17-18. Then boost will be reduced to race levels from 2-5 p.m. for the final segment of testing this week. 'I'm excited to turn up the boost and curious to see how this hybrid is going to be used in qualifying,' said Pato O'Ward, who was 16th overall at 222.775 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. 'I think everybody is kind of playing a guessing game now, so we'll see what's the best one tomorrow.' Thirty-four drivers are eligible to participate when Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge practice opens Tuesday, May 13, as Jacob Abel, Louis Foster and Robert Shwartzman completed the Rookie Orientation Program and Marco Andretti, Devlin DeFrancesco, Callum Ilott, Kyle Larson and Sato completed the veteran refresher test Wednesday. All 34 drivers expected to compete next month for the 33 starting spots were on track today, turning a combined 2,805 laps. Rookie Swartzman was the busiest driver, turning 133 laps in the No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet. In an interesting twist, two-time reigning series champion and current championship leader Alex Palou was one of the most inactive drivers, completing just 46 laps despite no apparent technical problems. Palou, seeking his first '500' victory, ended up sixth overall at 224.786. 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson was 11th at 223.430 in the No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Larson is once again trying to complete the 'Double' of racing in the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day May 25. There was just one caution period during more than six hours of testing. Graham Rahal brushed the SAFER Barrier in Turn 3 twice in his No. 15 United Rentals Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with 13 minutes remaining. Rahal was unhurt.
Fox Sports
12-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Scott Dixon Must Take Long Route To Repeat at Long Beach
INDYCAR Oh, those pesky concrete walls in this Southern California port city. Scott Dixon found two of them with his race car Saturday in preparation for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, with both hits occurring in the same area of the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit. That misfortune will make Sunday's 90-lap race even more challenging for Dixon than it was already going to be. The two smacks combined to put the two-time and defending race winner in the 14th starting position. Here's the historical significance of that position: Drivers in that starting territory usually don't get to victory lane in this event. In fact, only four times in INDYCAR's 40-year history here has a winner come from that far back. Colton Herta won the 2021 race from 14th. Paul Tracy won from the 17th position in 2000, Michael Andretti won from 15th in 2002, and Mike Conway won from 17th in 2014. Dixon, who won last year's race from the eighth starting spot, bounced the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda off the wall on the exit of Turn 6 in the first round of qualifying, causing left-side damage. Similarly, he slammed another part of the Turn 6 wall – at the approach to the corner – in the morning practice, which required significant repairs to the right rear and the car's floor during the session. Those two impacts followed Friday's penalty for improperly crossing the painted line where drivers exiting the pits are required to stay to the right of ahead of Turn 1. So, it's been anything but a smooth weekend for the legend who was inducted in the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame on Friday before practice. Despite all those troubles, Dixon could only shake his head when considering how close he came to advancing to the second round, which would have given him a chance at a much higher starting position. 'I think we were up on our teammate (series points leader Alex Palou) by about a tenth and a half (of a second) at that point (of the contact), so easily (could have advanced),' he said. Dixon had hoped to complete his fastest lap one circuit earlier. 'But the car (ahead) aborted (the run), so I had to do the same thing,' he said. 'I just thought we still had time (to improve), then at the exit of (Turn 6) I clipped the wall and bent the toe link.' The first wall contact happened where the barrier juts out a bit. Dixon acknowledged the car got away from him. 'You're always trying to find a little bit more, and obviously the wall kind of moves there on the way in,' he said. 'It's obviously in the same spot every lap, but I just kind of got a little bit of a lock on the rear, and it kind of moved me sideways a little bit before I got to the wall and collected it. I thought it was OK because (the impact) was pretty square, but obviously it cut the rear tire. Luckily, I was able to come back in and run some laps later.' The team did a miraculous job of making repairs in about 10 minutes, giving Dixon time to turn a couple of laps ahead of the checkered flag. This is only the third race of the 17-race season, but Dixon and other title hopefuls can't afford to give positions away. Palou has won the year's first two races to build a 39-point lead, and he earned the No. 3 starting position for Sunday's race. Palou has finished in the top five in each of his four event starts at Long Beach. Dixon is third in the standings, 41 points behind the Spaniard. While Dixon has won twice won this race, quality results haven't always come to him. Only once in his first eight starts did he post a top-10 finish – he was fourth in 2010 – but lately he has had better luck. In fact, Dixon has finished in the top four in six of the past eight races, adding a sixth-place finish in 2022. In '23, he got knocked into the tire barrier by Pato O'Ward, the driver who is closest to him in the current standings. Dixon led 42 of last year's 85 laps. This year's race has been extended by five laps, improving the chances for different pit strategies to be used, something Dixon often capitalizes on. Last year, he made his final pit stop 10 laps earlier than Herta, who finished second, and he made it work. Dixon and the rest of the 27-car field will begin the pursuit shortly after the broadcasts begin at 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network). recommended
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Palou and Ganassi Go 1-2 in IndyCar Season Opener at St. Pete
One of the big questions for the NTT IndyCar Series field entering the 2025 season was how to halt the title march of three-time and two-time defending series champion Alex Palou. They're still searching for that answer, even after the first race of the season Sunday on the sunny streets of St. Petersburg. Palou opened his quest for a third consecutive Astor Challenge Cup as series champion in the best way possible, winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding in a master class of strategy, speed and patience. He drove his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 2.8669-second victory over teammate and six-time series champion Scott Dixon, who said afterward that he contested the last 90 laps of the 100-lap race without radio communication in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. 'What an amazing job by everybody,' Palou said. 'They gave me everything we needed this weekend to win. I told you yesterday we had a really, really fast car. 'Our strategy changed a lot during that first yellow, but I'm so glad we got that No. 10 in Victory Lane. It's been 138 days since Nashville (2024 season finale), and I've been dreaming about this every single night.' Spaniard Palou, who started eighth, earned his 12th career victory in the series. The Ganassi team secured its first 1-2 finish since July 2023 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Two-time series champion Josef Newgarden rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet after Dixon passed him for second on the final lap. NTT P1 Award winner Scott McLaughlin finished fourth in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet, as Team Penske joined Chip Ganassi Racing with two drivers in the top four. McLaughlin was one of seven drivers out front today, leading a race-high 40 laps. Florida native and resident Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top five finishers at his home race in the No. 27 Chili's Honda fielded by Andretti Global. Palou took the lead for good on Lap 75 when Felix Rosenqvist made his final pit stop in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing. It was the culmination of a race of split strategies, as drivers who started on the grippier, less durable Firestone Firehawk alternate tires – including Palou, Dixon and Newgarden – jumped into the pits on Lap 3 during the only caution period to shed the alternates for Firestone primary tires. That proved decisive, yet Palou didn't just inherit the lead at the race's three-quarter mark and cruise to Victory Lane. He produced blazing in and out laps surrounding his final pit stop at the end of Lap 72, undercutting his teammate Dixon, who couldn't discuss strategy with his team and reacted to Palou's pit move by stopping one lap later after being slowed by thick traffic. After his final stop, Dixon exited the pits behind a charging Palou. 'We were just kind of flying blind out there,' Dixon said of his radio problems. 'Ultimately, I think they were trying to call me in because on that last lap we had before we pitted, there was just so much traffic, and we lost two or three seconds. That's where the 10 car got us.' Said Palou: 'I think he (Dixon) got trapped in traffic a little bit. That's why the 10 stand decided to pit a little bit early. We had a really clean out lap, could run fast and just opened a gap from there.' Palou was 4.502 seconds ahead of Newgarden on Lap 75, but that gap didn't last. Newgarden sliced that margin to 2.4 seconds by Lap 88 as Palou coped with turbulent air from the car ahead of him, the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Sting Ray Robb, who was racing to stay on the lead lap. Newgarden took advantage and continued to stalk Palou, pulling to within.8186 of a second after Lap 95. Dixon also was gaining ground in third. But a potential logjam of three cars battling for the checkered flag was scattered when Palou finally lapped Robb in Turn 1 on Lap 96. Newgarden and Dixon squirted past Robb on the same lap, but the traffic-free clean air allowed Palou to pull away immediately. Palou expanded his gap to 1.1959 seconds after Lap 97 and 1.6938 seconds at the white flag at the end of Lap 99. His lead grew even more during the final trip around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street circuit as Dixon and Newgarden dueled for second. Dixon got past fellow Indianapolis 500 winner and series champion Newgarden in Turn 10 on the final lap. 'I felt like our car today certainly was capable of winning,' Newgarden said. 'Just didn't quite get there for a couple of reasons. Pit cycles, obviously, we needed to go longer, and we had a shift at the end that we didn't realize, so we kind of had to give up that second place.' 2024 St. Petersburg winner Pato O'Ward used a mix of strategy and speed to climb from the 23rd starting spot to finish 11th in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. That was the biggest climb from start to finish by any of the 27 drivers in the field. The next NTT IndyCar Series race is The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix on Sunday, March 23 at Thermal, California (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, IndyCar Radio Network).
