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Fox Sports
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Dennis Hauger Looking to Become Latest to Sweep Laguna Seca Doubleheader
INDYCAR Dennis Hauger widened his INDY NXT by Firestone championship advantage to 76 points over Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes following a runner-up finish the last time out at Iowa Speedway on July 12. Hughes, who started second on the short oval, fell to 16th place after receiving a blocking penalty for impeding eventual race winner Myles Rowe on Lap 3. The rookie served a drive-through penalty on Lap 12 and lost a lap in the process. Caio Collet, the race winner at Road America on June 22, sits third in the standings, 84 points behind Hauger. Rowe trails by 127, while Salvador de Alba rounds out the top five, 156 points back, entering a crucial doubleheader this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Each race will span 35 laps. Saturday's event airs at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS2, while Sunday's race begins at 1 p.m. ET on FS1. Both will also stream via the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Hauger Double Opportunity to Pad Lead Reigning series champion Louis Foster swept last year's doubleheader at Laguna Seca, joining Spencer Pigot (2015), Rinus VeeKay (2019), and Kyle Kirkwood (2021) as the only drivers to win both races in a weekend at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course. Could Hauger be next? The Norwegian has been dominant on natural road courses this season, earning wins at Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, plus a runner-up at Road America. Since Laguna Seca returned in 2019, the eventual champion has won at least one race during the weekend in three of five seasons. With just four races remaining after this weekend, including Portland International Raceway (Aug. 10), The Milwaukee Mile (Aug. 24) and Nashville Superspeedway (Aug. 31), Hauger has a golden opportunity to put the title nearly out of reach. Hughes Needs Rebound Despite his setback at Iowa, Hughes has been consistently strong on road courses this year, with podiums at Barber, IMS, Road America and Mid-Ohio. Still, his first finish outside the top five in nine rookie starts left him more than a full race's worth of points behind. With 54 points available per race, 108 are on the line this weekend, plenty of room to rebound. Andretti Global has won seven of the last eight INDY NXT races at Laguna Seca, making Hughes a strong candidate to return to form. Collet Aiming For Victory Collet finished second to Foster in both Laguna Seca races last year. Can he claim the top step this time? Driving for HMD Motorsports, Collet has six podiums in nine races this season and enters with seven consecutive top-five finishes. He is very much in the hunt. Double Top-10 Finish For Chip Ganassi Racing at Iowa CGR teammates Niels Koolen (fifth) and Bryce Aron (ninth) both finished inside the top 10 at Iowa, the team's second double top-10 of the season, the first coming in Detroit. While Chip Ganassi Racing boasts 23 championships and over 260 wins across major series, including six Indy 500s, the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, and 24 Hours of Le Mans, an INDY NXT victory remains elusive. Could Laguna Seca deliver that missing piece? CGR has five NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories on the track, including three straight. A Launchpad to INDYCAR Since 1989, INDY NXT by Firestone has staged 27 races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with 21 different drivers winning. Twenty of the 21 winners went on to compete in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. With victory lane reserved for the drivers en route to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, who will emerge victorious in both races this weekend? Track Specs: 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course. Qualifying Record: Christian Rasmussen, 1:11.7225 (112.333 mph), Sept. 9, 2023. Push To Pass Parameters: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation. recommended Item 1 of 1
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
'Hard for us to get out there.' Santino Ferrucci won't run IndyCar race at Toronto after crash
TORONTO — Following a major crash in Sunday morning's warmup session that came just over three hours from IndyCar's scheduled green flag for its race on the streets of Toronto, AJ Foyt Racing has elected not run its No. 14 Chevy entry of Santino Ferrucci, the team announced. Team president Larry Foyt told IndyStar that there may have been a small hope to prepare the backup No. 14 chassis into a raceable condition, but it would've been a stretch, given the time constraints, and combined with Ferrucci nursing a banged right hand he was seen icing around the team transporters, Foyt ultimately decided it to be unwise to roll the dice. Foyt noted that Ferrucci had been cleared to drive, with X-rays on his hand negative, but the primary car was too damaged to be repaired, necessitating moving to a backup car and a lengthier preparation process after Ferrucci slid thorugh the exit of Turn 7, first slamming the whole left side of the car into the wall, before skidding and turning to make right-side impact near Turn 8 before the car came to a stop. In an interview with Fox Sports, Ferrucci deemed the crash "driver error," an instance of forgetting to turn the hybrid system off and therefore carrying too much speed into the corner to be able to stop before slamming into the concrete wall. "Sure, could we get a car out there? Possibly, but I don't want to push (Ferrucci) either," Foyt told IndyStar. "I'd rather just focus on (next Sunday's race at Laguna Seca). It would be hard for us to get out there anyways. That car was really heavily damaged. We have the backup car here, obviously, but it's just a quick turn between warmup and the race. "(The impact) definitely got into the crash structure and the tub, which is a lengthy thing, so you'd be going to a backup car, and we'd still have to diagnose the engine, so there was still a lot of things that would have to happen if we were going to try and push out in an hour or so. It's a tough decision, because we all come here to race, but I think just for the team and our situation right now, we've already got a quick turnaround to go to Laguna, and we think we can do well there, so we'll let Santino rest up and let the guys take their time getting the backup car prepared and move on." Entering this race weekend, Ferrucci sat tied for 10th in the championship with teammate David Malukas, aiming to follow up his ninth-place points performance a year ago with another top 10 at the end of the 17-race season. After a run of four consecutive top 5s in May and June, including a pair of podium finishes in the Indy 500 and Road America, Ferrucci and the No. 14 crew had ridden a bit of a roller coaster of late with a best finish of eighth at the Iowa doubleheader sandwiched by results of 16th (Mid-Ohio) and 15th (Iowa Race No. 2). Live updates: IndyCar Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Toronto leaderboard, crashes, starting lineup, time At the moment, Christian Rasmussen, who sits 15th in the championship, enters Sunday's race 30 points back of Ferrucci, meaning the veteran driver will almost certainly drop at least a couple spots in the standings before he rolls up to Laguna Seca for practice Friday. "This is a pretty big blow, but we think these last four races are still really strong for us and for (Ferrucci), and we're not going to give up on trying to get back into the top 10," Foyt said. "It's racing, and things happen. It's part of it. "I don't know why Toronto doesn't like the No. 14 car. That's two years in a row that we've had a big one here. It's unfortunate, and I know (Ferrucci) and the team feels bad, but we'll be back next week." Count Foyt among the camp that would love to see IndyCar schedule its pre-race warmups for a couple hours after qualifying late on Saturday afternoon, rather than Sunday morning just a couple hours before the race, in hopes of avoiding a situation such as Sunday's, where a serious crash ultimately will keep a team from racing altogether. "For sure for the smaller teams, if you had a little extra time, no doubt (that would be helpful)," Foyt said. "These warmups are always nerve-racking, especially at a street course where you have concrete everywhere and you could have an accident like this. It's a tough turnaround for a small team, no doubt."
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Toronto leaderboard, crashes, starting lineup, time
Colton Herta starts from the pole position with IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou beside him for the 90-lap Ontario Honda Dealers Indy in downtown Toronto on a 1.786-mile layout. Herta won from the pole in 2024, edging front-row starter Kyle Kirkwood at the finish line, with Scott Dixon completing the podium. Dixon has four wins on this layout, but he starts back in the pack after making an unapproved engine change. Nathan Brown is your best IndyCar follow, and keep up with coverage throughout the season with IndyStar's motorsports newsletter. We will have leaderboard updates, highlights and crashes throughout, so remember to refresh. The race is on to bring the car back into racing shape. Chip Ganassi Racing doesn't send its cars onto the track for the warm-up. Row 1 1, Colton Herta 2, Alex Palou Row 2 3, Marcus Armstrong 4, Will Power Row 3 5, Graham Rahal 6, Kyle Kirkwood Row 4 7, Louis Foster 8, Marcus Ericsson Row 5 9, Rinus Veekay 10, Pato O'Ward Row 6 11, Callum Ilott 12, Nolan Siegel Row 7 13, Kyffin Simpson 14, Scott McLaughlin Row 8 15, David Malukas 16, Felix Rosenqvist Row 9 17, Scott Dixon (6-spot grid penalty after qualifying 11th) 18, Josef Newgarden Row 10 19, Christian Lundgaard 20, Robert Shwartzman Row 11 21, Conor Daly 22, Christian Rasmussen Row 12 23, Santino Ferrucci 24, Alexander Rossi Row 13 25, Sting Ray Robb 26, Devlin DeFrancesco Row 14 27, Jacob Abel Alex Palou, has won seven races, Kyle Kirkwood three, and Scott Dixon and Pato O'Ward one each. Palou's 129-point lead over second-place O'Ward is more than two races of max points. Will Power and Colton Herta are tied for 8th with 244 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? We've seen it twice this year, and it's largely been the case the last couple years: The Andretti Global street course package is on another level, as we saw last year with Herta and teammate Kyle Kirkwood ran 1-2 for all but four laps of the 85 run on the streets of Toronto (with those four solely coming through pit exchanges). Herta won the last race here and has two poles and three podiums in his last three starts at Toronto. Though there's always a chance that disaster strikes, I'm going to take the odds on Herta. Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas, A.J. Foyt teammates, are tied for 10th with 237 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? Although Ferrucci has finished six of the eight road or street course races better than Malukas, the performance I saw across at the Detroit Grand Prix weekend (other than Malukas' tap to the rear of Alex Palou that earned Malukas an essentially day-ending penalty) leads me to think he has an edge. If he can keep his nose clean and this race doesn't deliver too much chaos — like the ways in which Ferrucci flipped the script for his podiums at Detroit and Road America — I like Malukas this weekend. Josef Newgarden and Christian Rasmussen are tied for 14th with 207 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? Before a mechanical failure ended his day at Detroit, Rasmussen was on for an incredibly strong showing — and then again, Newgarden had to fight hard just for a 9th-place finish there. Both these drivers — and their cars and teams — have shown volatility lately, in terms of results. So give me the veteran driver and more historically successful team. I don't think it's that ever-elusive 2025 win Newgarden continues to hunt, but a top-10 is reasonable, and I'm marginally less confident Rasmussen can match it. (All times ET; all IndyCar sessions are on IndyCar Live, IndyCar Radio and Sirius XM Channel 218) 8:30 a.m.: IndyCar warmup, FS1 Noon: IndyCar race, Fox TV: Coverage begins at noon ET, Sunday, July 20, 2025, on Fox. Green flag is scheduled for 12:22 p.m. Will Buxton is the play-by-play voice, with analysts James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell. Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey are the pit reporters. Fox Sports app. Watch free with a Fubo trial IndyCar Nation is on SiriusXM Channel 218, IndyCar Live and the IndyCar Radio Network (check affiliates for each race) Sunday: Partly cloudy and highs in the upper 70s. Push-to-pass: 200 seconds total in increments of up to 20 seconds. Tire allotment: Five sets primary and five sets alternate to be used during the event weekend. Rookie drivers may use one additional set of primary tires. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race. The 2025 IndyCar Series schedule includes 17 races, all televised on Fox. (Times are ET; %-downtown street course, &-road course, *-oval) March 2, St. Petersburg, Florida % (Winner: Alex Palou) March 23, Thermal, California & (Winner: Alex Palou) April 13, Long Beach, California % (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) May 4, Birmingham, Alabama & (Winner: Alex Palou) May 10, Indianapolis & (Winner: Alex Palou) May 25, Indianapolis 500 * (Winner: Alex Palou) June 1, Detroit % (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) June 15, St. Louis * (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) June 22, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin & (Winner: Alex Palou) July 6, Lexington, Ohio & (Winner: Scott Dixon) July 12, Newton, Iowa * (Winner: Pato O'Ward) July 13, Newton, Iowa * (Winner: Alex Palou) July 20, Toronto %, noon July 27, Monterey, California &, 3 p.m. Aug. 10, Portland &, 3 p.m. Aug. 24, Milwaukee *, 2 p.m. Aug. 31, Nashville *, 2:30 p.m. (Team and drivers; *-Indianapolis 500 only)
Indianapolis Star
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Toronto qualifying, starting lineup, time
Colton Herta wins pole position for the IndyCar Series race in downtown Toronto. Series points leader Alex Palou also qualifies for the front row of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy, a 90-lap race on a 1.786-mile layout. Herta won from the pole in 2024, edging front-row starter Kyle Kirkwood at the finish line, with Scott Dixon completing the podium. Dixon has four wins on this layout, most recently in 2022. Will Power has three and Josef Newgarden two. Nathan Brown is your best IndyCar follow, and keep up with coverage throughout the season with IndyStar's motorsports newsletter. Row 1 1, Colton Herta 2, Alex Palou Row 2 3, Marcus Armstrong 4, Will Power Row 3 5, Graham Rahal 6, Kyle Kirkwood Row 4 7, Louis Foster 8, Marcus Ericsson Row 5 9, Rinus Veekay 10, Pato O'Ward Row 6 11, Scott Dixon (he will face a 6-spot grid penalty for Sunday's race) 12, Callum Ilott Row 7 13, Nolan Siegel 14, Kyffin Simpson Row 8 15, Scott McLaughlin 16, David Malukas Row 9 17, Felix Rosenqvist 18, Josef Newgarden Row 10 19, Christian Lundgaard 20, Robert Shwartzman Row 11 21, Conor Daly 22, Christian Rasmussen Row 12 23, Santino Ferrucci 24, Alexander Rossi Row 13 25, Sting Ray Robb 26, Devlin DeFrancesco Row 14 27, Jacob Abel Alex Palou, has won seven races, Kyle Kirkwood three, and Scott Dixon and Pato O'Ward one each. Palou's 129-point lead over second-place O'Ward is more than two races of max points. Will Power and Colton Herta are tied for 8th with 244 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? We've seen it twice this year, and it's largely been the case the last couple years: The Andretti Global street course package is on another level, as we saw last year with Herta and teammate Kyle Kirkwood ran 1-2 for all but four laps of the 85 run on the streets of Toronto (with those four solely coming through pit exchanges). Herta won the last race here and has two poles and three podiums in his last three starts at Toronto. Though there's always a chance that disaster strikes, I'm going to take the odds on Herta. Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas, A.J. Foyt teammates, are tied for 10th with 237 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? Although Ferrucci has finished six of the eight road or street course races better than Malukas, the performance I saw across at the Detroit Grand Prix weekend (other than Malukas' tap to the rear of Alex Palou that earned Malukas an essentially day-ending penalty) leads me to think he has an edge. If he can keep his nose clean and this race doesn't deliver too much chaos — like the ways in which Ferrucci flipped the script for his podiums at Detroit and Road America — I like Malukas this weekend. Josef Newgarden and Christian Rasmussen are tied for 14th with 207 points. Who comes out of Toronto ahead? Before a mechanical failure ended his day at Detroit, Rasmussen was on for an incredibly strong showing — and then again, Newgarden had to fight hard just for a 9th-place finish there. Both these drivers — and their cars and teams — have shown volatility lately, in terms of results. So give me the veteran driver and more historically successful team. I don't think it's that ever-elusive 2025 win Newgarden continues to hunt, but a top-10 is reasonable, and I'm marginally less confident Rasmussen can match it. (All times ET; all IndyCar sessions are on IndyCar Live, IndyCar Radio and Sirius XM Channel 218) 8:30 a.m.: IndyCar warmup, FS1 Noon: IndyCar race, Fox TV: Coverage begins at noon ET, Sunday, July 20, 2025, on Fox. Green flag is scheduled for 12:22 p.m. Will Buxton is the play-by-play voice, with analysts James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell. Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey are the pit reporters. Fox Sports app. Watch free with a Fubo trial IndyCar Nation is on SiriusXM Channel 218, IndyCar Live and the IndyCar Radio Network (check affiliates for each race) Sunday: Partly cloudy and highs in the upper 70s. Push-to-pass: 200 seconds total in increments of up to 20 seconds. Tire allotment: Five sets primary and five sets alternate to be used during the event weekend. Rookie drivers may use one additional set of primary tires. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race. The 2025 IndyCar Series schedule includes 17 races, all televised on Fox. (Times are ET; %-downtown street course, &-road course, *-oval) March 2, St. Petersburg, Florida % (Winner: Alex Palou) March 23, Thermal, California & (Winner: Alex Palou) April 13, Long Beach, California % (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) May 4, Birmingham, Alabama & (Winner: Alex Palou) May 10, Indianapolis & (Winner: Alex Palou) May 25, Indianapolis 500 * (Winner: Alex Palou) June 1, Detroit % (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) June 15, St. Louis * (Winner: Kyle Kirkwood) June 22, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin & (Winner: Alex Palou) July 6, Lexington, Ohio & (Winner: Scott Dixon) July 12, Newton, Iowa * (Winner: Pato O'Ward) July 13, Newton, Iowa * (Winner: Alex Palou) July 20, Toronto %, noon July 27, Monterey, California &, 3 p.m. Aug. 10, Portland &, 3 p.m. Aug. 24, Milwaukee *, 2 p.m. Aug. 31, Nashville *, 2:30 p.m. (Team and drivers; *-Indianapolis 500 only)
Indianapolis Star
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Arrow McLaren prepping Linus Lundqvist as potential replacement for Nolan Siegel at Toronto
Arrow McLaren has signed ex-Chip Ganassi Racing driver Linus Lundqvist as a reserve driver for this weekend's Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto street race, the team announced Monday. Practice begins Friday afternoon, but Nolan Siegel might not be cleared to return to the cockpit after suffering a minor concussion in a late-race crash Saturday at Iowa Speedway. Siegel was not cleared for Sunday's race by IndyCar medical officials that morning. Given the short break between the races and belief late Saturday that Siegel would be cleared, Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan opted not to run Siegel's No. 6 car Sunday. Doing so would've required requesting from IndyCar a special 15-minute shakedown session with a substitute driver on Saturday night, Kanaan said. And given the car repair time in the wake of Siegel's crash — one so hard that the SAFER barrier required repairs — the team principal didn't want the team scrambling with so much uncertainty. 'I missed it': Ex-Team Penske IndyCar leader relishing new chapter with Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren briefly explored the possibility of Kanaan starting Sunday's race and parking immediately after the green flag, but IndyCar wouldn't approve such a move because Kanaan hadn't taken part in an on-track session during the weekend. An emergency on-track session wasn't available Sunday morning. Lundqvist was at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. The 26-year-old Swedish driver with 20 IndyCar starts will ready himself this week for what could amount to his first time inside an IndyCar cockpit since the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway. As Kanaan told select media Sunday morning ahead of that day's race, Lundqvist will be in the team's shop throughout this week as Siegel is put through a regimented recovery plan that includes light workouts, time on a racing simulator and evaluation by Ryan Harber, the team's head of human performance, health and wellness. Siegel will be reevaluated by IndyCar's medical team Thursday morning to determine his ability to drive in Toronto. How close was Tony Kanaan to driving?: Nolan Siegel's status, possible backup drivers for Toronto Lundqvist will be with the team all weekend and available should Siegel experience any discomfort in his return or if he isn't cleared. Lundqvist finished 13th in his lone start at Toronto a year ago. He finished 16th in points in his lone full-time IndyCar season in 2024 with five top-10s, a pair of podiums (Barber and World Wide Technology Raceway) and a pole (Road America), but he entered this season without a ride after CGR scaled back from five full-time cars to three as IndyCar launched its charter system that caps teams at three full-time entries guaranteed to start each race (minus the Indy 500).
