AUGUST 2, 2017

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Team Penske PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet) flat dominated the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Newgarden led 73 of 90 laps on the 2.258-mile permanent road course, taking the checkered flag 5.1556 seconds ahead of Team Penske teammate Will Power. It gave the Tennessean back-to-back wins, following his triumph July 16 at the Honda Indy Toronto and vaults him into the Verizon IndyCar Series championship lead. Newgarden is now seven points ahead of teammate Helio Castroneves and eight clear of Scott Dixon. Newgarden is the first American-born driver to lead the championship since Ryan Hunter-Reay won the title in 2014 and holds a seven-point lead over another Team Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, after 13 of 17 races. "I feel like no one can take anything away from this win," Newgarden said. "With this team on the (No. 2) car side, I feel like we really did a great job today. There was no luck involved in that. We went out and won the race." Newgarden has contended for the win at Mid-Ohio each of the past three seasons, but various incidents prevented the rising INDYCAR star from sealing the deal. Today, in his first season with Team Penske, the 26-year-old did just that. "We've been close before here," he said. "I feel like we've always found speed. ... It's just nice to get something at a track I haven't had a previous history of winning the race. That was nice."

(Photo by Bret Kelley/INDYCAR)
Will Power (No. 12 team Penske Verizon Chevrolet) and Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Team Penske PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet) hammer down the backstretch during the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.  The second-place finish continued a frustrating run for Power. The 2014 series champion has started in the top four at Mid-Ohio for eight straight years - including pole positions in 2010, '11 and this year - but he has yet to win at the track. "I know we started on the pole and finished second, and that could be viewed as coming up short in some way," Power said, "but it was a very good finish for the Verizon Chevrolet.  We really weren't on the pace all weekend and really got the most out of qualifying. "So second (place), for the pace of my car, that was as good as we could get today. We've had too many seconds in this place, though."

(Photo by Matt Fraver/INDYCAR)
Local favorite Graham Rahal (No. 15 Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Steak 'n Shake Honda) finished third on Sunday. It was the fourth top-five finish at Mid-Ohio in as many years for the New Albany, Ohio, native. Rahal was the last driver to win consecutive Verizon IndyCar Series races, sweeping both ends of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear doubleheader weekend in early June. "Our car had great pace today, we just could never quite get in clear air," Rahal said. "I'm really proud of everyone on the Steak 'n Shake team. ... We're going to keep our heads down, keep working hard."

(Getty Images/The Guardian)
Sebastian Vettel (No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari) won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, with his teammate Kimi Räikkönen (No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari) finishing second. But it was what Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 AMG Petronas F1 Team) did to allow his teammate Valtteri Bottas (No. 77 AMG Petronas F1 Team) to finish third that has everyone talking. As Sebastian Vettel took the chequered flag at the Hungaroring to claim his fourth victory of the season, his chief title rival was selflessly surrendering the final spot on the podium to his Mercedes teammate. Bottas had earlier been ordered by the Mercedes overlords to let Hamilton by so Hamilton could take the challenge to Vettel and Räikkönen on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult. But Hamilton, who said he would give the place back to Bottas should he fail in his pursuit of the Ferrari duo, was true to his word, and pulled aside for his teammate on the final corner of the final lap. After moving seven seconds clear of Bottas, and with one eye on the championship race, Hamilton could have been forgiven for holding position. He would have been 11 points behind Vettel had he stayed in third. Now he heads into the sport’s summer break 14 points behind his Ferrari rival.

(Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
After benefiting from an outstanding pit call by crew chief Adam Stevens, Kyle Busch (No. 18 Joe Gibbs racing M&Ms Caramel Toyota) charged through the field after his final stop and pulled away to beat runner-up Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Mobil 1 Ford) to the finish line by a 6.178 seconds to win the Overton’s 400 at Pocono Raceway, breaking a career-long 36-race drought and giving Toyota its 100th victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The win was Busch’s first at Pocono Raceway, leaving Charlotte Motor Speedway as the only active Monster Energy Series track the driver hasn’t conquered. Having won his fourth Pocono pole earlier in the day – on the first instance where the Monster Energy Series drivers have qualified and raced on the same day in NASCAR’s modern era – Busch recorded the 39th victory of his career when he took the checkered flag. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Denver Mattress Toyota) finished third.

(World-Challenge.com)
Alvaro Parente (No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3) swept the Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio presented by Honda Racing HPD, dominating both Pirelli World Challenge races throughout the weekend. It was Parente’s fourth win of the season, and he has won the last three of four PWC races at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile course.

(Photos by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet, above) and Oriol Servia (Honda, below) tested the 2018 IndyCar road, street & short oval aero kit at Mid-Ohio on Tuesday. The car definitely looks better. "It feels pretty good; it's very different than the current aero kit," said Montoya, the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 1999 Indy car champion. "The (new) car is a little more forgiving, but the level of downforce is a lot lighter so you slide around a lot more. That, I think, is good. "I think you're going to be able to see the (driver's) hands moving a lot more on the steering wheel and I think you're going to see the cars get out of shape a lot easier," added Montoya, who has raced for Team Penske during all three seasons of aero kit competition starting in 2015. "The chances of mistakes are higher, so I think it's going to bring better racing."

(Gunpowder&Sky)
Global content studio Gunpowder & Sky will screen "McLaren" during Monterey Car week. "McLaren" is the incredible true story of Bruce McLaren, the legendary racing champion, designer, engineer and founder of the iconic supercar brand that bears his name. Scheduled for 8:30 p.m. PT on Friday, August 18, the film will be shown at the historic Golden State Theater in Downtown Monterey. The Monterey screening will precede national distribution via video-on-demand, starting August 25th. Tickets for the screening are available at https://www.mclarenfilmusa.com/.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Though strongly rumored over the last few weeks, Porsche's announcement that it was abruptly ending its LMP1 Le Mans racing program and participation in the WEC after this season is still a blow to the sport. And the fact that Porsche is now turning its attention to Formula E in 2019 makes it even more depressing. As much as I have reserved optimism for this new formula in its initial stages, in its current form Formula E is a dismal exercise. As Andrew Frankel commented in his latest in Motor Sport Magazine, Formula E is a "... new formula for cars that are slow, silent and tedious to watch." And then some. I was embarrassed for the members of the media who gushed over Formula E's appearance in New York City, because everything about the "race" there was a giant bowl of Not Good. The track was a joke and the racing was indeed tedious to watch. I guess certain lesser lights in the media are easily amused these days, but I am not. That said, it's hard to find sympathy for either party involved in this decision. The executives who run the ACO - the French organization in charge of Le Mans - have acted like ruthless, carpetbagging mercenaries for years. They bestow favors on manufacturers willing to spend a ton of money for the privilege of running at Le Mans, and then they look the other way as those favored manufacturers are allowed to have blatant performance advantages over the competition. As long as the money is spent like water, the ACO turns a blind eye and just smiles, and their actions over the years have been beyond reprehensible. And by messing around with the rules and regulations for its top category at Le Mans while forcing hybrid powertrains down manufacturers' throats, the ACO has made the class cost prohibitive. So here we are.

But then again, Porsche is just as culpable in this mess. Manufacturers who participate in racing often do so on the basis of what's perceived as being in their best interests. These manufacturers couldn't care less about the overall health of the sport or the Big Picture, as long as the particular racing they choose to compete in is politically aligned with their marketing goals. This is why you see manufacturers come and go in the sport. They get in with both feet, and when they have extracted enough of whatever it is they needed, or were looking for, they get out. Porsche's move into Formula E aligns with their new Mission E Concept, the all-electric sports car that they've been working on for almost two years. It matters little to Porsche that Formula E is a borderline embarrassment and one completely devoid of any visceral appeal, a joke that will have monumentally negative ramifications for the long-term health of the sport itself. Porsche is a truck manufacturer. Wait a minute, no, it's a sports car manufacturer, make that an electric sports car manufacturer. Does it really matter anymore? No. Porsche will do what it wants and justify it any way they see fit, just like every other manufacturer that has come and gone in the sport. I will be shocked if Toyota continues with its LMP1 program, because running against itself for the overall win at Le Mans in 2018 will be a hollow and damn-near worthless pursuit. And even though the ACO has new rules coming for the 2020 season - which Porsche had input in by the way - no one is looking that far ahead. Once again racing has been thrown into yet another uncertain phase. And thus it was ever so. -PMD