JULY 7, 2021
Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 08:26AM 
(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Team Penske XPEL Chevrolet) drove to the first victory of 2021 for himself and Team Penske on Sunday, leading 73 of 80 laps and holding off a charging Marcus Ericsson (No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Huski Chocolate Honda) to win The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the HPD Ridgeline. It ended a dry spell of nine races without a victory for Newgarden and Team Penske, the winningest team in INDYCAR SERIES history. The win was the first for Newgarden and Team Penske since the 2020 season finale last October at St. Petersburg. Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden scored his 19th career victory on the same weekend that the legendary Team Penske is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first INDYCAR SERIES win, which was by Mark Donohue on July 3, 1971, at Pocono Raceway. “I’d start each stint and feel like we had everything under control,” Newgarden said. “You get to the back end of it, and I felt like I was starting to fall apart, so it was really hard to hang on. I had my wing man, Tim (Cindric, Team Penske president), coaching me all the way, just making sure I knew what was up. This team has been doing the job. Everyone has been giving me a hard time, asking what’s up with us not winning a race. But I don’t think these people at Team Penske could have done anything different. We’ve been in the game almost every race, had great performance. It’s great to seal a win here finally.” Ericsson’s late charge fell just short, but he earned his seventh top-10 finish of the season. Championship leader Alex Palou captured the final podium position in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing NTT DATA Honda. Reigning and six-time series champion Scott Dixon helped Chip Ganassi Racing take three of the top four finishing positions, ending up fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Grow Up Great Honda. 2016 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Alexander Rossi finished fifth in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda, his best result this season. After the final pit stop, the gap between Newgarden and Ericsson ebbed and flowed over the next 15 laps, with Newgarden padding his lead to 7.1 seconds on Lap 66. But then Newgarden started to encounter slower traffic ahead, and Ericsson began using his push-to-pass button more often to draw closer. Ericsson pulled to within 2.6 seconds with five laps remaining, slicing that margin to 1.4 seconds with two laps to go. When the white flag waved to signal the final lap, Newgarden led Ericsson by .8665 of a second. One mistake, and it could have been a third consecutive race of late calamity for Newgarden. But he kept his cool and deftly maintained enough of a gap from the slower traffic ahead so those cars’ turbulent air didn’t affect the handling of his machine and also didn’t let Ericsson get close enough to attempt a pass for the win. Newgarden averaged 108.405 mph in the victory. “We had a great day,” Ericsson said. “I’m really proud of the whole team. We were pushing very, very hard there at the end to catch Josef. A couple of more laps, and we could have challenged for it. But overall, P2 was a very good result today.” The strong day for Chip Ganassi Racing ended with three of its drivers in the top five of the series standings. Championship leader Palou is 39 points ahead of Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP. Dixon is third, 56 points behind Palou. Newgarden remained fourth, 69 points back of the leader, and Ericsson jumped three positions to take fifth in the standings, 104 points behind Palou. The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, Aug. 8 on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, which starts a stretch of three consecutive race weekends for the series. After Nashville, the series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix on Saturday, Aug. 14 and then shifts to World Wide Technology Raceway for the final oval race of the season, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Saturday evening, Aug. 21. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media) Watch the race highlights here.
(Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Chase Elliott gets a hug from his father Bill, after winning the Jockey Made in America 250 in the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was out front for a race-high 24 of the 62 laps, holding a 5.705-second margin of victory at the end. His second win of the season was the 13th of his Cup Series career. It also marked his sixth win in the last eight road-course races for the Cup Series. “Yeah, I never felt like I got in a real good rhythm all of yesterday,” said Elliott, who was 14th in Saturday’s lone practice and started 34th after cautions scuttled his qualifying laps. “For whatever reason there, after about halfway through the race, I started finding some of that rhythm, was able to put it together, piece different parts of the track. Finally I felt like I was able to piece most of it together. Yeah, stayed with it and glad it worked out.” Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) was second, finishing just ahead of JGR teammate Kyle Busch in third. The race was the first event for the Cup Series at the famous 4.048-mile Wisconsin antural-terrain road course - "America's National Park of Speed" - since 1956, when NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock prevailed in a Mercury. The Xfinity Series has raced at the Elkhart Lake venue each year since 2010. (Thank you to NASCAR Wire Service) Watch race highlights here.
(Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Lisi Niesner)
Max Verstappen (No. 33 Red Bull Racing Honda) raced to victory in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday (July 4th). Verstappen crossed the line 18 seconds clear of Valtteri Bottas (No. 77 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team) in another dominant performance, with Lando Norris (No. 4 McLaren F1 Team) finishing a superb third. Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team) sustained damage after running on the kerbs at Turn 10, dropping him from runner-up to fourth. The seven-time world champion is now 32 points behind Verstappen following the Dutchman's commanding win at Spielberg's Red Bull Ring. Hamilton was running in second for the majority of Sunday's 71-lap race but was unable to keep Bottas and Norris behind as he nursed his wounded Mercedes. Initially, Bottas was told by the Mercedes pit wall not to race Hamilton, hoping their star driver would be able to hang on to second and limit the championship damage to rival Verstappen. But with Norris breathing down Bottas's neck, Hamilton was asked to concede the position with 19 laps remaining. Two laps later, Norris, on the most impressive afternoon of his three-season Formula One career, then moved on to Hamilton's gearbox before striking with a fine move at the left-handed sixth corner. The world champion pitted at the end of the lap and his chances of a podium were over. It was Verstappen's fifth win in nine races. After holding off Norris on the run down to the opening corner, the Dutchman never looked back and his victory was greeted with huge cheers from the 60,000-strong Red Bull Ring. "It is incredible for everyone to have delivered this," said Verstappen following his 15th career win. "Today has been amazing. It was insane to see all the fans and so much orange. It is great motivation for me, too." (Thank you to Phil Duncan/The Telegraph) Watch the race highlights here.
(IMSA)
Smart strategy and deft fuel saving on a wet track led to the first victory of the season for Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi V.R) in the IMSA WeatherTech 240 at The Glen on Friday evening (July 2). Nasr took the lead during pit stops shortly after the end of a 46-minute red flag for weather late in the race. Nasr then stayed ahead of the field after a late restart to conclude an emotional victory. “It was just awesome,” Nasr said. “That’s what racing is about. It’s hard. When you pull it out, it really amazes you.”The strategy, to which Action Express Racing committed before the race, allowed the team to take fuel only during the final pit stop while others were receiving full service. That let Nasr leap the field and take the lead. Only it wasn't certain that Nasr had enough fuel to reach the end of the race. “Once we got that second yellow after the restart, that helped us a lot,” Nasr said. “But I was still saving fuel. We are so limited on the capacity that we don’t have the luxury to go flat out all the time, but that second yellow helped us out big time.” Nasr crossed the line 1.473 seconds ahead of Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi V.R he co-drove with Kevin Magnussen. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura DPi ARX-05 driven by Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor finished third, increasing its lead in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class to 81 points over the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi and drivers Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis. (Thanks to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service)
In Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), Felipe Fraga completed a sweep of Watkins Glen’s 11-turn, 3.4-mile circuit, adding the WeatherTech 240 to Sunday’s victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hour of The Glen. The win, the fourth for the No. 74 in five LMP3 races this season, extended co-driver Gar Robinson’s lead in the class driver standings. The call by Riley Motorsports to keep the No. 74 Ligier JS P320 on track after the red flag – despite worn tires – was crucial, Fraga said. “We only did one pit stop,” Fraga said. “That put us in front of them because we didn’t stop for fuel and tires, of course. But that was a little bad for the tires because they already had one cycle of temperature before the red flag. It’s not so good when you go hot, cold and then hot again. At the end of my stint, I was suffering a little bit.” Fraga won by just 0.276 seconds over Dylan Murry in the No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier he shared with Jim Cox. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett were third in the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season resumes July 17 with the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. The GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes will be the sole competitors. The DPi, LMP2 and LMP3 classes return to action Aug. 6-8 in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)After a red-flag stoppage of nearly 45 minutes during the IMSA WeatherTech 240 at The Glen for lightning midway through the race, Antonio Garcia, finishing the race that co-driver Jordan Taylor started in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, found himself running second to teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. Given a shot of confidence after turning a couple green-flag laps before the red flag, Garcia blew past his teammate coming out of the last turn on the restart and pulled steadily away to win by 1.895 seconds over Milner and co-driver Nick Tandy in GTLM. It is the third win in four points-paying races this year for Garcia and Taylor. “I knew before the restart that I could switch on the tire a little better than (Milner), so I was all out,” said Garcia, who now has 25 IMSA wins. “He got caught on the last corner with some (prototype) car and I got past. After that, you just had to close your eyes and trust that the grip would be somehow there. The first two laps, I knew that would be the main thing of the race. That’s where I pulled out those two seconds and kept the distance from that point on. I just took a little bit more risk than Tommy did and opened up the gap.” Garcia and Taylor made it a sweep of the two Watkins Glen weekends, taking the GTLM pole position and race win in both. Corvette Racing now has 117 wins in IMSA competition. “Just another great day for Corvette Racing with a 1-2 finish,” Taylor said after collecting his 29th career win, “and for us in the No. 3 car to go to back-to-back with the Six Hour last week.” (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service)
Like Garcia in GTLM, Jack Hawksworth made his decisive GTD move on the first lap of the last restart – except the Brit launched past two cars in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Running third when it went green, Hawksworth overtook Jeff Westphal in the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 and Vasser Sullivan teammate Zach Veach in the No. 12 Lexus on the same lap. Though Veach harassed his teammate the rest of the way, Hawksworth held fast despite being down on straight-line speed after a piece of left-front bodywork came loose from the car to bring out the final caution that set up his double pass for the lead. Hawksworth won by 0.707 seconds, earning his seventh career win and the fourth for co-driver Aaron Telitz. It’s the first win for the No. 14 and Vasser Sullivan since Mid-Ohio last September. “That race was a roller coaster of emotion,” Hawksworth said. “We obviously had the wrong tire choice in quali yesterday and started eighth. Aaron did a great job to get us to fourth. We had that (bodywork) damage and at one point I thought we were going to be done. Then to win the race is amazing.” Hawksworth attributed the deciding passes to his ability to generate higher temperatures and pressures more quickly in his Michelin tires. “The Lexus generates a lot of tire temperature,” he said. “I made a big lunge into Turn 1, which worked, and then Zach was struggling a little bit on cold tires and I was able to nip him as well.” Veach and Frankie Montecalvo finished second in the No. 12 Lexus, with Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis taking third in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The next WeatherTech Championship race features just the GTLM and GTD classes. The Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut airs live on NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass and IMSA Radio at 3:10 p.m. ET Saturday, July 17. The NBCSN telecast begins at 5:30 p.m. (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service)
(Trans Am by Pirelli)
Chris Dyson (No. 20 CD Racing ALTWELL CBD Ford Mustang) delivered his third-consecutive Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli victory on Sunday in front of a sold-out Road America, taking a giant step forward in a bid for his elusive first Trans Am championship. Dyson took the lead on a lap 11 restart and led the rest of the way, padding his points lead in the race for the TA title. Entering the race with a 12 point advantage, the four-time 2021 winner now leads Tomy Drissi by 23 points, 177-154. "What a day for us, putting the No. 20 ALTWELL CBD Ford Mustang on podium at Road America for the second year in a row, it's a dream come true," said Dyson, whose team won the Chill Out Award for a double-podium finish. "I am just so delighted to see all these fans out here this early today. This place is packed, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of energy, and I was feeling every bit of it out on the track, I was feeding off it." "It was a handful today" Dyson continued. "The conditions were pretty slick out there. I was playing with all the tools and experience I had to get us up front. When I have Tomy Drissi, Boris Said, Cody Ware, Ernie Francis Jr. and Guy Smith out there behind me, that's a tall order to stay ahead of those boys. The car was fantastic, I felt like I dug really deep and was rewarded with a victory." Boris Said (No. 2 Weaver Racing Technique/SRI Dodge Challenger) took second, 8.290 seconds back, after leading the opening two laps. In position for a third-place finish, championship challenger Drissi went for broke in Turn 14 on the final lap in the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro. He led eight laps in the early going, but lost several positions on the first restart. Bidding to take second on the last lap, Drissi went spinning when Said slammed the door, falling to an eighth-place finish. Guy Smith capitalized on Drissi’s misfortune by taking third in the No. 21 CD Racing/Thetford Ford Mustang. (Thank you to Trans Am by Pirelli Media)
