Race Weekend Central

Reconstructing the IndyCar Portland Start Calamity

Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou in front of the major calamity at Portland

(Photo: Matt Fraver/INDYCAR)

Sunday’s (Sept. 12th) Grand Prix of Portland started the way the last two NTT IndyCar Series races have started at Portland International Raceway: with an incident in the Festival Chicane. With numerous cars having damage from all of the incidents and others scattering all over the place, it’s worth looking at the sequence of events …

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Pato O’Ward Loses IndyCar Points Lead in Portland

Pato O'Ward at Portland

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

Pato O’Ward‘s slim lead in the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series standings disappeared after Sunday’s (Sept. 12) Grand Prix of Portland when the Mexican racer finished 14th. Up ahead of him, fellow title rival Alex Palou earned the victory, claiming the points lead in the process. O’Ward started seventh but INDYCAR placed him as the race …

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A Deeper Dive Into Romain Grosjean’s Oval Debut

Romain Grosjean at Gateway Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR Media)

Romain Grosjean’s goal of completing all 260 laps came up one lap short at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at WWT Raceway at Gateway, but the NTT IndyCar Series rookie looked like a series veteran en route to a 14th place finish. Looking a little deeper, that result shouldn’t be surprising. The Formula 1 veteran …

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Will Power Wins Indy Road Course for 5th Time

2021 headshot of Will Power, Verizon 5G firesuit, Chris Owens/INDYCAR Media

(Photo: Chris Owens/INDYCAR Media)

To begin the tripleheader race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Will Power delivered for his team owner, NTT IndyCar Series owner, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway track owner Roger Penske. Power led 56 of the 85 laps en route to winning the 2021 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix Saturday (Aug. 14). It …

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Pato O’Ward Narrowly Claims Pole at Indianapolis Road Course

Pato O'Ward Celebrates Pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)

INDIANAPOLIS — Pato O’Ward barely claimed his fourth NTT IndyCar Series pole position for Saturday’s (August 14th) NTT IndyCar Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course over the driver with the second most pole positions in American IndyCar history. O’Ward went around the 14-turn, 2.439 mile road course in 1 minute, 10.7147 seconds …

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A Closer Look at Marcus Ericsson’s Nashville IndyCar Win

Marcus Ericsson on the streets of Nashville

(Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR)

“There was a man, and he was flying!” While yes, Conor Daly was referring to Tony Kanaan during the 2020 INDYCAR iRacing Challenge race at Watkins Glen, that statement also applied to Marcus Ericsson during Sunday’s (August 8th) Music City Grand Prix, the 11th race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season. The 80-lap race …

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What Mattered for IndyCar on Saturday at Nashville

Josef Newgarden on the streets of Nashville

(Photo by James Black/INDYCAR)

NASHVILLE — The inaugural Music City Grand Prix brings the NTT IndyCar Series to the streets of Nashville and the 2.17-mile, 11-turn circuit has provided the teams and drivers with a large technical challenge. Some teams have risen up to the challenge and unloaded off the transporter with a setup to match the circuit. Drivers …

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Colton Herta Dominates Qualifying, Wins Pole at Nashville

Colton Herta bouncing through the Streets of Nashville

(Photo by James Black/INDYCAR)

NASHVILLE — Josef Newgarden may be Nashville’s hometown hero but Colton Herta has quickly made the street circuit near the Tennessee Titans stadium his own as he qualified on pole for Sunday’s (August 8th) Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. The No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda went around the 11 turn, 2.17 mile street circuit …

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What Mattered for IndyCar on Friday at Nashville

Colton Herta practicing on the streets of Nashville

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

NASHVILLE — Bumpy bridges and uncertainty greeted the NTT IndyCar Series in their first practice session ahead of Sunday’s (Aug. 8) Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville, but Colton Herta overcame that to turn the fastest lap in practice. The uncertainty began even before the IndyCar practice session, as during the second …

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2021 IndyCar Summer Break Update: The Improvers

Conor Daly and Max Chilton at Carb Day in 2021

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

Sometimes preseason predictions can be a bit off for the NTT IndyCar Series, and in 2021 that was certainly the case with a couple of our Improvers. For example, an excerpt from the preseason preview about Alex Palou: “Expect Palou to get a couple of podiums in 2021 if the 2020 season was just a …

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2021 IndyCar Summer Break Update: Race Win Contenders

Rinus VeeKay and Sebastien Bourdais at Mid-Ohio

(Photo by Matt Fraver/INDYCAR)

In the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series, some drivers have lived up to the pre-season moniker of being a race win contender. Some have gone above and beyond, while others seem to have a black cloud following them wherever they go. Let’s take a look at how the drivers picked as race win contenders before this …

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