The Morning Warmup: Speed and Shunts in Indianapolis
High Speed, Hard Crashes A challenging Wednesday pushes two IndyCar teams to backups and repairs By Aaron Bearden
THE PODIUM: TOP THREE STORIES
P1: Newgarden leads practice as Alonso, Rosenqvist crash (IndyCar)
Wednesday's second day of practice served as a reminder of just how treacherous the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval can be. Josef Newgarden led the way with a 39.326-second lap, but it was a pair of crashes from retired Formula 1 start Fernando Alonso and rookie Felix Rosenqvist that stole the day.
Alonso was rolling through the turns when he hit the outside wall, beginning a crash that saw him slide down into the inside wall and nearly go airborne before rolling back into the outside wall. The incident put McLaren in a challenging position, with the team electing to rebuild both the crashed car and put together a Carlin-built machine that will serve as its new primary entry.
Another hard hit came as the practice session was winding down. Rosenqvist was rolling through Turn 2 when his Chip Ganassi Racing machine stepped out on him. The rookie then spun, resulting in a hard hit on the outside wall before Rosenqvist's Honda buried itself in the tire barrier on the exit of Turn 2. Rosenqvist later described the incident to media on-site.
Both drivers were unhurt in their respective crashes, and the practice session continued on. Newgarden topped the charts, besting a top-five that included Scott Dixon, Spencer Pigot, Santino Ferrucci and Helio Castroneves. All 36 entrants set times, completing a combined 3219 laps and setting down fast times separated by just .7879 seconds. Complete results can be found here.
P2: Mazepin tops first day of testing with Mercedes (F1)
Nikita Mazepin's first day behind the wheel of a 2019 Mercedes ended atop the speed charts. Mazepin laid down more than 100 laps and set quick time on the second day of Formula 1 testing in Barcelona. The Formula 2 competitor wasn't mistake-free, beaching his machine in the gravel trap outside of Turn 12 early in the day, but he managed to complete 128 laps and run within a quarter second of Valtteri Bottas' top time in the same car on Tuesday.
The day proved chaotic by testing standard, with five stoppages including an ending under red after Alexander Albon came to a halt on-track with nine minutes left. Despite stalling, Albon ended the day as the second-fastest driver for Toro Rosso. Antonio Fuoco was third, with Charles Leclerc fourth as he completed tire-testing duties for Pirelli. Kimi Raikkonen completed the top-five.
P3: Lance Dewease beats the Outlaws at Lincoln Speedway (World of Outlaws)
Score another win for the PA Posse. Lance Dewease toppled the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series field to claim the Gettysburg Clash at Lincoln Speedway. The victory was Dewease's 31st-career Outlaws triumph, moving him ahead of Jason Sides to sit 31st on the all-time wins list.
“It’s great to get this week started off good and hopefully if I can’t win Friday or Saturday somebody else does,” Dewease said as "Posse" chants rang out from the crowd. “It’s a neat fanbase. We have the best fans in the world as far as I’m concerned. They love our racing. They come out in rain and snow. So, we’re pretty fortunate.”
David Gravel spent a good portion of the night challenging Dewease, claiming the Dash and leading the opening half of the feature. But it was Ryan Smith that ultimately finished second, surging past Gravel in the closing laps. Gravel followed in third, with Brad Sweet and Shane Stewart rounding out the top-five.
Highlights from the midweek show can be seen on the World of Outlaws YouTube page.
Other News and Notes On Track Today:
- The NTT IndyCar Series continues on with Indy 500 practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Live on NBC Sports Gold)
NASCAR:
- Martin Truex Jr. gave the NASCAR Champion's Journal to 2018 Cup Series champion Joey Logano on Wednesday at Catwalk for a Cause.
- Speaking of Truex, he'll pilot an old paint scheme of his own in September's trip to Darlington Raceway.
- Good news for American fans of the NASCAR Pinty's Series - the tour's races will be streamed live on FansChoice.TV this year.
- The stars of the Xfinity Series made their way to Philadelphia for a takeover on Wednesday. A photo gallery from the event can be seen on NASCAR.com.
- Like anyone else, Kevin Harvick isn't 100% sure of what to expect with the rules package for this weekend's All-Star Race. But he hopes to be a fan of it.
- Kyle Busch hopes to cap off a sweep of the Truck Series races he's allowed to enter this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
IndyCar:
- After finding early success this year, Michael Shank Racing is keen to keep building toward a full-season IndyCar program in future years with Jack Harvey and Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
- The Marshall Pruett Podcast kept busy on Wednesday, launching the second part of its series on Roger Penske's effect on the Indy 500, sharing the latest Week in IndyCar episode with Mike Hull and wrapping up with a recap of the day in Indy with Katie Hargitt.
- The latest edition of Robin Miller's Mailbag features many questions about the rainy, entertaining road course race from last weekend.
- Before they invaded the IMS oval, the stars of IndyCar paid a visit to the Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
F1:
- The latest edition of Beyond the Grid features a discussion with former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi.
- Pietro Fittipaldi claimed to have little issue switching between his standard DTM ride and the Haas F1 car this week.
Sports Cars:
- Teams are taking a wait and see approach to Hypercar regulations as talks continue.
- Erin Vogel will make her Pirelli GT4 America debut with Flying Lizard Motorsports next month at Sonoma Raceway.
- TDS Racing team principal Xavier Combet believes LMP2 cars need to keep their current speed in the next vehicular leap for teams to stay happy.
- R-Motorsport team principal Dr. Florian Kamelger was overjoyed with the team's DTM debut with Aston Martin.
Dirt:
- Alex Bergeron has dominated the early stretch of the iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car World Championship. He claimed another big win at Williams Grove Speedway on Monday,.
Short Track:
- Ryan Repko will pay tribute to UNCC shooting victims when he competes with the CARS Tour at Motor Mile Speedway.
- No track feels more like home than Wall Stadium for Jimmy Blewett.
Other:
- Eli Tomac has signed a multi-year extension with Monster Energy Kawasaki.
- Supercars has opened a tender for a sealed, control damper with plans of implementation as soon as 2020.
- Super Formula drivers have been happy with the tour's new overtake system thus far.
- After experimenting with a four-day format this year, the Bathurst 12 Hour will return to a three-day format next season.
Thank You
I've been keeping low-key on this, but as support builds for Motorsports Beat we're beginning to near what I considered to be our first milestone dollar amount.
I set out a few different goals when the outlet was first launched, and as those goals are reached I intend to add staffing, online resources and tools to the outlet. Given the current growth I believe the first step of that will be possible by summer's end, if not sooner.
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Fast Fact
The recent IndyCar era of the Indianapolis 500 has seen winners from outside of the top-10 with more frequency than any other, but it has still yet to see a winner from deeper in the field than 28th. That mark was hit in the very first running by Ray Harroun in 1911, and has been matched Fred Frame (1932) and Louis Meyer (1936). No one has won the race from outside of the top-20 since Johnny Rutherford in 1974.
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