INDYCAR News and Notes – July 27, 2015
1. Chaves Impresses in Midget Racing Debut: Five-time U.S. Auto Club National Sprint Car champion Levi Jones’ strongest advice to Gabby Chaves was imparted before the initial practice for the Tony Stewart Classic Midget race at the Lincoln Tech Indianapolis Speedrome.
“Relax. Have fun,” Jones told the Verizon IndyCar Series’ Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, who had not sat in a Midget before accepting the invitation from Honda Performance Development to compete in the inaugural event July 25 on the one-fifth-mile paved oval racetrack.
The Midget’s steering wheel is twice the size and with significantly fewer gauges than the one in the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda Chaves drives in the Verizon IndyCar Series. The driver sits upright, there’s no paddle shifting and the Honda engine is in the front.
“The crew laughed when I went for the seat fitting and (looked around the car),” said Chaves, who turned 22 on July 7. But, as competitors and spectators discovered in the heat races and the 100-lap main event, Chaves was quickly up to the task.
“A race car is a race car,” the 2014 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires champion said.
He qualified 11th for the final and was running third at the mandatory 75-lap break for tires and chassis adjustments. That’s when Chaves was presented another opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
Shepherd Insurance was offering a $10,000 bonus to the driver who would restart from the rear of the field and make his or her way to the front in the final 25 laps. When the first- and second-place drivers declined, Chaves endeared himself further to the crowd by accepting the Tail Gunner Challenge.
“It was worth a try,” said Chaves, who stormed back to finish fifth. “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in the beginning of the race, but after a few laps I felt very comfortable, felt very quick and saw that I could really challenge any of the guys up front. We put on a great show and I am very happy and thankful for the opportunity that Honda and HPD gave me. I had a blast.”
Kyle Hamilton of Danville, Ind., took the victory, leading Laps 14-100. Kyle O’Gara, a development driver with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, started 18th and finished seventh. CFH Racing team manager Andy O’Gara, Kyle’s brother, placed 25th.
NASCAR star and 1996-97 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Tony Stewart earned his first USAC feature victory at the Speedrome, which has hosted USAC racing since 1958 when Gene Hartley, the winner of USAC’s first-ever race in 1956, won a 50-lap Midget feature.
2. Firestone’s New Rain Tire to Gain Traction with Teams: Spectators, TV viewers and Verizon IndyCar Series teams will be able to better distinguish which cars are running Firestone Racing’s new rain tire by its silver stripe, which complements the red stripe on the alternate tires used on road and street courses.
The new rain tires will be available this weekend at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, should wet conditions necessitate their use on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Beyond the packaging, the year-long rain tire development process utilized state-of-the-art technologies to meet the goals of safety, reliability and raceability on a variety of wet surfaces. The tread pattern and tread depth are the same as the previous rain tires introduced in July 2014.
“There are a lot of things we’re doing behind the scenes to make sure we’re putting the best possible product on the racetrack. For the first time, we used a lot of our company’s internal tools to look at the compound on a small scale,” said Dale Harrigle, chief engineer for Bridgestone Americas Motorsports and manager of race tire development.
Experimental compounds were run through a wet friction test to evaluate which had the most wet traction. Then a handful of tires were built and taken to Bridgestone’s proving grounds in Texas for wet traction testing in addition to “other machines in-house that we can run full-size tires on to evaluate wet traction,” Harrigle said.
“We took all of those tests and boiled it down to which compound performed the best and that’s the compound we picked for this rain tire,” he added.
Verizon IndyCar Series teams provided data of typical loads and speeds on wet road/street courses, which was instrumental in developing the tire construction.
“We optimized the tire to better fit wet conditions. We did that virtually through 48 different simulation cases on the front and rear tires and came up with the construction we wanted to use,” Harrigle said.
“The key features of this new rain tire is it’s a new tread compound optimized for wet grip. A silver stripe was added to the sidewall so it’s easier for the fans and teams to identify who is on rains, who is on primaries (black-sidewall, dry-condition tires) and who is on alternates (red-sidewall, dry-condition tires).”
Harrigle said he expects rain tire wear to be about the same as the previous rain tires, which had a softer compound.
“A lot of it is surface-dependent,” he said. “It will be a learning process for teams and drivers. The biggest challenge for us is the concrete (on portions of some circuits), which is smooth.”
3. Did You Know? 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship: Leaving Iowa Speedway on July 18, Juan Pablo Montoya’s wrist hurt a lot more than the result of his first DNF of the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
Though the Team Penske driver placed last in the 24-car field because of a Lap 10 single-car crash in Turn 2, in which he sustained a bruised wrist, Montoya’s championship points lead didn’t incur much of a dent as a few challengers incurred mechanical issues.
With three races remaining, Montoya’s margin is 42 points over the surging Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Three-time series champion Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing is 48 points in arrears and Helio Castroneves of Team Penske is 54 points out of first.
Thirteen drivers remain eligible for the title entering the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 2. The top seven, which also includes reigning series champion Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais of KVSH Racing and Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti, cannot be eliminated from championship eligibility this weekend, no matter how they fare.
The 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has been the most beneficial to Dixon’s title charges in recent years, with five victories among his seven podium finishes in the past eight years. In three races at Mid-Ohio, Montoya won in his 1999 championship season.
The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway, which Montoya won last year, is Aug. 23 and the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma is Aug. 30 at Sonoma Raceway. The finale carries double points (100 to the winner, 80 for second, 70 for third, etc.).
Championship facts:
• Montoya leads the Indy car championship with three races to go for the second time in his career. He also led the CART point standings with three to go when he won the 1999 championship.
• Montoya leads Rahal by 42 points. Montoya has led the championship since winning the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg.
• With 54 maximum points available at Mid-Ohio, the points lead could change for the first time in 2015.
• There are 13 drivers mathematically eligible for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series championship: Montoya, Rahal, Dixon, Castroneves, Power, Bourdais, Andretti, Josef Newgarden, Tony Kanaan, Simon Pagenaud, Carlos Munoz, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball.
• One driver was eliminated from championship contention at Iowa – Takuma Sato.
• Since the first Indy car race at Mid-Ohio in 1980, nine drivers have won on the road course in their Indy car championship-winning seasons: Johnny Rutherford (1980), Mario Andretti (1984), Bobby Rahal (1986), Michael Andretti (1991), Al Unser Jr. (1994), Alex Zanardi (1997), Montoya (1999), Paul Tracy (2003) and Dario Franchitti (2010).
Drivers still eligible for championship: 13
Key championship points statistic: The driver who has led the championship with three races to go has failed to win the championship in four of the last six seasons. Only Franchitti in 2011 and Power in 2014 have won the title when leading with three to go.
Largest 1-2 points differential since – 2013: With three races to go, this year’s points margin (42 points separate first and second) is the largest since the 2013 season when Castroneves and Dixon were 49 points apart. The average deficit with three to go since 2008 is 27.0 points.
Championship-eligible drivers with strong results at Mid-Ohio: Dixon is a five-time Mid-Ohio winner and has won three of the last four races at the track … Castroneves won the CART races at the track in 2000-01 … Montoya won the CART race in 1999 … Power has five top-10 finishes in six starts at Mid-Ohio … Bourdais has three top-five finishes in five starts … Pagenaud has two podium finishes in four starts at Mid-Ohio.
Recent championship chases with three races left:
2014
Leader: Will Power (548). Second: Helio Castroneves (-4). Third: Ryan Hunter-Reay (-63).
Final Margin and Champion: 62 points, Will Power.
2013
Leader: Helio Castroneves (501). Second: Scott Dixon (-49). Third: Simon Pagenaud (-70).
Final Margin and Champion: 27 points, Scott Dixon.
2012
Leader: Will Power (379). Second: Ryan Hunter-Reay (-5). Third: Helio Castroneves (-26).
Final Margin and Champion: 3 points, Ryan Hunter-Reay.
2011
Leader: Dario Franchitti (475). Second: Will Power (-26). Third: Scott Dixon (-75).
Final Margin and Champion: 18 points, Dario Franchitti.
2010
Leader: Will Power (528). Second: Dario Franchitti (-23). Third: Scott Dixon (-85).
Final Margin and Champion: 5 points, Dario Franchitti.
2009
Leader: Ryan Briscoe (497). Second: Dario Franchitti (-4). Third: Scott Dixon (-20).
Final margin and champion: 11 points, Dario Franchitti.
2008
Leader: Scott Dixon (558). Second: Helio Castroneves (-78). Third: Dan Wheldon (-138).
Final margin and champion: 17 points, Scott Dixon.
2007 (IRL)
Leader: Dario Franchitti (518). Second: Scott Dixon (-8). Third: Tony Kanaan (-52).
Final margin and champion: 13 points, Dario Franchitti.
2007 (CCWS)
Leader: Sebastien Bourdais (283). Second: Robert Doornbos (-53). Third: Will Power (-62).
Final margin and champion: 63 points, Sebastien Bourdais.
2006 (IRL)
Leader: Helio Castroneves (376). Second: Sam Hornish Jr. (-8). Third: Dan Wheldon (-17).
Final margin and champion: Tie between Hornish and Wheldon. Hornish won by virtue of most victories.
2006 (CCWS)
Leader: Sebastien Bourdais (310). Second: AJ Allmendinger (-62). Third: Justin Wilson (-62).
Final margin and champion: 89 points, Sebastien Bourdais.
2005 (IRL)
Leader: Dan Wheldon (517). Second: Tony Kanaan (-79). Third: Sam Hornish Jr. (-96).
Final margin and champion: 80 points, Dan Wheldon.
2005 (CCWS)
Leader: Sebastien Bourdais (276). Second: Oriol Servia (-61). Third: Paul Tracy (-65).
Final margin and champion: 60 points, Sebastien Bourdais.
4. Penske Joins Pair of Halls of Fame: Verizon IndyCar Series team owner Roger Penske is known as “The Captain” because he runs his race teams with military-like precision that has paid off in a record 16 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race victories. It could also relate to his business acumen.
Penske, the founder and chairman of Michigan-based Penske Corporation, a leading international transportation services company, was among the inductees into the Automotive Hall of Fame on July 23.
A winning driver in the late 1950s, Penske was named 1961’s Sports Car Club of America Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated. After retiring from competitive driving, in 1965 he formed what has gone on to be one of the most successful teams in Indy car and stock car racing history.
Penske, whose other business interests include the Penske Automotive Group, was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1995.
Others to be honored during the Automotive Hall of Fame ceremony included: Elwood Hayes, co-founder of the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company in Kokomo, Ind., Rodney O’Neal, former CEO and president of Delphi Automotive; Ratan N. Tata, founder of Tata Motors in the United Kingdom; and Luca di Montezemolo, former chairman of Ferrari.
Penske was also honored during the Tony Stewart Classic at the Lincoln Tech Indianapolis Speedrome on July 25, joining Clint Brawner, Jimmy Caruthers, Butch Hartman, Lindsey Hopkins, Jim Hurtubise, Don Kenyon, Sheldon Kinser, Fred Lorenzen, Larry Rice, Shorty Templeman and Sleepy Tripp as inductees into the U.S. Auto Club Hall of Fame.
5. Of Note: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced a multiyear partnership with Ganesh Machinery, which offers a full line of CNC machining and turning centers. As an associate partner, Ganesh Machinery branding will be on both SPM cars in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. … Bryan Herta Autosport’s Global Rallycross team, with driver Patrik Sandell, won the final at Belle Isle in Detroit on July 26. Gabby Chaves, BHA’s Verizon IndyCar Series driver, recently tested Sandell’s car as the team prepared for the Belle Isle event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis … Verizon IndyCar Series drivers James Hinchcliffe, Sage Karam and Simon Pagenaud were among the attendees at NASCAR’s Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard on July 26. It was Hinchcliffe’s first visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since he was injured in a May 18 accident during practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Sources: Mike Kitchel/ Verizon IndyCar Series PR