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Race Fan 101: NASCAR vs IndyCar Infographic

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

August 27, 2012 8:49 am UTC No Comments

Not everybody who watches a race knows what a splitter or “push-to-pass” button is all about. The Quicken Loans folks have made this infographic available that explains some of the differences between NASCAR – actually Sprint Cup – and IndyCar racing. I thought it might come in handy for newbies and don’t-really-wanna-be-s.

NASCAR vs. INDYCAR: What’s the Difference?

NASCAR vs. INDYCAR: What’s the Difference? – An infographic by the team at Quicken Loans Racing

Filed under: Indy Cars, NASCAR, NASCAR Tech, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: IndyCar, NASCAR 101, Quicken Loans Racing

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At Last NASCAR Victory for the Son of Sam

by Charlie Turner

November 12, 2011 10:07 pm UTC No Comments

Sam Hornish Jr won the 2011 WypAll 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway. Finally triumph for the Penske Racing driver whose first NASCAR start came at the same track in a Nationwide Series race in 2006.

One win in almost six seasons of NASCAR.

But Hornish won 19 races in eight seasons of IndyCar (CART and IRL) including three championships. He won the 2006 Indianapolis 500. He’s a helluva good driver.

Watching Hornish hold off his teammate Brad Keselowski over the last 25 laps, I was on the edge of my seat. I can’t remember wanting a driver to hold on more than I did Saturday. It wasn’t a big race in relative terms and the result had little to do with history making. It didn’t save a career, or validate anything. But it felt good to me.

Congratulations Sam Hornish Jr and Penske Racing. Now go get some more.

Photo credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Indy Cars, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Phoenix International Raceway, Sam Hornish Jr

Tagged with: WypAll 200 presented by Kimberly-Clark

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Rest in Peace Dan Weldon

by Charlie Turner

October 17, 2011 3:22 pm UTC No Comments

Sadly, we pray for the family and friends of another racer. Godspeed Dan Weldon.

Photo credit: Jordan Tabak – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Indy Cars, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Tagged with: Dan Weldon

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IndyCar Race Review: Cafes do Brazil Indy 300

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

October 4, 2010 10:33 am UTC No Comments

The final race of this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series season ended in triumph for Chip Ganassi and heartbreak for Roger Penske.

Ganassi driver Scott Dixon took the checkers in the Cafes do Brazil Indy 300, the final IndyCar race to be held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while an eighth-place finish was more than enough for teammate Dario Franchitti to clinch his third championship in four years.

Meanwhile, championship leader Will Power, Team Penske’s best driver this year, felt the agony of defeat after brushing the wall with only 65 laps to go. Trying to get by lapped traffic, he brushed the outside wall and damaged his right rear suspension. Power finished a disappointing 25th, completing a 17-point swing in favor of Franchitti this weekend that gave the Scot this year’s championship by five points.

Franchitti, however, did not escape drama himself; after falling in the field toward the end of the race, Milka Duno wrecked in front of him very late in the race, which would have caused him to finish either 23rd or 24th and lose the title by under 10 points.

Franchitti, Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, and Andretti Autosport Tony Kanaan dominated the early part of the race, but Dixon, who started second, began to lead laps as the race wore on. While Franchitti led a majority of laps, with 128 out of the 200 spent pacing the field, Dixon took the lead for good with 27 to go and extended a nearly three second lead over second place.

That second step on the podium was occupied by none other than Danica Patrick, who is more than happy to finish a tough 2010 season. Patrick’s strong run, combined with a 21st-place finish by Justin Wilson, allowed her to barely sneak into 10th place in points despite a slew of problems and poor finishes this season.

Kanaan managed to take third, with Briscoe fourth and Helio Castroneves fifth.

The top ten in the final championship standings were Franchitti, Power, Dixon, Castroneves, Briscoe, Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Dan Wheldon, and Patrick.

Filed under: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Indy Cars

Tagged with: Cafes do Brazil Indy 300, Chip Ganassi Racing, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, IZOD IndyCar Series, Scott Dixon, Team Penske, Will Power

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IndyCar Race Preview: Cafes do Brazil Indy 300

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

October 2, 2010 12:58 pm UTC No Comments

The IZOD IndyCar Series will take the green flag one last time at the Homestead-Miami Speedway tonight for the Cafes do Brazil Indy 300. Besides being the final race of the IndyCar season, it will be the final race of the near future at Homestead, after the longtime open-wheel hosts and the sanctioning body could not come to an agreement for a 2011 event.

As such, expect tonight to be a show of great magnitude, with both sides looking to go out with a bang.

The biggest storyline remains the championship battle between leader Will Power and second place Dario Franchitti, the defending series champ. Franchitti will start on pole alongside his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon. Meanwhile, Power’s Team Penske machine will roll off the grid third.

The pole comes with a bonus point, one of three available per weekend. Franchitti came into the race weekend 12 points behind Power, meaning a win after leading the most laps in the race would seal the championship for him no matter what Power does; since first place pays 10 more points than second, even a 1-2 between the two contenders would mean Power would lose the title by a single point.

But neither Power nor his Team Penske teammates are willing to concede the first IndyCar title for owner Roger Penske since 2006 so easily. Teammate Ryan Briscoe paced final practice after qualifying fourth, while Helio Castroneves will attempt to back up wins in the series’ past two races with a march to the front from 10th on the grid. Castroneves and Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan will actually serve as co-grand marshals of the event, giving the command to start engines from the cockpits of their cars.

Homestead marks the final opportunity of the year for a handful of winless drivers to grab one checkered flag before the season ends. The top seven in points have all won a race, but eighth place Dan Wheldon, ninth place Marco Andretti, 10th place Justin Wilson, and 11th place Danica Patrick are just some of the big names that have not seen victory lane this year. Of them, Wheldon stands the best shot; the three-time Homestead winner (2005-07) and Panther Racing have been achingly close to victory in the past few domestic oval races.

The race will also inevitably mark the final event for a handful of driver-team combinations, as plenty of teams will be looking to move up in the ranks for 2011. The question right now is who will stay and who will go. As recently as last week, Panther and Wheldon were considered the most likely to separate, after two years of mutual frustration and a lawsuit filed for $2.5 million in back wages by Wheldon’s management. Now that the suit has been settled, however, Panther owner John Barnes is discussing bringing Wheldon back.

Justin Wilson and his Z-Line Designs sponsorship are a hot commodity, as are the talents of Simona de Silvestro and Graham Rahal. Meanwhile, a handful of Firestone Indy Lights graduates appear ready for the big time in 2011, with Ana Beatriz, James Hinchcliffe, and Sebastian Saavedra likely to attract at least some interest from team owners.

Meanwhile, in the Lights race, Pippa Mann will roll off the grid first. Charlie Kimball will join her on the front row, while series champion Jean-Karl Vernay will start 12th and clinch this year’s championship upon taking the green flag.

Filed under: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Indy Cars

Tagged with: Cafes do Brazil Indy 300, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Homestead-Miami Speedway, IZOD IndyCar Series, Team Penske, Tony Kanaan, Will Power

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IndyCar Race Review: Indy Japan 300

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

September 20, 2010 4:58 pm UTC No Comments

Helio Castroneves led 153 out of 200 laps from the pole to take the victory in the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi on Sunday.

It was Castroneves’ third IZOD IndyCar Series win of the 2010 season, coming in the series’ penultimate race. It was also Castroneves’ second consecutive win, after taking the honors at Kentucky. The Brazilian Team Penske driver also won at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this year.

Castroneves won his 25th major American open-wheel race in dominant fashion, handily beating his Chip Ganassi Racing rival Dario Franchitti and Penske teammate Will Power. Ryan Briscoe and 2008 winner Danica Patrick rounded out the top five, with defending race winner Scott Dixon directly behind in sixth.

Franchitti, who clinched the A.J. Foyt Oval Championship in this race by 16 points over Franchitti, positioned himself to make a run for his second consecutive IndyCar title at Homestead in two weeks. Franchitti now trails Power by a mere 12 points in the overall standings with only the Homestead-Miami Speedway race to go.

The race was hindered in the final stages by a 19-lap caution to clean up debris spread by a major crash in turn two. Alex Lloyd dragged parts down the backstretch before finally coming to rest a long way from where he initially hit the wall. It was Lloyd’s second caution of the day, after an early race caution had already cost him 16 laps in repairs.

Lloyd was not the only driver to make friends with the wall in Japan on the weekend of Friendship Day. Bertrand Baguette received terminal damage on the second lap of the race, while Mario Moraes only completed a third of the distance before hitting the wall. Moraes was removed from his car and put on a stretcher as he complained of back pain.

Three Japanese drivers took part in the race: Takuma Sato, Hideki Mutoh, and American-born Roger Yasukawa. All three completed the race; Sato finished 12th, Mutoh came home 14th, and Yasukawa placed 20th, five laps down. It was Sato’s first IndyCar race in front of his home fans, Mutoh’s first race in front of his father, and Yasukawa’s first race of the season after previously spotting for Sato during oval races.

Only three drivers managed to lead laps during the event: Castroneves, Briscoe, and Raphael Matos, who inherited the lead by not pitting during the Moraes caution. However, an alternate pit strategy early did Matos no good later on, as he fell to 18th, the last car on the lead lap. Most drivers ended up finishing close to their starting positions, with Patrick (12th to 5th), Graham Rahal (16th to 8th), and Alex Tagliani (23rd to 13th) the three biggest gainers on the day.

The IZOD IndyCar Series will close out its 17-race schedule with the October 2 season finale at Homestead, the Cafes do Brazil 300. Franchitti took this race and the season championship with it last year.

Filed under: Indy Cars

Tagged with: Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Indy Japan 300, IZOD IndyCar Series, Team Penske, Will Power

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