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Filed under: Penske Racing, IRL

After taking a week to consider the appropriate course of action, the IZOD IndyCar Series has placed three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves on probation for the remainder of the season and fined him $60,000 following a post-race meltdown July 25 in Edmonton, Canada.

Castroneves, the popular driver and former champion of the television show "Dancing With the Stars," was irate after being black-flagged for blocking his Team Penske teammate Will Power on a restart with two laps to go. He refused to come into the pits to serve his penalty then, and after the race grabbed an Indy Racing League (IRL) official by the collar in protest and frustration.

After meeting with Castroneves in Indianapolis Monday, Indy Racing League CEO Randy Bernard issued a statement saying that although he was disappointed in Castroneves' actions, he ruled out a suspension because "we felt suspension would hurt the fans more than anyone else."

Bernard explained, "Fans have paid their hard-earned money to watch the best drivers in the world and many bought their tickets for upcoming events with the expectation of watching Helio. He is a great ambassador for this sport and we know his actions after the race in Edmonton are not indicative of his normal behavior."

 

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Filed under: IRL

INDIANAPOLIS -- In an effort to entice nearly every automotive-related industry in the world, the IZOD IndyCar Series announced a new race car aimed to allow nearly unlimited technical innovation on a base chassis design.

Amid a sparkling lighting display usually reserved for a rock concert Wednesday at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard announced Dallara as the new chassis manufacturer for the open-wheel series along with a "Safety Cell" concept that will allow other manufacturers to provide changeable aero kits.

"This car puts everything all of our stakeholders want on the racetrack: safety, competition on and off the track, diversity, efficiency and more," Bernard said, standing in front of a video representation of the new Dallara. "The new car is also is a cost-effective package that positions the series for tremendous growth and enhances the series' relevancy to future automotive technology."

The new car choice was the brainchild of IndyCar's ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) Advisory Committee -- an eight-member team led by a retired U.S. Air Force general that included engineers, a track promoter and former Indianapolis 500 champion Gil de Ferran.

 

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Filed under: IRL, NASCAR

LOUDON, N.H. -- Hours before the green flag dropped for NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, track owner Bruton Smith, flanked by last month's Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and IZOD IndyCar Series Chairman Randy Bernard, announced that the facility will be on the IndyCar schedule next July.

Even New Hampshire Governor John Lynch attended the announcement in the track's infield. It will be the first IndyCar race in the area since two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart won in the series at this track in 1998.

"Rumors about this having been going on awhile and I can tell you everyone is looking forward to racing here,'' said Franchitti, who made three hot laps in his Target Ganassi Indycar just before the start of Sunday's LENOX Industrial Tools 301. "We'll put on a helluva show.''

Having the IndyCar Series at the speedway gives New Hampshire three major auto races, including two Sprint Cup Series dates, and has prompted a lot of speculation that Smith might be inclined to move one of the NASCAR race weekends to another of his facilities, Kentucky Speedway. That 1.5-mile oval, located between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, has hosted a successful IndyCar Series race since 2000 but does not have a NASCAR Cup Series date.

 

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Filed under: IRL

Nearly two weeks after a horrifying fire engulfed the race car of Simona de Silvestro during an IZOD IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, the Indy Racing League is blaming a mishandled safety response on "human error."

A review of safety procedures from the incident at Texas -- it took nearly 40 seconds for safety workers to start extinguishing the flames and begin freeing de Silvestro from her car -- have revealed a "procedural error in the packing of a fire hose" on one of the response trucks and also a "breakdown in Safety Team protocol" in its response, the IRL said in a statement.

"What happened at Texas was a a result of human error and we will work diligently to prevent this in the future,'' said Brian Barnhart, president of competition and racing operations for the IRL.

De Silvestro suffered minor burns on her right hand in the incident.

Video of the incident clearly shows a malfunction of a fire hose in the safety team's first response to the accident. As workers are frantically trying to pull de Silvestro from her blazing car, they ultimately end up using fire extinguishers from a second truck that arrived on scene moments later.

The IRL immediately conducted a review of the incident and determined the fire hoses were packed improperly following a routine test just prior to the race start meant to ensure the hoses were working.

 

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Filed under: IRL

The Indy Racing League announced Tuesday it will review its rescue response procedure after it took a safety crew nearly 40 seconds to free Simona de Silvestro from a fiery accident and start extinguishing the flames on her race car at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

De Silvestro's crew and family watched helplessly from the pits as a fire hose malfunctioned on the first rescue truck to arrive and she was initially trapped in the cockpit with flames surrounding her. While the safety crew arrived immediately, it took a second truck and backup fire extinguishers to put out flames from the oil fire as workers pulled her from the wreckage.

"The primary hose on the series' safety truck malfunctioned, so the safety team had to go to the backup of the bottles,'' the IRL said in a statement released Monday. "All equipment is checked prior to going on track before every race. We are examining why the hose malfunctioned to ensure this equipment failure will not happen again.''

 

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Filed under: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, FanHouse Exclusive, IRL

In his first in-depth interview since his June 30, 2009 dismissal as CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his subsequent resignations from the Hulman & Co. board of directors and as CEO of the Indy Racing League he founded, Tony George tells FanHouse how he's spent the past few months and how he is adjusting to his new roles in business, racing and family.

INDIANAPOLIS -- When Tony George resigned from the Indy Racing League in January, it came at a time, he says, when "there was still too much to do that I wanted to see through."

The former leader of American open wheel racing tells FanHouse of how difficult it was to give up the leadership of the IRL, the organization that he started. He calls accusations that he brought financial hardship to the IRL "wildly inaccurate," and says he "spent a lot less that it would have taken" to buy a professional sports team.

He talks of his love for IndyCar racing and tells of how he caught a pre-dawn commercial flight to
St. Petersburg, Fla., just after returning from a business trip in China, in an effort to catch the race
there in person.

In this first of two parts, George explains what he thinks is "the best thing that's happened for
Danica" this season and also predicts a 2010 breakout star. And the answers may surprise you.

George officially resigned from the IRL on his 50th birthday, Dec. 30, and when he returns to The
Speedway for the May 30 Indianapolis 500, his only responsibility, for the first time in his life,
will be that of team owner.

Through weeks of phone calls, a sit-down interview at George's Indianapolis-based Vision Racing
team headquarters, and pages of thoughtful written replies to questions, George discusses a wide
range of topics with senior writer Holly Cain.

One of the most significant -- and controversial -- figures in American motorsports during the
past 20 years, George is now eager to set the racing record straight in a lengthy and comprehensive interview that will be presented in two parts Tuesday and Wednesday:

 

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Filed under: IRL

The IZOD IndyCar Series announced Tuesday a first-of-its-kind championship format that will crown a road course champion and an oval track champion in addition to its overall series champ.

IndyCar will still use the current championship points system, but will now award a championship trophy and an undisclosed cash reward to the driver who scores the most points in each discipline.

The road course champion will be crowned following the Aug. 22 race at Infineon Raceway in California and the oval champion will be crowned Sept. 19 at Motegi, Japan -- two weeks before the overall champion is honored in the Oct. 2 season finale in Homestead, Fla.

"We want to recognize the drivers that master the disciplines that make up this sport as they pursue the ultimate prize - the IZOD IndyCar Series championship,'' IZOD IndyCar Series Chairman Randy Bernard said. " We feel this platform will give added value to events on our schedule and creates more momentum behind the drivers and teams that excel at ovals and road races."

 

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There are sports promoters ... and there are race promoters.

And then there is Eddie Gossage.

TheTexas Motor Speedway President is a scoop of mint chocolate chip in a sport getting more vanilla with each passing season.

While NASCAR's front office, its teams and drivers have succumbed to the politically correct, buttoned-down, corporate line-dance the sport has morphed into, Gossage, 50, is still doing a skillful Texas Two-Step.

He is the Lone Ranger, combining outlandish, anything-goes promotion with a sports savvy that would make his idols Evel Knievel and Muhammad Ali proud.

With the recent retirement of Charlotte Motor Speedway's H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, Gossage is the last of his kind, the end of the flamboyant line of old-school race peddlers who long ago realized a race's entertainment value sold as many tickets as a close finish.

 

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Filed under: Penske Racing, Sprint Cup, IRL

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Leaning back in his chair inside his motor coach during a break in action at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg recently, Roger Penske was jovial, accommodating and at ease.

And why not? It's been business as usual for Team Penske.

Newest hire Will Power has contributed his part to the Penske legacy, winning back-to-back races to open the season, a first for Penske Racing under the IZOD IndyCar Series banner. Power, returning to competition after breaking his back last season, takes a 44-point advantage in the championship standings to Barber Motorsports Park for Sunday's inaugural Grand Prix of Alabama.

Penske drivers Kurt Busch (Sprint Cup) and Justin Allgaier (Nationwide) have wins in the NASCAR ranks already season.

And we haven't even arrived at the team's real playground, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where this May 30, Penske will look to add a historic 16th victory in the Indy 500 to his monstrous tally and where his veteran driver Helio Castroneves goes for a record-tying fourth victory that would put him in the ranks with legends A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears.

 

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Filed under: IRL

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A polite smile and a quiet, 'thank you' for the congratulations. That's about all the emotion IZOD IndyCar Series, season-opening superstar Will Power could muster Monday.

The 29-year old Australian became the second driver in series history -- and first in nine years -- to win the first two races of the year, taking the victory in the weather-delayed Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He led every practice, won the race from the pole and answered his season-opening victory on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil two weeks ago.

He holds a 44-point advantage atop the point standings with, guess what, two more road course races coming up before the series holds its marquee, Indianapolis 500.

Overconfident, overjoyed, overwhelmed? Power appears to be none of those.

 

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