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Autosport.com wrote:Penalties give NHLR front row sweep

By Matt Beer and Jeff Olson Saturday, April 25th 2009, 21:47 GMT


Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team-mates Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos will share the front row of the grid for the Kansas round of the IndyCar Series after post-qualifying penalties dropped Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves from second and third to the back of the field.

The Indy Racing League judged that championship leader Franchitti (Ganassi) and recent returnee Castroneves (Penske) had both violated the rules by crossing the white line at the bottom of the track during their qualifying laps.

It was the second time in his last four IndyCar races that Castroneves had been hit by such a penalty, as he had committed the same infraction in the title decider at Chicagoland last September, on that occasion coming from the back of the grid to take victory in the race.

Rahal had already claimed pole position before the penalties were applied, but the revised grid sees his rookie team-mate Doornbos gain a remarkable front row position for his first ever oval start.

The result is not only Rahal's first ever oval pole, and his second in three races this season, but also the first time that one of the teams that joined from Champ Car in 2008 has topped an oval grid.

"Qualifying pace has always been our issue on ovals," Rahal said. "To be honest, I think a lot of people thought it would be an issue again here for us. Certainly it hasn't been."

Franchitti held first for much of the session, holding on even when Castroneves looked set to beat him before losing pace on the last of his four qualifying laps.

But encouraged by Doornbos's impressive qualifying run, Rahal, the last driver on the track, put together an effort strong enough to top Franchitti.

"When I was told what Robert did time-wise in qualifying, I really did think we could go faster than that," Rahal said. "We were good on our own in practice."

The penalties mean that Danica Patrick will start from third for Andretti Green Racing, alongside reigning champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi), with Marco Andretti showing much-improved form to take fifth for AGR and KV Racing's Mario Moraes securing a career-best sixth on the grid.

Revised qualifying order:

Pos Driver Team Speed
1. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 211.311
2. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan 210.665
3. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 210.470
4. Scott Dixon Ganassi 210.368
5. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 210.220
6. Mario Moraes KV 210.197
7. Ryan Briscoe Penske 210.098
8. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 210.082
9. Dan Wheldon Panther 209.144
10. Ed Carpenter Vision 208.956
11. Sarah Fisher Fisher 208.543
12. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 208.537
13. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 208.506
14. Vitor Meira Foyt 208.461
15. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon 208.382
16. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 208.145
17. Justin Wilson Coyne 207.971
18. EJ Viso HVM 206.779
19. Stanton Barrett 3G 205.820
20. Ryan Hunter-Reay Vision 205.673
21. Dario Franchitti Ganassi -
22. Helio Castroneves Penske -

Autosport.com wrote:Tracy to return for Canadian rounds

By Matt Beer Wednesday, May 20th 2009, 17:44 GMT


KV Racing Technology has announced that it has extended its deal with Paul Tracy to cover the IndyCar Series' two Canadian events.

Former Champ Car champion Tracy has joined KV in a second car alongside Mario Moraes for this weekend's Indianapolis 500, and has qualified 13th for the race.

The Canadian remains hugely popular in his home country, and his entry for the Toronto and Edmonton races in July will be a major boost to both events.

KV team co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven said Tracy's performance at Indianapolis so far had proved he still has a lot to offer the championship.

"Paul is one of the greatest and most exciting drivers in the history of the sport and has shown here at Indianapolis that he still has what it takes to be competitive," he said. "We look forward to having him drive for KVRT in front of his countrymen."

Tracy came from 16th on the grid to fourth at Edmonton last year in a one-off drive in a Vision Racing entry run by Derrick Walker's team, and hopes he can achieve similar success on home ground with KV.

"I want to thank Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser for the opportunity to continue my career and race in my home country," Tracy said.

"I feel very fortunate to be able to race in front of my hometown fans with a very competitive team. KVRT has shown that it can compete with the top teams in the series and I am confident that we will have strong performances at both the Canadian races."

Ian-S wrote:I'm not sure cutting the downforce will fix it, IRL cars (even this generation) have always had bucket loads of downforce and produced good racing in the past.

The problem is everybody knows every little trick about the cars, and the cars are identical, they all run the same speed and there's no disparity between them, so it's impossible to gain that little bit extra somewhere.

They need to look at the aero, give them manual boxes and steel brakes (cos even on short ovals/roadies they've been crap this year as well).

Autosport.com wrote:IRL changes aero to improve racing

By Matt Beer Wednesday, July 1st 2009, 09:32 GMT


The Indy Racing League has announced tweaks to its aerodynamic rules for oval races in a bid to improve the quality of racing in the IndyCar Series.

For the Kentucky event on 1 August, which is the next oval on the schedule after July's trio of road and street courses, the teams will have additional aero options with tyre ramps, sidepod extensions and brake backing plates.

The intention is that these modifications will give the option of adding up to 300 pounds in additional downforce, which the IRL hopes will encourage more overtaking.

Recent processional oval races have come in for increasing criticism, with the nadir being reached at Richmond last weekend when first and second place finishers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti apologised to the crowd for the lack of entertainment.

The race saw most passes completed in the pits, and the leaders struggling to lap backmarkers whose times were a second slower around the 0.75-mile track. Although the Milwaukee and Iowa events saw more on-track passes, the Kansas, Indianapolis and Texas rounds had also featured very little of the wheel to wheel action for which the championship's superspeedway races used to be renowned.

IRL competition president Brian Barnhart said it was extremely important that the series restored its reputation for close racing.

"We have always prided ourselves on doing our best to create the most entertaining and compelling on-track product in motorsports, and I think in the last several years - especially with this version of race car - we've been very successful in achieving that," he said.

Last weekend at Richmond championship leader Franchitti refuted suggestions that the lack of passing was due to all the teams being so closely matched now that many had six years' experience of the Dallara-Honda package used by all competitors.

"I don't think it's because things have equalised because there were some people out there with horrible handling cars," he said.

"We couldn't get around them. At the start of the run, we'd run 16.8s, then dropped to 17.0s, as the things equalised. And you catch traffic and you'll be running 18.0s and 18.2s on a normal lap."