Colton Herta was the fastest driver during Thursday’s overcast and contact-laden hybrid NTT IndyCar Series test at Iowa Speedway. The Andretti Global driver’s No. 26 Honda turned an unofficial best of 16.954s around the 0.875-mile oval, which …
Colton Herta was the fastest driver during Thursday’s overcast and contact-laden hybrid NTT IndyCar Series test at Iowa Speedway. The Andretti Global driver’s No. 26 Honda turned an unofficial best of 16.954s around the 0.875-mile oval, which recently underwent a repaving in the corners. It compares favorably to the pole time of 17.725s set last year by Team Penske’s Will Power on the old surface and in a non-hybrid car that weighed approximately 100 pounds less.
Second on the overcast day that had an afternoon interruption by rain was Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Chevy (16.971s), followed by Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson in third with the No. 28 Honda (17.008s), Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in fourth with the No. 15 Honda (17.022s), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in fifth with the No. 5 Chevy (17.055s), and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon completed the top six in the No. 9 Honda (17.103s).
Defending race winner Josef Newgarden made light contact in the afternoon in his Penske entry, and RLL’s Pietro Fittipaldi also got into the wall with a harder hit. Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean met the wall as well, and the rough day for Penske continued when Power crashed.
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Feedback from some drivers pointed to the emergence of a single lane to use at the bottom of the track, but there was optimism that the upcoming Hy-Vee doubleheader weekend will offer more great racing.
“I think it’ll be very different this year; the racetrack is basically brand new and with the repave in the corners, it’s going to drive totally different than what it did,” Newgarden said. “I love this track. I always have and I like the area. Newton (Iowa) comes alive during race weekend more so now, because of the involvement with Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee has been such a great partner for us and they’ve made this a destination event.”
RLL’s Rahal shared in Newgarden’s enthusiasm.
“I think (the partial repave) has leveled the playing field,” he said. “It’s a big day; it’s a good day to have a test. Obviously for us as a team, Hy-Vee is our biggest partner and we really want to do well for Hy-Vee here. The commitment Hy-Vee made to our sport is unlike anything else. And so, we want to win for them.”
Today’s NTT IndyCar Series test at Iowa Speedway will give the series a chance to learn more about its new hybrid powertrains, the newly paved 0.875-mile oval’s grip, and how both interact ahead of the series’ July 13-14 doubleheader at the track. …
Today’s NTT IndyCar Series test at Iowa Speedway will give the series a chance to learn more about its new hybrid powertrains, the newly paved 0.875-mile oval’s grip, and how both interact ahead of the series’ July 13-14 doubleheader at the track.
IndyCar structured the test to make use of two cars in the morning to run through a range of fact-finding outings spearheaded by Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy and Colton Herta in the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda. With one hour reserved for the series, the former Indy NXT teammates were set to try three different downforce settings and report back to the series on the positives and negatives of each configuration.
With 27 cars scheduled to test, the series will also gather widespread info on how the use of its new energy recovery system (ERS) on its quickest circuit — in terms of lap times, which have been in the high 17-second range in qualifying — are utilized by its teams. Due to the constant turning and passing, drivers will be far busier than at any other track, which could limit their ability to manage traffic, the car’s handling, and active energy harvesting and deployment.
ERS usage habits will be captured by the series, which has given drivers a maximum per-lap energy deployment of 105 kilojoules of power per lap on top of the 700-plus hp generated by the 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 internal combustion engines made by Chevy and Honda, and 30 newton meters of torque contributed by the motor generator unit.
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IndyCar has also informed its teams of the need to weigh each car on the series’ technical inspection scales, minus fuel, driver, driver equivalency ballast, and drink bottle, to establish a minimum weight for the 27 hybrid Dallara DW12s and derive an average that will be used as the new hybrid-spec minimum starting at the July 5-7 Mid-Ohio race where IndyCar’s new hybrid era will launch.
Teams have been told to anticipate a final hybrid minimum weight that is between 100-105 pounds above the non-hybrid road/street course specification minimum of 1,680 lbs used through last weekend’s race at Laguna Seca. The new minimum weight will also change the pre-hybrid speedway minimum of 1,635 lbs and the short oval minimum of 1,670 lbs.
Former Wisconsin Badger one of the most athletic RB prospects in NFL Draft history
Former Wisconsin Badger and Louisville Cardinal Isaac Guerendo is one of the most athletic running back prospects in NFL Draft history.
His NFL combine and pro day testing led to a Raw Athletic Score of 9.97 (out of a possible 10.00). According to the creator of the metric, that number ranks No. 7 out of 1804 running back prospects from 1987 to 2024.
Those testing numbers include a 4.33-second 40-yard dash, 4.15-second shuttle, 6.94-second 3-cone drill, 41.5-inch vertical jump and 10’9″ broad jump.
Guerendo finished his four-year Wisconsin career with 99 carries, 582 rushing yards and six touchdowns. He then excelled in his one year at Louisville, adding 132 carries for 810 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The electric running back is projected to be selected in the 4th or 5th round of the upcoming NFL Draft — though his athletic testing may raise that projection a bit.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the …
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the sanctioning body to help gauge car performance and make any Balance of Performance changes — especially with the new crop of GT3 cars coming in from Ford and Chevrolet — it will be critical for the teams in preparation for the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the rest of the season.
For the Grand Touring Prototype teams, it affords them the opportunity to build upon the knowledge they’ve gathered over the first season with the cars and try some new approaches. Last year, most of the teams running the brand-new LMDh-specification cars were simply trying to figure out how to run the things and make sure they would last 24 hours. Mission accomplished, they can now turn their attention to wringing more performance out of their machines.
“One of the things that we’re excited about with our carryover program for ’24 is we’re able to focus on the car and understanding it more as well as making sure we have all the support on the GM and Dallara side ready to help the teams be successful,” says GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser. “One of the most challenging things this year has been the lack of time. We’ve been running race to race to race, and we’d occasionally slip in a test. Really, it was our race schedule in 2023 that kept us busy, which was phenomenal because you can’t have a better test than a race to see what you can do with the car.”
Racing proved to the teams that the cars are more durable and reliable than many expected. The races showed what can go wrong, and how to correct the problems to keep the car on track. But it’s hard to find the time in a race weekend to try the little things that can add up to significant time over the course of every lap.
“Toward the end of the season with the couple of tests we had, we started to learn more about the car and what makes it go and what doesn’t work,” says Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. “It’s just going to take time. People think we’ve had a lot of testing, but it was all centered toward homologation and reliability. We’re still really green on knowledge of the car as far as designing setups and getting performance out of it.
“Since we homologated the car, there’s really been little time to optimize it and understand it as far as finding that last half a second that’s a game-changer when you come to race weekends. It’s going to be a continuous learning process, trying to make numbers fall into place and validate the reads.”
Bourdais and company are eager to move beyond the basics in optimizing the capabilities of their LMDh prototypes. Richard Dole/Lumen
Bourdais is one of several Cadillac Racing drivers who will be testing next week at Daytona. Cadillac Racing won the 2023 GTP title with the No. 31 V-Series.R courtesy of Whelen Engineering and drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. With the addition of endurance driver Jack Aitken, they also took the the Michelin Endurance Cup. Bourdais and Renger van der Zande also scored a victory with the Chip Ganasssi Racing squad at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, helping Cadillac to the manufacturers’ title. Despite what can only be called a successful season in the inaugural year of the new GTP class, there’s no resting on the laurels — there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“Like any new car, you always want more testing, more practice time. Especially when it’s such a complex race car with the hybrid, and a heavy car makes for a longer road in terms of development,” explains Derani. “We’re a year and a bit into the development of this car but only just now starting to understand a few things that make sense to the setup and how we make this car go quicker. Still a lot to improve from everyone.
“We’ve done a strong job despite all the difficulties we had this season. It’s always a learning process and you have to be humble enough to know you have to continue that way if you want to succeed in this series.”
But beyond just working on the car, like every team Cadillac Racing also has new team members and drivers to bring into the loop. Aitken moves from endurance third driver on the No. 31 to full-time partner to Derani. Tom Blomqvist shifts from Meyer Shank Racing and Acura to join Derani and Aitken for the endurance events in addition to competing in his rookie IndyCar season. For those drivers especially, any testing time is critical.
“We have a lot to work on and improve; I think that’s the case for everybody with these cars that are still so early in the development cycle that everybody is learning quickly,” Aitken says. “We’ve made massive gains through the season, but when you don’t have racing, it gives everybody the opportunity to breathe a little bit and the capacity to make some changes and updates and advancements. It’s going to be a busy period for us. The race to be ready for the Roar and Daytona will be pretty intense. Though it feels a long way from now, it will come around quickly.”
The GTP teams, along with LMP2, will be on track next Wednesday and Thursday, joined by GTD PRO and GTD on Thursday before the series turns its attention to two days of targeted performance testing of the GTD cars.
With one NTT IndyCar Series road course test completed for Andretti Autosport, the next step in the education of 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist was to throw the Swede onto a big oval, and thanks to Bobby Rahal and the Rahal Letterman …
With one NTT IndyCar Series road course test completed for Andretti Autosport, the next step in the education of 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist was to throw the Swede onto a big oval, and thanks to Bobby Rahal and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, the 24-year-old nearly completed a full race distance on Monday at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I’ve followed Linus the last couple of years and being alerted to him by with Kenny Brack, and Kenny’s always spoken highly of him,” Rahal told RACER. “I wasn’t there, but all the feedback I got was that he did great. Very professional, very workmanlike. Just got in there and got with the program and he did as many laps as you would run in a race. All in all, you know, everyone was pleased.
“As I told him, we’re not looking for lap records. Just do a solid job, enjoy it, learn from it. It’s your day. I talked to him last night, in fact, and he was like a kid at Christmas. Was very appreciative of the opportunity. It was all good from our end.”
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Lundqvist turned his attention to American open-wheel racing after winning the 2018 British Formula 3 championship and soon added a 2020 Formula Regional Americas title to his quiver before graduating to Indy Lights. After dominating the series last season, the only educational gap left for the lifelong road racer to fill was at a 220mph oval like the one in Texas.
“I spoke to as many drivers and as many engineers I could before the test hoping to prepare myself a little bit, but nothing could prepare you for that, man,” Lundqvist said. “It was unbelievable. I’m not gonna lie…the first couple of laps, my stomach and head weren’t sure I if I should throw up or pass out…but I was fine. I had so many emotions on the first couple of laps.
“Proud of the day that we had, and it did run by very smoothly. Maybe the first 10 laps, I was like, ‘All right, this is fast.’ But then, by lap 11, you’re just like, ‘OK, how can we go a little bit faster and a little bit faster? How can we move my scrub?’ Very quickly, my brain turned on to performance mode. That was nice to see, because obviously I’ve never done an oval in IndyCar, I’ve never done a superspeedway before. So I wasn’t really sure how I was going to react. But I loved it.”
Along with the seat time, Lundqvist says the chance to be a part of RLL’s development process furthered his education toward a career as an IndyCar racer. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
Lundqvist spent the majority of the day working with RLL’s engineers to test different chassis setup concepts to find some of the speed that was missing during last weekend’s race. According to Rahal, a number of beneficial directions were identified with Lundqvist in the car that should improve the team’s fortunes on the next oval.
“It was great to have been a part of that,” said Lundqvist who spent almost eight straight hours strapped into the No. 45 Honda, barring a 10-minute break to heed nature’s call. “Obviously very impressive to see the scale of which they operate — the tools and all the data that they have access to is a big step and some new things to learn for me. It was great opportunity and a great honor to do a test together with those guys. The Indy 500 is coming up, and hopefully I played a small part and maybe they can then step a bit closer to the front.”
RLL doesn’t have any open seats to offer Lundqvist at the moment, but that didn’t stop Rahal from continuing his long tradition of helping young talent to gain more mileage or advance their standing in the IndyCar paddock.
“We are trying to help him, and I think I do have a little bit of a track record with bringing people into the sport or trying to help them resurrect their careers, whether it was Buddy Rice, or Ryan Hunter-Reay, or Danica (Patrick),” Rahal said. “Christian Lundgaard is someone we gave a shot to more recently, and we’ve tested Juri Vips a couple of times and there will be others.
“And now that Linus has done a big speedway like Texas, hopefully that makes him more attractive to anyone thinking about drivers for the Indy 500 or wherever else they might find themselves with a need. A lot of this goes back to my experience with Jim Trueman. Everybody thinks that I’m the only one he ever really got behind, but he got behind a lot of people and he enjoyed giving somebody a chance and seeing them run with it. I’m just trying to follow what Jim did for me and emulate him.”
Nearly 10 years removed from her last NTT IndyCar Series outing, Katherine Legge spent Monday at Texas Motor Speedway preparing for her return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where she’ll attempt to qualify for her third Indianapolis 500 in May. …
Nearly 10 years removed from her last NTT IndyCar Series outing, Katherine Legge spent Monday at Texas Motor Speedway preparing for her return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where she’ll attempt to qualify for her third Indianapolis 500 in May.
Sought and signed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to pilot the No. 44 Honda, the Briton re-acclimated herself with the DW12 chassis and all of the new components, including its mandatory aeroscreen, which have been added since her last IndyCar race at Indy in 2013.
“My first thought when I left pit lane was, ‘Wow, I do not remember it being this fast!’ she said. “I was in awe of how incredible it was and what a feeling it is. It did not hold, though, as you get comfortable relatively quickly. But even on the last runs of the day, you still have a healthy respect for how fast Texas really is and you’re still in awe of the speed at which these cars can run but you feel a little more relaxed at knowing you have the capability of doing it. At the beginning it’s very much like being a deer in headlights but it soon comes back.”
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Legge shared the track with oval rookie and reigning Indy NXT champion Linus Lundqvist, who was invited to test in a second RLL car. The Swede was put to use at times to lead Legge and give her an opportunity to spend time in the draft and practice passing. Her next outing in the No. 44 Honda will come later this month during the compulsory Indy 500 open test.
“I think the test went really well,” she concluded. “I think the team are happy and that we made some strides forward with both myself and also the car. Hopefully we can take some of that and it will translate at the Indy open test.
“We will look at data and put a plan together for the Indy open test. We’re also on the simulator before the test so there is yet more time to prepare. There will be more debriefs, meetings and pre-event reports and then get back on track for two days to continue to learn before opening day for the Indy 500. I’m looking forward to every bit of it.”
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was fastest among the 16 drivers in attendance on Monday at Barber Motorsports Park. The private test held on the fast Alabama road course ended with McLaughlin (66.222s) leading teammate Will Power (66.429s) in their …
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was fastest among the 16 drivers in attendance on Monday at Barber Motorsports Park. The private test held on the fast Alabama road course ended with McLaughlin (66.222s) leading teammate Will Power (66.429s) in their Chevy-powered entries and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard running third (66.525s), top among the Honda-powered drivers in attendance.
After Lundgaard, it was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in fourth (66.570s), Penske’s Josef Newgarden in fifth (66.753s) and Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong in sixth (66.767s). Among the 10 remaining drivers, only Estonia’s Juri Vips, who was drafted in to test while RLL’s Jack Harvey continues to recover from the significant crash he was involved in at St. Petersburg, was not a full-time IndyCar driver.
2023 NFL Scouting Combine: Broadcast schedule, how to watch, and more
It’s finally here: the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine is set to kick off this week, highlighting many of the top prospects in this year’s draft class. And the New Orleans Saints will be watching closely with personnel executives, coaches, and scouts all on hand as this year’s crop of college talent looks to set themselves apart. Here’s everything you need to know:
The Seattle Seahawks’ season came to a sudden end over the weekend after their wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. While many football questions remain to be answered over the offseason, for wide receiver Tyler Lockett, the most difficult part might be adjusting back to life off the football field.
“The hard part is not only do you lose in a playoff game but, now we have to go back to our homes and – you think about all the stuff that we’ve been through this whole year,” Lockett explained after the game. “Having to be tested every day, having to try to stay away from as many people as we possibly can, being careful with who we fly up here and who we’re around. Now, we literally have to go back to being at home, back into the real world.”
For many around the world, football and other sports, have been a welcome distraction over the last year. But the coronavirus precautions have taken a toll on the Seahawks’ players, who fortunately were able to keep their Reserve/COVID-19 list numbers down to some of the lowest in the league. However, resuming life on the “outside” will be challenging for Lockett and some of his teammates, especially with the future of next season still up in the air.
“It’s going to be hard to adjust but, it’s just going to be something that we’re going to have to figure out,” Lockett continued. “We don’t know if we’re going to have OTA’s. We have to figure out if the NFL is going to pay for us to get tested again so, probably won’t come back until the end of July. That’s a lot. Being at home all the way until the end of July especially during Covid when everything is shut down.
“It’s just one of those things where you kind of have to re-wire your mind and figure out how to adjust again.”
The Seahawks held meetings on Sunday before the players cleared out their lockers and parted ways for the offseason.
The New Orleans Saints placed starting wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders on the COVID-19 reserve list Friday after he recorded a positive test result, which Saints coach Sean Payton confirmed was a true positive after retesting.
At this point only one of Sanders’ teammates will be joining him on the reserve list: cornerback Ken Crawley, who was within close proximity to Sanders during Thursday’s practice. Payton clarified that Crawley has tested negative, but he has a health condition putting him within a high-risk category. So he’ll be away from the team out of an abundance of caution, in compliance with NFL protocols.
Additionally, the Saints used contact tracing to identify about 20 other players, coaches, and staff members who near Sanders over the last day, and Payton said that all of their test results were negative. So for now, there aren’t any concerns about an outbreak. This was something Sanders picked up at home.
It’s a big challenge to overcome. The Saints were already shorthanded at receiver — starter Michael Thomas and backup Bennie Fowler each missed practice time with injuries, and could also be unavailable against the Carolina Panthers this week — but this is going to happen with playing a high-contact, team sport like football during a public health crisis.
“It’s just 2020,” Payton finished at his Friday media conference call before taking the next question.
“I think it’ll be very different this year; the racetrack is basically brand new and with the repave in the corners, it’s going to drive totally different than what it did,” Newgarden said. “I love this track. I always have and I like the area. Newton (Iowa) comes alive during race weekend more so now, because of the involvement with Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee has been such a great partner for us and they’ve made this a destination event.”
