World Wide Technology Raceway – Syndication Server

Beckman wins NHRA Midwest Nationals in famed Force machine

Funny Car’s Jack Beckman picked up his first victory since taking over for legendary driver John Force, defeating Ron Capps in the final round of the 13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals, also winning his first race in nearly four years on Sunday at …

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 17th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the third of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Beckman went 3.856s at 315.86mph in his PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS, holding off Capps’ 3.882s at 329.42mph to record his 34th career win and first since 2020. Beckman was named the substitute driver for Force following Force’s crash in June, collecting points for the 16-time champ as Beckman attempts to win another title for the iconic Force.

To reach the final round, Beckman defeated J.R. Todd, Daniel Wilkerson, and points leader and teammate Austin Prock, snapping Prock’s streak of 14 straight round wins. Beckman moved into second in points and heads into the final three races trailing Prock by 105 points.

“[Our] guys just kept making the right call,” Beckman said. “You have all the confidence in your crew that whatever they have to do, we can go drag that thing back up there and it’s going to go down the racetrack. We made a monster lap in the final round. That was fantastic to see our guys turn the screws up and get more aggressive with it because that comes from confidence.

“There is potential pressure but it’s a complete honor to drive this car. John Force has done everything and we may not have seen the last of him yet. He is by all metrics the greatest of all time and he’s also a friend of mine. He’s also John Force. He’s his own personality. I am absolutely fine with having an asterisk next to John Force’s 17th title out there, but we have Mount Austin and Jimmy (Prock) to continue to try to close that gap on.”

Capps, now fourth in points, reached the final round for the fourth time this season and the 151st time in his career after defeating Buddy Hull, Bobby Bode and Blake Alexander.

In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher and his team appear to be hitting their stride at an ideal time, as Schumacher won for the second time this season with a run of 3.718s at 329.42mph in his Leatherwood Distillery/Waltrip Brewing Co. dragster to defeat Steve Torrence in the championship round. Remarkably, it is Schumacher’s first victory in the Countdown to the Championship since 2014 (Reading), which was also the year of the most recent of the standout’s eight world championships.

To repeat that, Schumacher, who now has 88 career wins, will have to stay red-hot to track down Antron Brown, but he is 103 points behind in sixth with three races remaining. On Sunday, Schumacher got by Julie Nataas, who was making her Top Fuel debut, and then recorded a massive second-round win against Brown. He defeated Shawn Reed to reach the final round, quickly chasing down Torrence to pick up the memorable victory in St. Louis.

“It was a great day,” Schumacher said. “Running Antron Brown second round, we had to go after it. You look back on moments like that and we made the choice to go after this stuff and run well. I’m proud of the guys.

“I haven’t looked at the points, I don’t know how far back we are. We hurt ourselves early on, but at the end of the day, that’s racing. We won the race, we did a great job, we get points, we’re closer than we were the moment we started this morning. Whether we win a championship or not, we did a heck of a job going out there. Is there time to win a championship? I don’t know. Is there time to win a few more races and be great and do what we’re expected to do by our sponsors? Definitely.”

Torrence reached the final round for the third time in 2024 and 90th time in his career after defeating Ida Zetterstrom, No. 1 qualifier T.J. Zizzo and Justin Ashley, who remained second in points. Ashley is 34 points behind Brown, while Shawn Langdon is 60 points back in third.

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The Pro Stock final featured another thrilling duel between Dallas Glenn and Aaron Stanfield, and Glenn got the better of Stanfield for the second straight race, going 6.577s at 207.82mph in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro to get past Stanfield’s 6.586s at 206.01mph. It strengthens Glenn’s points lead over Stanfield, as he now leads by 31 points as both young standouts attempt to win their first Pro Stock world championships, and also handed the 2021 NHRA Rookie of the Year his fifth victory.

It’s his second straight playoff victory as well, as Glenn got the better of Camrie Caruso, Mason McGaha and KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson to reach the championship round. Glenn followed with a sterling 0.010s reaction time and rolled to the wire-to-wire victory against Stanfield, picking up his 13th career victory in the process.

“Wins in the Countdown are harder than wins during the regular season,” Glenn said. “Everybody steps up their game, the points matter more, everybody brings their best stuff. Everything just gets tighter and more difficult. Looking at it, I have two wins and a semi in the Countdown and I barely have a round and a half lead. It’s definitely a lot tighter than I would like right now, but Aaron does a fantastic job. He’s a great driver, and I’m sure he’s going to be real tough for the remainder of the Countdown.

“Coming into this weekend I was thinking, St. Louis is usually where stuff starts happening. The first two races, the who’s who of the Countdown starts to be established. Then the big moves really start being made, kind of like the deciding race as to who is really going to be in the Countdown chase and who’s not really starts in St. Louis. There are only three races left, and there just isn’t a lot of time to gain points, especially when you have the same four drivers in the semis the first three races in a row. It’s really hard to gain points on somebody when they’re right with you the whole way.”

To reach the final round for the ninth time this season and 24th time in his career, Stanfield got past David Cuadra, Matt Hartford and Erica Enders. Enders remained third in points and now trails Glenn by 90 points.

After failing to win in the first two Pro Stock Motorcycle playoff races, defending world champ Gaige Herrera got back on track on Sunday, moving back into the points lead and taking his eighth victory of the season after a run of 6.805s at 198.12mph on his RevZilla/Mission Foods/Vance & Hines Suzuki to defeat Chase Van Sant’s 6.868s. It was an impressive bounce back weekend for Herrera, who qualified No. 1 and ran between 6.797s and 6.813s during all four elimination rounds to win for the 19th time in his career and the second straight season in St. Louis.

To get there, Herrera cruised past John Hall and Reading winner Hector Arana Jr., setting up a rematch of the Seattle final round. Van Sant won that, snapping Herrera’s streak of 11 straight victories, but Herrera rode past Van Sant on Sunday. Back in the points lead, Herrera leads Matt Smith, who lost in the second round, by 34 points.

“This means a lot. St. Louis is the halfway point in the Countdown, and to leave here with the points lead and get the win just gives me and the whole team a big boost going into Dallas and the rest of the races,” Herrera said. “If you don’t do well here, it sets you back and puts you in a different mindset.

“We’re leaving with a lot of confidence. I’m glad to say my bike’s back, especially after the last couple of races. I had a red light and in Charlotte had a malfunction and lost a decent amount of points to Matt and he got the points lead. I’m glad to get that back. It brings me a lot of confidence and I’m looking forward to going to Dallas. It’s always a fun race. I’m glad I get to win in St. Louis, I’m not far from here and it’s a beautiful facility. I’m glad the rain was only Friday. It was a good day of racing.”

Van Sant knocked off Chris Bostick, Richard Gadson and Geno Scali to advance to the finals for the third time in 2024. Gadson is third in points, 65 behind his teammate.

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action Oct. 9-13 with the 39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex in Dallas.

Zizzo, Prock, Enders, Herrera go No. 1 at NHRA Midwest Nationals

In a Top Fuel field filled with championship contenders, it was part-time racer T.J. Zizzo who impressed the most for the second time this season in front of a capacity crowd on Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway for the 13th annual NHRA …

Austin Prock (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also qualified No. 1 at the 17th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the third of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Zizzo raced to the No. 1 spot with a run of 3.714s at 327.66mph in his Rust-Oleum dragster. It’s the second career No. 1 qualifier for the veteran, who earned his first career top spot earlier this year in Chicago. He put together a similar performance on Saturday in St. Louis, holding off an absolutely loaded Top Fuel field.

He’ll open race day against Billy Torrence, looking to pick up his first career Top Fuel victory, and Zizzo had plenty to be excited about after two strong runs on Saturday.

“It’s spectacular. Our all-volunteer team, we do this because we love the sport. We love the sport of NHRA championship drag racing,” Zizzo said. “We come out here and qualify No. 1 twice now. As far as the mindset of a driver, it puts way more pressure on me. That’s what a good race car does. I can’t go up there and lollygag anymore, I have to go up there and get after it.

“The 16 (cars) that are qualified for the show, no joke, any one of us can win. It would be near and dear to my heart to be able to qualify No. 1 and then go four rounds tomorrow, but I know that’s a tough feat.”

Eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher impressed on Saturday as well, qualifying second with a 3.718s at 325.22mph and Brittany Force is third after going 3.722s at 314.39mph. Points leader Antron Brown, who has won the first two races in the Countdown, qualified 10th and will open eliminations Jasmine Salinas.

Funny Car points leader Prock rolled to his 12th No. 1 qualifier of the season for John Force Racing and just missed the track record set by Robert Hight in 2017, going 3.836-sat 330.72mph in his AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS. His 12th No. 1 qualifier this season also pulls him to within one No. 1 spot of tying John Force for the most top qualifiers in a single season in Funny Car history.

Prock has picked up 12 No. 1 qualifiers in the first 17 races and he remains focused on his quest for a first career world championship. The young standout has won the first two playoff races, holding a 129-point lead entering the weekend, and will try to pick up his eighth win of the year on Sunday.

“This whole team, they’re so incredibly smart and dialed in right now,” Prock said. “It sure is fun to drive. We were low both sessions and I’m really proud to be driving this AAA Camaro this weekend.

“We’re definitely not changing our mindset, we’re not laying up at all. We’re going out there and racing like what got us to this point. We want to get as much of a points lead as we can possibly have going into Pomona, and we’ve been doing a good job of that today. We racked up all the qualifying points today. It was another great day – stout runs, and we have a good hot rod for tomorrow.”

Chad Green jumped to the second spot during the final qualifier with a run of 3.876s at 325.77mph and Ron Capps took third on the strength of a 3.878s at 333.33mph.

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Looking to make a late-season run, St. Louis might be the place for defending Pro Stock world champ Erica Enders to do it and she made the most of Saturday’s two sessions, taking the No. 1 qualifier for the seventh time this year after a run of 6.565s at 208.01mph in her Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage/Melling Performance/Scag Power Equipment car. Enders thriving at World Wide Technology Raceway should be no surprise, as the six-time world champion has more wins at the facility than any driver in NHRA history.

Entering the weekend third in points, she’ll look to win for the seventh time in St. Louis on Sunday, opening raceday against Chris McGaha. Enders hasn’t won since the season-opening race in Gainesville and Sunday would certainly be an ideal time as she tries to track down points leader Dallas Glenn and Elite Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield.

“The [qualifying] points always add up, I’ve said that from the beginning of our career, and they made a huge difference in both of our ‘14 and ‘15 championship chases,” Enders said. “I imagine it will be the same this year, but to come off the trailer after a long day yesterday and go to the No. 1 spot, you want to run great but be good enough to get down. We made a huge error in the second qualifier but were still second for the session, and we’ll take that into Sunday and see what we can do with it.

“It’s extremely important to get down and go as fast as you can because you want those points, but you have to be conservative enough to not go out there and blow the back window out. It’s a fine line to be fast and a little bit out of control. I’m glad they got the track ready today and it was awesome for us.”

Glenn qualified second with a 6.570s at 207.66mph and his KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson took third after going 6.578s at 207.91mph.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Gaige Herrera delivered a stellar run to open qualifying on Saturday, going 6.796s at 197.74mph on his RevZilla/Mission Foods/Vance & Hines Suzuki, earning his seventh No. 1 spot of the season. Herrera, the defending world champ, entered the weekend in an unfamiliar spot, as Matt Smith took over the points lead last weekend with his victory in Charlotte.

Smith has been terrific in St. Louis over the years, but Herrera won the event last year and will attempt to make it two in a row at the pivotal playoff race.

“This is what makes it fun — between Vance & Hines and [Matt Smith Racing], we’re going back and forth, and that’s how it should be going through the Countdown,” Smith said. “The points are very tight, within one round, so I’m glad to get that No. 1 qualifier and see if we can continue this tomorrow and throughout race day. That’s all that counts.

“My mindset is just trying to go round-by-round. I really don’t look back at last year or yesterday, I just try to go out there and go A-to-B as a rider. It’s going to play out how it’s going to play out.”

Smith finished right behind in second thanks to a 6.807s at 198.12mph and Richard Gadson, who has advanced to the finals in each of the first two playoff races, is third after going 6.840s at 195.28mph.

Eliminations for the NHRA Midwest Nationals begin at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Summer break provided a useful reset for Lundqvist

Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist says the opportunity for a reset during the break in the schedule between Saturday night’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway and the previous race at Toronto three weeks earlier …

“Unbelievably happy,” he said. “We’ve had a season with a lot of ups and downs, let’s put it that way. I think the summer break was actually good, I think, for everybody on the team to kind of take a little bit of time to reflect — especially on my side — on the lessons that I’ve had to learn.

“Basically before that it was flat out since end of April. I haven’t had a proper time to go back and look through everything I learned. It was all preparation for the next weekend. The month of May was hectic. Good to get a bit of a break and kind of let everything settle down. Hopefully now with this momentum, we can finish the year off strongly and show what we learned.”

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Good vibes were important, but so were good tires. Lundqvist was fifth when the race was red-flagged with 10 laps to go after the restart crash involving Will Power and Alexander Rossi, but he’d just had a new set of Firestones bolted onto his No. 8 Honda a few laps earlier. The two cars ahead of him — those of teammate Alex Palou and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta — had not.

“I was nervous as anybody,” he said of the final restart. “Basically when they said we were P5 in the restart, I was like, ‘All right, I wouldn’t be too unhappy if I saw a checkered flag right now. I’d take a P5.’ Then the red came out.

“I was a little bit worried about what was going to happen with the guys behind us. They said, ‘Everybody else was a lap behind.’ That makes me feel a little bit better.

“I knew we had a pretty big tire advantage going forward. I think Alex and Herta had, like, 45- or 50-lap-old tires. We were basically on stickers. I knew we might have a possibility to do something here. Obviously got around Alex as he got squeezed into Turn 1, then one or two laps later we got the move done on Herta.

“Towards the end we had five or six laps to kind of let it go. I knew that a podium was on the cards and we got it done.”

Saturday’s third place matches Lundqvist’s career-best finish, which he scored early in the season at Barber, and comes at a time of uncertainty at CGR as the team weighs the possibility of needing to downsize from five entries to three to comply with the requirements of IndyCar’s proposed charter system, which mandates a maximum of three cars per team.

“My focus right now is just finish the year strong and try to show what we learned from the beginning of the year,” Lundqvist said. “I’d like to think we’ve showed that when everything comes together, we can be as fast as anybody, dare I say, and hopefully look forward to next year and to stringing it all together [to do] what we’re all here to do, which is compete for championships.”

WWTR side-by-side action exceeds expectations

Concerns about the prospect of a single-lane procession at World Wide Technology Raceway were quickly dispelled during Saturday night’s NTT IndyCar Series race, which featured regular passing all the way through the field as drivers exploited the …

The viability of the high line first became apparent during the special “high line” session prior to second practice on Friday, when cars went out in two groups with the specific mission of spending as much time high up the track as possible. The proliferation of overtaking during the race itself proved the point, but the other major ingredient behind the quality of the racing was the aero and tire package.

“I think I was one of the ones [expecting a procession] going into this race,” said Chip Ganassi Racing’s Linus Lundqvist, who finished third. “I wasn’t overly optimistic about how this was going to play out. I think firstly, IndyCar did a good job with the sweeping. That makes a tremendous amount of difference for us in the starts and restarts, just having the confidence to go high. You saw guys staying high for 10, 20, maybe 30 laps into a stint. I think that makes all the difference when it comes to IndyCar racing on ovals. I was happy to see that.

“I was happy to see there was a bit of tire deg. Not so much tire deg, but a difference in tire performance, new versus old. I think that’s a reason why we were able to get past Alex [Palou] and Colton [Herta] at the end — we had a tire advantage.”

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Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who finished second after being leapfrogged by teammate Josef Newgarden in the final pit stop, said the race was the product of a technical package that matched the conditions.

“I think it was a package thing; what we brought here with more downforce, because you’re that confident, especially as the tires get older, to get up there,” he said. “The tires aren’t completely screwed at the end of it.

“IndyCar has been working really hard to try to find a package. It’s early days with the hybrid. You’re going to have the races where we might not have the spectacle that we had [here]. I mean, I had a blast out there. Hopefully it looked good on TV.

“It’s just all about bringing the right package. I think they did that. We’ll continue to keep learning with the weight of the car, the hybrid, whatnot.”

Newgarden on Power: ‘I get that he’s upset’

Josef Newgarden said he intended to clear the air with Team Penske teammate Will Power as soon as he had an opportunity after a chain reaction that followed a late restart on Newgarden’s behalf resulted in Power crashing out of Saturday night’s NTT …

Newgarden led as the field lined up for a restart with 10 laps remaining but launched for the green later than the cars behind him expected, resulting in several cars checking up and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi slamming into the rear of Power’s car.

Power was clearly incensed as he returned to the pits, and while he took care not to name Newgarden specifically while describing the incident during the race broadcast, he emphasized that he believed that the blame lay with “whoever was leading.”

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“I’ll go talk to him immediately once I get done with you guys,” Newgarden said during the post-race press conference. “As soon as I see him, I’ll talk to him.

“I know Will pretty well. I get that he’s upset. He got wrecked out of the race. He’s a championship contender. When you get run into, especially after the night he had — he had a great night, a fast car, he drove super-well – he led two-thirds of this thing. Imagine how he feels. I get it. I get that he’s upset.

“I think he’s going to try to place blame wherever he directly sees it right off the bat. He gets hot quick. I think when you calm down and look at it, it’s probably not going to be exactly what he thought it was in the moment.

“But the point is, he’s going to be upset because this is not good for his championship. Believe me, the last thing I want to happen is for Will to get hit. I can tell you that right now.

“If I go and sit with my boss tonight, he’s going to look at me and say, ‘Did you do a good job tonight?’ I want him to think I did a good job every single night that I see him.

“I wouldn’t change much from my procedure. It’s not that different than what I’ve done in the past. I hate that Will got caught out in a situation tonight, someone running into him. It’s not fun.”

Newgarden admitted that he went late on the final restart. “It was definitely late,” he said. “I was trying to go as late as I could. It’s not that different of a restart than I’ve done before.” But he denied accusations made by Power in the immediate aftermath of the incident that he had been repeatedly speeding up and then slowing down.

“If anyone, especially on our team, wants to look at the data, you’re going to see a very consistent speed,” he said. This was verified by the series, which said that Newgarden’s speed remained at 80mph in the moments immediately prior to the incident.

Race control manages restarts by using the lead driver’s throttle data as the cue for when to return to green flag conditions. Newgarden admitted that he was waiting until as late in the restart zone as he possibly could before taking off, as he is free to do within the rules, but suggested that the green flag might have been shown early, which would have signaled to drivers in the line that it was time to accelerate even though Newgarden had yet to return to racing speed up at the front.

“What looked like happened is that it went green momentarily before I went, just momentarily,” Newgarden said. “I’m talking like half a second or a second.

“If it’s just that slight difference in timing, if race control goes green and I haven’t gone yet for just a second… I think people were trying to jump, which we’ve had a problem with, to be honest. We’ve had a problem with jump-starts the last two years. It’s a constant topic in the driver meetings.

“If there’s just a slight miscue there, I think people are very on edge on these restarts trying to get the run. It looked like it mistimed in the back, at least with one individual, and that’s what caused a problem.

“From my side, it’s the last thing you want to happen at the end. I don’t want to create a wreck. I was not trying to do that. That was not my intention. I don’t know that I’d do much different because it’s how I would do a restart.”

Foster closes on Indy NXT crown with flag-to-flag win at WWTR

It hasn’t mattered what type of circuit the Indy NXT by Firestone offers, Louis Foster has conquered it, especially recently. The 21-year-old Andretti Global driver from England won for the sixth time in the past eight series races, making the …

It hasn’t mattered what type of circuit the Indy NXT by Firestone offers, Louis Foster has conquered it, especially recently.

The 21-year-old Andretti Global driver from England won for the sixth time in the past eight series races, making the OUTFRONT Showdown at World Wide Technology his second consecutive oval victory. In this dominating stretch he has claimed three wins on permanent road courses (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and twice at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca) and another on a street circuit (Detroit).

The sixth win pushed Foster into a tie for 10th place in series history for wins in a season, and his eight career series wins is now tied for seventh all-time. In the past decade, only Kyle Kirkwood (10 wins in 2021), Pato O’Ward (nine in 2018), Oliver Askew (seven in 2019) and David Malukas (seven in 2021) have more frequently been to victory lane.

From the pole, Foster led all 75 laps of this race, and his margin at the finish line – 3.3406s – could have been larger had he pushed his No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies machine harder.

“I built a really strong gap at the start and then once I realized my pace was really strong we just backed [off] massively,” he said. “I was just massively tire saving kind of halfway through the race.”

A late restart allowed Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports – and others – to close the gap, but Foster again put them away in short order.

Said Foster: “When the caution came out it wasn’t the best thing in the world, but I knew I had a good car and could pull away again.”

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Abel finished second with Abel Motorsports, while teammate Yuven Sundaramoorthy ended third in the best series finish of his career.

“I think we fully maximized it today,” Abel said.

But there has been no keeping pace with Foster, who stretched his series lead to 91 points over Abel with three races remaining. Next up is the Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday, Aug. 25. Foster, who won last year’s race from the pole, will have the opportunity to clinch the season championship with a similar performance.

The last two races of the season are on ovals: Aug. 31 at The Milwaukee Mile and Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Saturday’s 75-lap race got off to a bumpy start. The initial green flag was waved off due to the field’s poor alignment. On the first lap at speed, rookie Myles Rowe spun his No. 99 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy car without contact in Turn 2 to bring out the caution.

Just after Foster completed the first full lap under green, an accident behind him sent Andretti Global teammate Jamie Chadwick, the No. 2 qualifier in the No. 28 VEXT entry, and rookie Caio Collet into the inside wall on the frontstretch.

Collet and his No. 18 HMD Motorsports machine were able to continue following repairs, but he was penalized for avoidable contact and blocking. Chadwick’s car was too damaged to continue.

“From my side, I didn’t move,” said Chadwick, who led all 20 laps in the June 9 race at Road America, one of two in the past eight races where Foster finished second. “The margins in this championship are so narrow. We were so close [on the front straightaway]. When we race close and well, it’s fine. Obviously, that is just a little too close.”

On lap 52, Josh Pierson lost control of his No. 14 HMD Motorsports entry as he turned in to Turn 4. The car slid into the wall, hitting with the rear. He, like Chadwick, was not injured.

RESULTS

Newgarden spins and wins at WWTR after Penske drama

It took a spin, a phenomenal pitstop and the possibility of some heated conversations in the team truck later in the evening, but Josef Newgarden led Scott McLaughlin home for a Team Penske 1-2 in Saturday night’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World …

Newgarden capitalized on a perfect late restart coupled with a minor glitch for McLaughlin, whose hybrid refused to deploy, to seal his second victory of the season.

“The team has done a great job,” Newgarden said. “Nice to get another win on the board.”

McLaughlin led the bulk of the race, but the key moment came on the second-to-last restart when the pair – running a slightly different strategy to the cars behind – swooped in for a splash of fuel and, crucially, a new set of tires. That gave them an immediate advantage over their rivals, and a phenomenal 5.1s stop from the No. 2 crew allowed Newgarden to move into a lead that he’d hold for the remainder of the race.

Linus Lundqvist finished third in the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda thanks to a late pass on Colton Herta, although the latter will be more than pleased with fourth after a qualifying crash condemned the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda to starting from the second-last row.

So, why was it a Newgarden vs McLaughlin showdown at the end? The answer lies in the last couple of stoppages. On lap 241, David Malukas was battling Will Power for fifth on the road but potentially the race lead once the various strategies were factored in. Malukas dived to Power’s inside and was squeezed onto the inside curb, sending the No. 66 Meyer Shank Honda spinning across the track and into the wall.

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“I had a run, I set it up, I went down the inside… I braked, I slowed down, I gave him as much room as I could and he gave me a tap,” an emotional Malukas told NBC Sports.

“He came by and screamed at me… Man, you had a whole second lane you could have gone up there. I thought it was a good move. If he’d just stayed in the second lane we would have been fine.

“It was just such a good weekend for us. I really wanted that result.”

Once that was cleaned up, the field was lining up for the restart with 10 laps to go when what looked like a slow launch from Newgarden up front caused a chain reaction that resulted in Alexander Rossi launching his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet off the back of Power’s car. Romain Grosjean got caught in the aftermath, while further back, Jack Harvey was also knocked into a spin. Red flag.

How the chaos unfolded with 8 laps remaining.

📺: #Bommarito500 on USA and Peacock pic.twitter.com/IjwIB6fpjL

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 18, 2024

One didn’t need to be particularly gifted in interpreting body language to register Power’s displeasure as he clambered from the car and returned to pitlane.

“The leader,” said Power diplomatically when asked who was responsible for the incident. “Whoever is leading, where you’re supposed to go between [Turns 3 and 4], he went, he stopped, he went, he stopped… I knew that was going to happen as soon as I checked up, because he checked up again. I knew I was going to get pounded.

“Man, disappointing. We had such a good car. We get to the last two laps of the last two races and have bad luck. I do not know why they would just keep backing up. I do not understand it.”

Herta’s radio transmission suggested he agreed: “That’s dirty from Newgarden; he stopped and started and stopped and started — that should be a penalty.”

Newgarden saw it differently.

“The worst part about that is the No. 12 [Power] not making it home,” he said. “I watched it on the TV and it kind of looked like the green momentarily went out before I went, and it caused a big accordion. I hate that that happened. The last thing you want with 10 to go is to cause a mess.

“I was trying to go as late as I could, at the end of the zone. I wouldn’t have done anything different.”

The first of the less consequential cautions came early when Ed Carpenter (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) and Katherine Legge (No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) found themselves on the same piece of track on lap nine. That rarely works out well, and in this case it ended Legge’s day on the spot.

Shortly after the restart, Carpenter’s teammate Rinus VeeKay got crossed up on lap 17, catching out Conor Daly, who tagged VeeKay’s rear and was pitched into a 360 spin. The pursuing Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Andretti Global Honda) had nowhere to go but into the back of Daly’s No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Chevy, and he in turn was rear-ended by Daly’s JHR teammate Romain Grosjean. Kirkwood took the brunt of the damage on that occasion.

A spell of green flag running was interrupted again on lap 86 when Kyffin Simpson lost the rear of the No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda through the Turn 3/4 section and backed it into the wall.

Mechanical gremlins also had their say in the evening, most notably when what appeared to be hybrid issue ended what looked like a promising day for Marcus Ericsson and the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda. A suspected engine problem eliminated Pato O’Ward earlier on, while an unspecified issue brought an early close to Graham Rahal’s race.

RESULTS

O’Ward fires McLaren to the top in final practice at WWTR

Pato O’Ward took the honors in Friday evening’s final practice session ahead of tomorrow’s NTT IndyCar Series race at WWTR. O’Ward covered the 1.25 miles at a 174.708mph average in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, leaving Andretti Global’s Marcus …

Pato O’Ward took the honors in Friday evening’s final practice session ahead of tomorrow’s NTT IndyCar Series race at WWTR.

O’Ward covered the 1.25 miles at a 174.708mph average in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, leaving Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson to settle for second-fastest at 174.191mph in the No. 28 Honda.

Ericsson’s Andretti teammate Colton Herta rebounded from his qualifying crash (and a black flag for not high-lining enough during the short “high-line” session that immediately preceded practice) to go third-fastest in the repaired No. 26 at 173.698mph. That was just enough to keep him clear of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (173.685mph), while Kyle Kirkwood planted another flag for Andretti by claiming fifth-fastest with a best of 173.659mph.

For most of the field, the evening was about making liberal use of the high line, which had revealed itself to be gripper than expected during the high-line session, and trying to work out how the evening conditions would translate to a race that will start a few hours earlier in the day.

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And for some, it was about making up for lost time. That included both of the Dale Coyne Racing cars, which rebounded from completing zero laps between them in qualifying to have a productive evening. Jack Harvey, whose qualifying hopes were squashed by a software glitch in the No. 18 Honda’s hybrid system, ran 64 laps to finish 22nd fastest, while Katherine Legge, whose No. 51 was miles off the pace in first practice and didn’t participate in qualifying at all, bounced back to cover 59 laps and end the day in P25.

The session didn’t pass without a couple of scares, the first of which involved Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel after his No. 6 Chevrolet had a cut right-front tire. Mercifully, it occurred while he was on a straight and he was able to return to the pits safely. He was running third fastest at the time, and held on for ninth fastest at the checker.

Then, with just under five minutes left on the clock, Conor Daly caught the wall at Turn 2. He, too, was able to avoid serious damage and return to the pits under his own power.

The only other caution was for a track inspection with 17 minutes remaining.

UP NEXT: Race, Saturday, 6:15 p.m. ET

RESULTS

McLaughlin usurps speedy MSR duo to take pole at WWTR

Scott McLaughlin broke Meyer Shank Racing’s hold on the top of the timesheets to claim pole for Saturday’s NTT IndyCar Series race at WWTR. McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet was the third-last car in the qualifying order, and he started his …

Scott McLaughlin broke Meyer Shank Racing’s hold on the top of the timesheets to claim pole for Saturday’s NTT IndyCar Series race at WWTR.

McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet was the third-last car in the qualifying order, and he started his run at a time when MSR held the top two spots courtesy of Felix Rosenqvist and David Malukas respectively.

Rosenqvist, with a nine-place grid penalty looming, wasn’t going to start from pole regardless, but McLaughlin ended the conversation completely with a two-lap average of 179.972mph, putting him safely clear of the Swede’s 179.792mph.

“So stoked,” said McLaughlin. “We had a procedure, went through it, got it done and I’m really proud of everyone. But at the end of the day tomorrow is pay day, so we’ll make sure we’re on top of things. I want to make sure I get myself back in this championship.”

Malukas held on for third-best at 179.503mph but will start from second on the grid thanks to Rosenqvist’s penalty, while Josef Newgarden and Will Power ensured that all of The Captain’s cars qualified inside the top five with runs of 179.424mph and 179.262mph respectively. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood will be promoted into the top five at Roseqnvist’s expense courtesy of his 178.417mph run in the No. 27 Honda.

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Championship leader Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon will both start deep in the field once their nine-places penalties are added to qualifying seventh and 10th, but they still have less work to do on Saturday night than Colton Herta. The Global Andretti driver had just completed a stout 179.9mph first lap when he lost the rear of the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda in Turn 1. The car entered a slow spin that turned into a four-wheel drift towards Turn 2 that ended with gearbox-first contact with the outside wall. He completed his run with the rear wing hanging at an odd angle, and ruing what might have been.

“It broke loose, unfortunately,” he said. “First lap was decent, don’t think it was going to get pole but I think it could have gotten us a top five. Then second lap… it just let go pretty early and that’s all she wrote. It sucks, I think the car was pretty good, but we were just a bit too aggressive there.

“We’ll have to see [about damage]. Hopefully there’s no damage to the engine; I’m sure the gearbox is destroyed, and obviously the rear wing attenuator. But hopefully there’s not too much for the guys to work on so we can get back out for night practice.”

It wasn’t the result Herta was looking for, but the two laps he completed were two more than Dale Coyne Racing managed. Jack Harvey was first in line and had just completed his warm-up lap when the No. 18 Honda pulled to the side of the track with a hybrid problem as it approached the green flag. Katherine Legge, who returns to the No. 51 sister car this weekend, was nearly 12mph off the leader’s pace in opening practice earlier in the day and did not attempt a qualifying run at all.

UP NEXT: High-Line Practice (7:45pm ET) and Final Practice (8:30pm ET)

RESULTS

Malukas leads opening WWTR practice

David Malukas was in the headlines earlier this week when he announced his move to A.J. Foyt Racing for next year, and he claimed the spotlight again at World Wide Technology Raceway on Friday by putting the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda at the …

Malukas’s best of 178.830mph came with just under 10 minutes of the hour-long session remaining, leaving Andretti Global’s Colton Herta as best of the rest with a 178.411mph effort in the No. 26 Honda.

What was shaping up to be a very Honda-heavy top five was countered by a late 117.940mph from Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet that was good enough for third-fastest, putting him just ahead of teammate Will Power in the No. 12.

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Current points leader Alex Palou rounded out the top five in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda — an encouraging sign for the Spaniard, who will have some extra work to do in tomorrow’s race after being one of four drivers issued with a nine-place grid penalty for unapproved engine changes.

Behind him, Romain Grosjean got Juncos Hollinger Racing’s weekend off to a solid start by finishing sixth fastest in the No. 77 Chevrolet, and new teammate Conor Daly also spent a good part of the session in the top 10 before dropping back to 12th in the latter stages.

Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist — another driver with a grid penalty this weekend – was seventh fastest ahead of Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Andretti Global Honda). Nolan Siegel, who has the experienced Brian Campe calling strategy this weekend after the sudden departure of engineer Robert Gue, finished up ninth fastest in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, leaving the No. 28 Honda of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood to complete the top 10.

A largely uneventful session was punctuated by just one caution, caused by Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist stopping on the back straightaway with a hybrid problem. Meawhile, A.J. Foyt Racing pushed Sting Ray Robb’s car back behind the wall after its first installation lap, but he returned to complete a productive 42 laps.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 4:20pm ET.

RESULTS