First Impressions: Houston 2014 Race Two

1. Simon Pagenaud bounced back from a disappointing race from his first career pole to a dominating drive. The Frenchman lost a lot of ground Saturday but made it up today. Drives like these today will keep his championship hopes alive as we kickoff the second half of the season.

2. A great team for Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports as Mikhail Aleshin started and finished second. Had a little contact with Graham Rahal but it didn't disrupt his day. He did 40 laps on the final stint to finish second. Aleshin has been aggressive in his rookie season but not reckless and has landed at the right team to provide him a platform to show off his skills.

3. Jack Hawksworth rounded out the podium, the first of his career, and a great weekend for rookies. All four full-time rookies scored a podium this weekend. Lots of hidden talent in IndyCar. Carlos Huertas went from 19th to 1st yesterday. Both Carlos Muñoz and Hawksworth went from 23rd to 3rd in the two Houston races. What great drives by both.

4. Charlie Kimball has been a piss poor qualifier in 2014 but no one has passed more guys in 2014 than Kimball. From 19th to 4th today, the fourth time Kimball has made up double-digit positions from his starting position this season.

5. Sébastien Bourdais had a great weekend. Watch out for him at Toronto and the remaining road and street courses. And the big ovals. Bourdais has done well at the big ovals.

6. Ryan Hunter-Reay kept his nose clean this weekend and that's what he needed after two horrible weekends at Belle Isle and Texas. On to Pocono where he ran well before Takuma Sato kamaikzed him on the pit lane. This could be the turn around in the championship Hunter-Reay needed.

7. Juan Pablo Montoya was up front all day for the second consecutive day and has done well all season to this point. He has no problem getting back into the swing of things in open-wheel racing.

8. Ryan Briscoe had a quiet eighth place finish. That is all.

9. Marco Andretti had another back to the front to the back to the front drive today. His car showed a lot of speed but after contact that sent Justin Wilson into the tires, he lost a step and fell back. If Andretti can keep up these runs on road and street courses while picking up a win or two on ovals (especially the remaining legs of the Triple Crown) he could be in position for the championship.

10. Tony Kanaan had a late tire rub drop him out of contention for a top five but he was able to manage a top ten despite the late pit stop.

11. Just when it looked like another day proving everything is going to fall Will Power's way for the championship, it all went to hell. From 18th to 3rd, Power appeared to be the beneficiary to Hélio Castroneves' stupidity, an average day for Hunter-Reay and brake problems for Scott Dixon and only concede a little ground to Pagenaud but then the Aussie had a suspension issue drop him from 3rd to 11th in the final two laps. He still has a healthy grasp on the championship but he has had plenty of healthy leads vanish with fewer races remaining. It's not over yet.

12. Justin Wilson has a reason to be upset after contact with Andretti dropped him from a top ten to a lap down. Mike Conway and James Hinchcliffe both also finished a lap down but neither had impressive days. Luca Filippi was in position for a top ten before he lost it into the tires all on his own. This was a much better weekend for the Italian than the results will show. Same for his teammate Graham Rahal. Rahal ruined his own race Saturday but contact with Aleshin and gearbox issues today ended what was a promising run for Rahal.

13. Sebastián Saavedra had a typical Sebastián Saavedra-like day and finished in a typical Sebastián Saavedra 17th.

14. He made a second half comeback in 2013 but I am not sure Scott Dixon will be able to do the same this year after his weekend at Houston. Brake problems today hampered the Kiwi's day. He won at Pocono last year and it started a three race winning streak but the gap is much greater in 2014 and Power has barely put a foot wrong all year.

14. Takuma Sato finished 19th today and you have to wonder how much longer can he last? The accident yesterday with Aleshin may not have been his fault but Sato finds a way into those situations. He has all the speed in the world but rarely has the result. Imagine what Sage Karam, Conor Daly, J.R. Hildebrand, Oriol Servià or James Davison could do in that car.

15. Josef Newgarden can't catch a break, no pun intended as he had a brake failure today. We have seen plenty of races where the Tennessean has been up front, battling with the top teams but we have yet to see that at the end of races.

16. Hélio Castroneves should be suspended one race for bitching and two for blocking. He slide across Bourdais going into turn six, takes himself out and then has the gaul to say it was the Frenchman's fault. And Penske should be forced to hire an American to be Castroneves' replacement for the three races he is on the sidelines.

17. Saturday was a great day to Colombia. Sunday, not so much. Carlos Huertas' day ended after two laps and Carlos Muñoz tapped the wall just enough to ruin a top ten run.

18. I love Houston but I despise it. The on-track action was fantastic but the circuit makes me want to rip my hair out. With all the drivers blowing through turn two, just widen the turn. Widen the whole
circuit. It needs it. Or move the race to the best permanent road course in the United States just up the road in Austin. And maybe it shouldn't be a doubleheader. The drivers were beat after this race. Either move this race or give another place (say St. Petersburg or Barber or an oval) the doubleheader.

19. And now to Pocono, my home race. I will be there Sunday. Forecast calls for rain Sunday. Let's hope that can hold off. Look forward to more posts this week.

Morning Warm-Up: Houston 2014 Race Two

Carlos Huertas went from unknown to IndyCar winner overnight. Can he win in consecutive days?

After stunning the motorsports world Saturday, Carlos Huertas looks to sweep the weekend and the naysayers aside again this afternoon. The Colombian came from 19th on the grid Saturday, matching second furthest back a winner has come from on an IndyCar road/street course race. Al Unser Jr. started 19th at Miami in 1986. Little Al only led the final lap after Colombian Roberto Guerrero ran out of fuel after leading all 111 laps up to that point. Only Max Papis has started further back and won, when he started 25th at Laguna Seca in 2001. Huertas and Dale Coyne Racing used pit strategy to perfection to land in victory lane, leading a Colombian 1-2-3 with his idol Juan Pablo Montoya and the popular rookie Carlos Muñoz.

Sébastien Bourdais finished fourth Saturday as he looks for his first victory since Mexico City 2007. The Frenchman was up front all day, lost ground on his final pit stop but rallied back into the top five with some help from some incidents in front of him. James Hinchcliffe led the most laps on Saturday but had to settle with fifth. Jack Hawksworth started twenty-first but worked his way methodically to the sixth place.

Ryan Hunter-Reay kept his nose clean and like Bourdais, Hinchcliffe and Hawksworth, lost ground on the final pit stop and finished seventh. Marco Andretti recovered from being spun by his teammate, black flag for leader at the time Takuma Sato failing to get by the American and a late pit stop to finish eighth on Saturday. Hélio Castroneves finished ninth after starting second Saturday. Justin Wilson rounded out the top ten Saturday and laid down a 46-lap stint, by far the longest of the race before having to pit from the lead with a little over 10 minutes remaining.

Graham Rahal recovered from stalling on the start to be running fourth heading to the final restart before running into the back of Tony Kanaan, leading to a finish under caution and a 30-second penalty for the Ohioan, dropping him from 3rd to 11th in the final results. Ryan Briscoe also received a 30-second penalty for making contact with Sebastián Saavedra, dropping the Aussie from a solid top ten to 12th, right ahead of Kanaan.

Will Power may have finished a lap down and outside the top ten for the first time in 2014, but what appeared to be a day that would unravel his championship hopes, turned out to be a slight blip. Power lost only six points in the championship to second place Castroneves and holds a 33-point lead heading into the tenth round of the championship later this afternoon. Saavedra was battling for a top five position before the contact with Briscoe relegated the KV Racing driver to fifteenth.

Simon Pagenaud's first pole position was ruined by bad brakes in the race and finished sixteenth. Mike Conway had contact with the tires on a drying track in race one end his Saturday with a slight wrist injury. He will be reevaluated before qualifying today. Charlie Kimball finished eighteenth after being collateral damage after teammate Scott Dixon hit the wall a little past halfway through Saturday's race. Josef Newgarden was twentieth after slight contact with the front straightaway wall, the same place where Luca Filippi's first race of 2014 and with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ended after the Italian started fourth. Takuma Sato led early Saturday before he and the lapped car of Mikhail Aleshin got together entering turn six. Both started in the top ten for race one and look to recover from the incident today.

Qualifying for today's race will take place at 11:00 a.m. ET.

NBCSN's coverage of race two will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET. Green flag will be at 3:45 p.m. ET. The race will feature a rolling start.

First Impressions: Houston 2014 Race One

1. I thought I was more likely to win an IndyCar race this season than Carlos Huertas. Nine races and he is an IndyCar winner. A guy who's lone victory in Formula Renault 3.5 came in a monsoon. A guy who was rumored to be the sugar daddy savior for Panther Racing over the winter and now he was more wins this season than the four Ganassi drivers combined. It may takes me six months to wrap my head around this victory.

2. And Colombians finished 1-2-3 with Juan Pablo Montoya and Carlos Muñoz rounding out the podium. They used strategy to perfection in this timed race. They stopped at the right time when they knew they could make it to the end while the leaders stayed out. Not to mention Colombia advancing to the quarterfinals in the World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Uruguay. They will play Brazil on the 4th of July while these three go at it again tomorrow.

3. Graham Rahal had a day that started out from hell, appeared to made it out alive, only to be dragged right back down after getting into the back of Tony Kanaan before going green. What else could go wrong for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing? Luca Filippi was running well before slapping the wall on a restart due to cold tires. They can make it all up tomorrow but it will be difficult to recover from the way today ended.

4. Any other day and Sébastien Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe, Jack Hawksworth, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Hélio Castroneves are the top six. Andretti of all people probably had the race of the day. From being spun by his teammate Muñoz to being black flagged for running competitive laps to then leader Takuma Sato and the Japanese driver failing to get by the American to recovering and being one of the half dozen caught out on pit strategy. Keep your eyes on all six tomorrow.

5. Justin Wilson finished tenth (at least I think he will after Graham Rahal and Ryan Briscoe are assessed their penalties) and did 46 laps on one stint. Huertas did 39 laps to make it to the checkered flag. I don't know what Dale Coyne Racing did to their cars over the break but it appears to have worked. Great job by the whole team.

6. This was a day that appeared to be one where Castroneves, Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud could catch up on Will Power as he started eighteenth and was a non-factor all day before sliding into the tires, ending his run of completing every lap in 2014. But, with the likes of Pagenaud, Mike Conway, Charlie Kimball, Scott Dixon, Luca Filippi and Takuma Sato having problems, Power finished fourteenth and only lost six points over Castroneves in the standings. Things are falling Power's way in 2014.

7. I hate to think that this race could have ended better. It was a timed race and I enjoyed it. They did the hour and fifty minutes like they said and I should take that. But after being so close to a green flag finish and having the Rahal-Kanaan contact deflate the balloon stinks. Who knows? Maybe Huertas would have won anyway but what could have been?

8. Tomorrow's race will be nothing like today's but what a race it was. My jaw is still on the floor. Everyone get some rest, rehydrate and we will dance again tomorrow. By the way, there are no Dutch, Mexican, Costa Rican or Greek drivers in the race, so no IndyCar/World Cup double like today.

Morning Warm-Up: Houston 2014 Race One

Simon Pagenaud was fastest on Friday. Can he turn his speed into victory today?

The ninth round of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season takes places at NRG Park in Houston, Texas. It is the second consecutive IndyCar race to take place in Texas after Ed Carpenter won at Texas Motor Speedway three weeks ago.

Simon Pagenaud was the fastest on Friday as he looks for his second victory of 2014. He also looks to close the 91-point gap between him and championship leader Will Power. Power was fastest in the first Friday practice session and second fastest in the combined session, just over three-tenths back of his former Team Australia teammate. Ryan Briscoe was third quickest in the combined session. It is Briscoe's first appearance on the NRG Park circuit. Luca Filippi was fourth fastest Friday, his first day driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Filippi scored his first career IndyCar top ten at Houston last year. Rounding out the top five from Friday was second in the championship standings Hélio Castroneves. 

The top rookie of the year candidate on Friday was Mikhail Aleshin, sixth overall. The Russian has led a lap in three of the last four races and has finished seventh in consecutive races. James Hinchcliffe was seventh fastest. The Canadian finished third in race two last year at Houston. He retired from race one after making contact with the stalled car of Ed Carpenter. Takuma Sato looks to get car owner AJ Foyt a home town victory. Sato started on pole position for race one last year at Houston but finished seventeenth in race one and fourteenth in race two. 

Sébastien Bourdais is a two-time Houston winner and was ninth fastest on Friday. The Frenchman finished eighth and fifth last year at Houston. Tony Kanaan was tenth quickest Friday with his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon following him on the time sheet. Justin Wilson was twelfth ahead of Americans Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal. Carlos Muñoz was the final driver within one second of the fastest time set by Pagenaud Friday. Muñoz's Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti was sixteenth fastest Friday. 

Charlie Kimball was seventeenth fastest Friday. Kimball averages the worst starting position of all full-time driver with an average starting position of 20th. Colombians Juan Pablo Montoya and Carlos Huertas were eighteenth and nineteenth Friday. Josef Newgarden was twentieth with Jack Hawksworth twenty-first. Hawksworth suffered an accident after clipping a curve in second practice. Sebastián Saavedra was twenty-second. Ed Carpenter Racing looks for their third win of the season but will have some work to do. Mike Conway was twenty-second and twenty-third fastest in the two Friday practice session. The Brit finished sixteenth and ninth last year at Houston. 

Qualifying for race one will take place at 11:00 a.m. ET and will use the Firestone Fast Six format. The session will air at 2:00 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon on NBCSN.

Group one will feature Pagenaud, Briscoe, Castroneves, Hinchcliffe, Bourdais, Dixon, Hunter-Reay, Muñoz, Kimball, Huertas, Hawksworth and Conway. 

Power leads group two followed by Filippi, Aleshin, Sato, Kanaan, Wilson, Rahal, Andretti, Montoya, Newgarden and Saavedra. 

Race one will feature a standing start.

NBCSN's coverage of race begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Houston Practice Led by Pagenaud

Simon Pagenaud ended Friday fastest overall with a time of 1:00.1415 minutes. The Frenchman was second in the first practice session Friday and was 0.5013 seconds ahead of Ryan Briscoe, who is making his first appearance at NRG Park. Briscoe was tenth in the first session Luca Filippi returned to IndyCar in third position Friday. The Italian was twelfth in the first session. Hélio Castroneves was fourth with Mikhail Aleshin bookending the top five for Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports. Castroneves and Aleshin were sixth and eleventh respectively in first practice.

James Hinchcliffe was the top Andretti Autosport driver in each practice. He was sixth in the second session and seventh in the first. Takuma Sato was seventh in second practice, down from fourth but he picked up 0.03 seconds between sessions. Scott Dixon was eighth in both session with Will Power was ninth in the second session but was first in the first session, fourth-tenths quicker. Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top ten in the second session. The Texas-born driver picked it up from eighteenth in the first practice.

Graham Rahal was eleventh in the later session after being fifteenth in the morning. Carlos Muñoz was twelfth, the last driver within a second of Pagenaud in the second practice. Tony Kanaan was thirteenth. Kanaan was fifth in the first session. Marco Andretti was the slowest Andretti Autosport driver in fourteenth but picked up two-tenths from first practice. Charlie Kimball rounded out the top fifteen and was fourteenth in first practice.

Colombians Juan Pablo Montoya and Carlos Huertas were sixteenth and seventeenth in the second session. Josef Newgarden was eighteenth with two-time Houston winner Sébastien Bourdais in nineteenth. Jack Hawksworth rounded out the top twenty. Justin Wilson was twenty-first with Sebastián Saavedra and Mike Conway rounding out the field, 2.0777 back of Pagenaud.

Qualifying for race one will take place tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Track Walk: Houston 2014

Scott Dixon Returns To Houston Looking to Springboard his Title Defense

After a two-week summer break, the Verizon IndyCar Series kicks off it's second half of 2014 at NRG Park for the Grand Prix of Houston doubleheader. Last year, Scott Dixon and Will Power split the weekend in what was then the penultimate weekend of the championship. Now, Houston finds it's self smack-dab in the middle of the summer as rounds nine and ten. Power enters as the points leader, 39 points ahead of Penske teammate Hélio Castroneves.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday. Green flag is at 3:45 p.m. ET each day.
TV Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Paul Tracy, Steve Matchett (Townsend Bell is racing at the Watkins Glen 6 Hours), Kevin Lee, Kelli Stavast, Jon Beekhuis and Robin Miller.

Race Notes
This weekend features two, 90-lap races around the 1.69-mile temporary circuit around NRG Park.
Twenty-three cars are entered. Luca Filippi returns to IndyCar for the first time since Houston last year. He will drive the #16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Filippi is scheduled to run the Toronto doubleheader next month as well for RLLR.
Race one of the weekend is scheduled to feature a standing start.

Easy-Bake Oven Weather
It will be hot and humid this weekend. Highs are forecasted to be 87° and 90° Fahrenheit this weekend with humidity around 74%, winds around 14-15 MPH and a 40% chance of precipitation for Saturday.

GREAT NEWS!
For the remainder of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season, all practice sessions will be streamed live online. Great news for all of us.

Does Ganassi Get On The Scoreboard This Weekend?
It took Ganassi until race #11 to get their first victory in 2013. With the amount of races completed nearing double-digit figures, the defending IndyCar championship winning team is still in search for their first victory of 2014. The four Ganassi drivers sit 8th (Scott Dixon), 9th (Tony Kanaan), 13rd (Ryan Briscoe) and 14th (Charlie Kimball) in the championship standings with a total of three podiums between them through eight races.

Dixon won race one at Houston last year and finished second in race two. He provides the best shot for Ganassi this weekend. Kimball finished eleventh and eighth last year while Kanaan had a dismal weekend with finishes of twenty-first and twenty-fourth. Briscoe will be making his first appearance at Houston. Ganassi did recover from it's slow start to pick up five victories in 2013 but how many times can a team rebound after slow starts?

Doubleheaders Downers
While some have excelled at doubleheaders and taken advantage of two races in as many days, others have failed to be able to string together two consecutive successful results.

A week after winning the Indianapolis 500, Ryan Hunter-Reay had a weekend to forget at Belle Isle with two did-not-finishes. Going back to last year, Hunter-Reay has only one top ten in eight doubleheader races and seven finishes outside the top fifteen.

Just like his Andretti Autosport teammate, James Hinchcliffe had three bipolar doubleheaders in 2013. The Canadian had finishes of fifteenth and nineteenth at Belle Isle, eighth and twenty-first at Toronto and twenty-fourth and twenty-fourth and third at Houston. This year at Belle Isle, Hinchcliffe had came home in sixth and fifth.

Believe it or not, Will Power's doubleheader track record is less than something to write home about. His win and second-place finish at Belle Isle this year aside, Power failed to finish in the top ten for both doubleheader races in 2013. He finished twelfth in race one at Houston last year before winning race two.

Doubleheader Specialists
For those who struggle, there are those you succeed. Doubleheaders are some's cup of tea.

Mike Conway showed it 2013 doubleheaders were right up his alley when his won race one at Belle Isle and finished third in race two. At Toronto, Conway finished seventh in both races and finished ninth in race two at Houston after a sixteenth in race one. He had an accident in race one at Belle Isle this year and poor tire management in race two but don't overlook the Brit this weekend as Ed Carpenter Racing looks to continue their winning streak.

Sébastien Bourdais had a second and third at Toronto in 2013 and finished eighth and fifth at Houston last year. Bourdais has two Houston victories. They came in consecutive years in 2006 and 2007.

Justin Wilson has always been at the top at doubleheaders. Two podiums, four top fives and five top tens in eight doubleheader races for Wilson. Last year, he finished third and fourth at Houston.

Then there is Scott Dixon. Three victories, four podiums, seven top fives in eight doubleheader races. He is the doubleheader king by a landslide. This could be the weekend he vaults himself back into the thick of the championship picture.

Pro Mazda
After nearly a month off, Pro Mazda returns for rounds eight and nine of their 2014 championship. Spencer Pigot won the first four races but had a pair of eighth place finishes on the IMS road course allowing Scott Hargrove to claw his way to three-points behind. Pigot finished second and fifth last year at Houston in Pro Mazda while Hargrove finished third and twenty-first in U.S. F2000 last year at Houston.

Kyle Kaiser is third in the championship, fifty-three points back. Kaiser had a pair of eighths at Houston last year in Pro Mazda. Neil Alberico is tied with Kaiser for third in the championship. Alberico won race one and finished third in the two U.S. F2000 races at Houston last year. Shelby Blackstock rounds out the top five in the Pro Mazda standings, sixty-eight back of Pigot. He finished fourth and sixth at Houston in 2013.

Fun Facts
This will be the first race on June 28th since 2008 when Tony Kanaan won the penultimate race held at Richmond. Before that race, the last held on June 28th was at Richmond in 2003 and won by Scott Dixon.

Last race held on June 29th was Richmond 2002. Sam Hornish, Jr. took that victory.

Ryan Briscoe needs to lead 65 laps to become the twenty-seventh driver to join the 1,500 laps led club.

These will be the fifth and sixth race at Houston on the NRG Park configuration. All four previous races have been won from four different positions on the gird. Sébastien Bourdais is the lone winner from pole position. Bourdais won from fifth in 2006. Scott Dixon won from third and Will Power won from ninth last year.

Remember more facts can always be found at the Telemetry Center.

Predictions
Scott Dixon gets Ganassi on the scoreboard and James Hinchcliffe splits the weekend. Outside of Hinchcliffe, the rest of Andretti Autosport will be average. Sébastien Bourdais gets a podium this weekend. Will Power and Josef Newgarden will also get podiums this weekend. Juan Pablo Montoya will continue to struggle on street circuits but sneaks out a top ten for one of the races after his team works strategy to perfection. Mike Conway gets at least one top ten. Luca Filippi finishes ahead of Graham Rahal in both races. Sleeper: Jack Hawksworth.