Grand-Am Afternoon Warm-Up: Indianapolis 2012

For the first time ever the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series is racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This three-hour event is the third and final race of the North American Endurance Challenge. The Gainsco/Bob Stallings Corvette DP will be on pole with drivers Jon Fogerty and Alex Gurney. The SunTrust Racing Corvette starts second with Max Angelelli an Ricky Taylor. David Donohue, son of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner Mark Donohue, and Terry Borcheller start third with Antonio Garci and Richard Westbrook rounding out a Corvette DP 1-2-3-4. Championship leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas start eighth and North American Endurance Challenge leaders Darren Law and Joao Barbosa will start tenth. Notables in the Daytona Prototype class are Seabastien Bourdais starting fifth with Alex Popow, the second Ganassi entry of Scott Dixon, Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya in sixth and Paul Tracy teaming with Jim Lowe in eleventh.

Jonathan Bomarito and Sylvain Tremblay are on pole in the GT class. The Corvette of Eric Curran and Boris Said will start second. Leaders of the GT North American Endurance Challenge John Edwards and Robin Liddell start third. The Brumos Porsche of Leh Keen and Andrew Davis are fourth. Overall GT Championship leaders Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal start seventh in class.

Race coverage begins at 4:00pm ET on SPEED.

Busch Brothers Lead Nationwide Practice

Kyle Busch led the Busch Brother one-two in Nationwide Practice yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The fastest lap run by Kyle was 51.184 seconds, a little over three tenths of a second ahead of his brother and Kasey Kahne who was third. The 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner, Sam Hornish Jr. was the fastest Dodge and fourth overall ahead of the Toyota of Denny Hamlin and the defending Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard. Justin Allgaier was seventh ahead of Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top ten.

Brian Scott was eleventh and 18-year old Ryan Blaney was twelfth fastest. Danica Patrick, Ty Dillon and Joe Nemechek rounded out the top fifteen. Other notables are Joey Logano in seventeenth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in nineteenth, James Buescher was twenty-third, Travis Pastrana was twenty-sixth and Kenny Wallace was thirty-fourth.

Nationwide Series qualifying will be at 12:15pm ET on Saturday with the race scheduled for 4:30pm ET later that same day. The Cup Series does not see the race track until Saturday with two practices in the morning, one beginning a 8:30am ET, the other at 10:30am ET. Cup qualifying will be at 2:10pm ET Saturday and the race will be at 1:00pm ET Sunday.

NASCAR Heads To Indianapolis

With their final off weekend in the books, NASCAR heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the nineteenth time. Joining the Cup Series for the first time ever are the Nationwide Series, Grand-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

Matt Kenseth heads to Indianapolis as the points leader, ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson. Carl Edwards is currently eleventh in the points, forty-seven between Brad Keselowski in tenth. Following his win in New Hampshire, Kasey Kahne jumped into a wild card position joining Kyle Busch as they both look to fight their way into the Chase. Last year's winner at Indianapolis, Paul Menard is in fifteenth position and is looking for his first win of the 2012 season. Other drivers outside the top ten in points are Indiana's Ryan Newman, four-time winner of the Brickyard 400 Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and the 2010 Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray.

2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya sits in twenty-first position as he looks for a win in the Brickyard 400. He finished second in his first Brickyard 400 and won the pole for the race in 2010. In 2009, Montoya lead the most laps at Indianapolis before a controversial pit road speeding penalty cost him the win.

For the first time ever the Nationwide Series will not be racing at Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana. The 250-mile race in scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Friday is sports car day at the Speedway with this three hour Rolex Sports Car series race being the final leg of the North American Endurance Championship. Darren Law and Joao Barbosa lead the NAEC Championship for Daytona Prototypes while Robin Liddell and John Edwards lead the Grand Touring Class. McMurray, Montoya and Scott Dixon will be competing in a second DP entry from Chip Ganassi. The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will precede the main event on Friday at 1:00pm with a seventy-five car field.

Stay tuned as the weekend approaches.

Edmonton: First Impressions

I downloaded the race radio broadcast last night and finished it this morning. Even though I have yet to see the race, I know most of what happened yesterday. 1. Championship picture gets even more interesting. Should be a good battle between Hunter-Reay, Castroneves, Power and maybe Dixon. 2. Nice to see Tagliani get a great run on home soil. 3. With the runs by Sato and Tagliani this week and Kimball and Conway at Toronto, one can not rule out a surprise winner in one of the final four events. 4. While he did not finish well at all, Josef Newgarden did pick up another fastest lap at Edmonton, something he accomplished at Sao Paulo and Toronto. Results aren't adding up for him but he has been showing what he can do with a single-car operation. 5. Radio broadcast was ok. Mike King isn't the greatest but Davey Hamilton makes up for it. 6. Impressive the race went caution-free after last year's race. 7. I am not sure I understand why Firestone makes a street course tire compound and a road course compound. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just make one tire meant for both disciplines? 8. Hearing Lotus might not be back for 2013. That leaves many questions that can't all be addressed now. More on that later. 9. Looking forward to Mid-Ohio.

Morning Warm-Up: Edmonton 2012

Ryan Hunter-Reay took his first pole in over eight years but will start eleventh after an engine change. The winner of the previous three pole positions, Dario Franchitti will move from second to pole for tomorrow's race. Ryan Briscoe will start second and Takuma Sato third. Alex Tagliani was the highest qualifying Canadian and will start fourth. Will Power and Scott Dixon will also serve ten grid spot penalties for engine changes and will start seventeenth and eighteenth respectively. Oriol Servia and Simona de Silvestro will also serve ten grid spot penalties and will make up the final two positions on the grid.

Other notables on the grid are Rubens Barrichello starting from the seventh position, Graham Rahal will be eighth and the other Canadian, James Hinchcliffe will roll off from ninth on the grid. Sebastien Bourdais did not make it out of round one of qualifying and starts twelfth. Tony Kanaan did not have a good qualifying session and will start from the twenty-first position.

Some Edmonton facts, the farthest back a winner come from was tenth by Sebastien Bourdais at the first Edmonton race in 2005. Only once has the winner come from pole, that was Will Power in 2009. Three times the pole-sitter has failed to finish in the top ten at Edmonton. This is the first race on July 22nd since 2007, when Sebastien Bourdais won his second Edmonton event and on that same day, Scott Dixon won the IRL race from Mid-Ohio. Tomorrow will also be Scott Dixon's 32nd Birthday.

On a personal note, I will be traveling to Pittsburgh, Pa tomorrow and may miss the Edmonton race. First impressions may be delayed a little bit in case you are wondering. I am hoping to land and be able to catch the race from my hotel room either on TV or listening to the race from my 1070 The Fan app. If I do not catch it, I hope everyone gets to see an exciting race. Coverage begins at 2pm ET on NBC Sports Net with green flag around 2:45pm ET. IndyCar 36 and the Indy Lights race can be seen prior starting at noon ET.

Track Walk: Edmonton 2012

Another off week for the Izod IndyCar Series is over and the series stays in Canada for the eleventh round of the Championship at Edmonton. Ryan Hunter-Reay took over the points lead from Will Power with his third consecutive win at Toronto as he looks to make it four in a row.

The Circuit
This is the second year for the 2.224 mile configuration of the circuit at City Centre Airport. Last year's race saw a lot of carnage at turn five with multiple accidents. This year no one can question that the drivers have done a better job on restarts and giving each other room on the race track. With 120 seconds of push-2-pass in place for Edmonton, expect passing in turn one and five, Mike Conway may try to make a move in turn twelve again, and turn thirteen as well.

The Future of Edmonton
IndyCar and the Edmonton race have a deal through 2013 but after that it appears the City Centre Airport is going to become housing developments and the race will not be able to return to it's current location. Octane Motorsport Events, promoter of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix and the NASCAR race at Montreal, took over the Edmonton race after 2010 and were reportedly interested in an IndyCar race in Calgary. With recent reports of a third Canadian race for 2013, one has to think Octane will have some involvement due to the inevitable loss of Edmonton. Quebec City has also expressed interested in hosting a street race. Other less likely venues include two true road course, Mosport and Mont-Tremblant. Montreal seems very unlikely to return as long as the NASCAR race is there.

More On 2013
Quick run down: Randy Bernard is going for 19-20 race (we all know that). Depending on who you listen to (Robin Miller in this case), Phoenix is less likely to happen than previous thought, Pocono seems very likely and Kentucky is back in the running. Still no change on Michigan and Road America. Austin is not out of the discussion (personally thinking it would be a doubleheader with V8 Supercars or ALMS). Still nothing on China or any other fly-away race (i.e. Surfers Paradise).

Quick Tidbits
No NASCAR race this weekend. Even though the race is on NBC Sports Net, this is a chance for a good day in the ratings. The Open Championships should be over by green flag time around 2:45pm ET. Sebastian Saavedra will race at Sonoma for AFS-Andretti Racing, just like he did at Indianapolis. Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Will Power have won six of the seven Edmonton races. Justin Wilson won in 2006.

Predictions
I see this as a great chance for Bourdais. He starts in the top six, runs strong all day and gets a podium. Charlie Kimball has a clean day and gets a top ten. Josef Newgarden has another top ten day, except this time Simon Pagenaud does not run him down to the wall and ruin it. Ryan Hunter-Reay keeps the points lead with a top five. Scott Dixon and Will Power both run well, even though Dixon has a ten grid spot penalty and, just because it is the last race in Canada for 2012, I predict James Hinchcliffe gets the victory because it would cool to see. Sleepers: J.R. Hildebrand and Rubens Barrichello.

Random Facts For An Off Weekend

With IndyCar taking the week off, not a lot of major news to talk about. For fun and because I had general interest I decided look up who was the last American to win four consecutive races? Answer: Al Unser Jr. In 1990. He won Toronto, Michigan, Denver and Vancouver. Since Little Al only three drivers have won four in a row. Alex Zanardi in 1998 (Detroit, Portland, Cleveland, Toronto), Cristiano da Matta in 2002 (Laguna Seca, Portland, Chicago, Toronto) and Sebastien Boudais won the first four races of the 2006 ChampCar Season (Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey and Milwaukee). Before Little Al won for in a row, you have to go all the way back to 1970 for the next occurrence, where his father Al Unser actually won five in a row in a championship season. (DuQuion, the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Sedalia, Trenton and Sacramento). Since 1956, Al Unser is the last, and only one of two drivers to end up winning four consecutive races in a season and not win the championship. In the 1968, Al won five in a row (Nazareth, two heats at the IRP road course and two heats at Langhorne) but his brother Bobby, who won four in a row that year as well (Stardust, Phoenix, Trenton and Indianapolis) won the championship. The other driver to have it happen was the year prior in 1967, when Mario Andretti won on the IRP road course, Langhorne and two heats at Mosport. AJ Foyt won the championship that season. Other facts, Ryan Hunter-Reay has not won a pole since Milwaukee 2004. He would go on to Grand Chelem, leading every one of the 250 laps from pole, get fastest lap in the race and win the race. The winners of the Edmonton race have always alternated. In the days of ChampCar, Sebastien Bourdais won in 2005, Justin Wilson won in 2006 and Bourdais would win again in 2007. Since unification under the INDYCAR banner, Scott Dixon has won in the even years (2008 and 2010) and Will Power was won the odd years (2009 and 2011). This year's Edmonton race is on July 22, as was the 2007 race won by Bourdais and the IRL race at Mid-Ohio was held on that same day. That race was won by Scott Dixon. Last driver to win on July 22 not named Bourdais or Dixon, was Patrick Carpentier at Michigan in 2001. To bring it full circle and back to the beginning, the last driver to win on July 22 before Carpentier was Al Unser Jr. at Toronto in 1990.