Track Walk: Long Beach 2015

IndyCar heads to Southern California for the third round of 2015

The third round of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship takes us to the streets of Long Beach. The race dates back to 1975 and the last four races have been won by four different teams and only one team has won multiple times at Long Beach since 2008. Honda enters Long Beach fresh off their first victory in eight races while Chevrolet looks to defend their Long Beach victory from last year.

Coverage:
Time: Coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 19th. Green flag at 4:37 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Brian Till (Leigh Diffey is still on Formula One duty. He will make his season debut at Barber), Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy are in the booth with Kevin Lee, Robin Miller, Kelli Stavast and Marty Snider working the pit lane.

Back to Reality?
IndyCar puts the rain and swampy conditions of New Orleans behind them and the series returns to the sunshine and history of Long Beach.

Juan Pablo Montoya retained the championship lead after a fifth place finish at New Orleans. The Colombian sits on 84 points and leads a Penske 1-2-3 in the championship as Hélio Castroneves trails by ten points with defending champion Will Power 14 points back. Montoya, Castroneves and Power are all past winners at Long Beach. Other past Long Beach winners entered are Sébastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato. Bourdais won three consecutive years from 2005-2007 and was currently tied with Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti for 12th in the championship on 37 points. Hunter-Reay was deducted three points following the accident between him and Simon Pagenaud at NOLA. Hunter-Reay's 2010 Grand Prix of Long Beach victory is his only top five finish at Long Beach. Sato is tied for 19th with Charlie Kimball on 25 points. Sato has not finished on the podium since São Paulo 2013, 35 races ago.

James Hinchcliffe jumped to fourth in the championship after his NOLA victory. The Canadian has 65 points with Tony Kanaan two points behind Hinchcliffe. Former teammates Graham Rahal and James Jakes are tied with 43 points. After consecutive top ten finishes, Luca Filippi sits on 42 points with Simon Pagenaud finding himself sandwiched between CFH Racing drivers with Josef Newgarden a point behind the Frenchman.

Scott Dixon sits on 34 points, tied with Hunter-Reay and Carlos Muñoz for 14th, and heads to one of his worst tracks. The New Zealander lone top ten was a fourth place finish in 2010. He has finished outside the top fifteen at Long Beach in four of his eight starts on Shoreline Drive. Dixon has failed to finish in the top ten through the first two races. Dixon has never started a season with three consecutive finishes outside the top ten.

Reality Bites
Simona de Silvestro and Sage Karam will not be competing at Long Beach. Andretti Autosport did not enter the #25 Honda for Long Beach. De Silvestro finished fourth at NOLA in her second start with Andretti Autosport. She is slated to return to attempt to make the Indianapolis 500 in the #29 TE Connectivity Andretti Honda.

Karam will be replaced by Gary Peterson's Automatic Fire Sprinklers sponsorship and Sebastián Saavedra in the #8 Ganassi Chevrolet. Saavedra will be in the car at Long Beach, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Sonoma. Karam is set to return for Barber, will attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and run in the #8 until Pocono. Saavedra will attempt the Indianapolis 500 in a fifth Ganassi entry. Saavedra has made 56 starts, his best finish is eighth at Baltimore 2013 and has three top ten finishes. Saavedra has an average starting position of 18.91 and average finish of 18.32.

Francesco Dracone will return in the #19 at Dale Coyne Racing. Dracone hit Dale Coyne Racing crew member Todd Phillips at New Orleans. The Italian was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for the next six races. In four career starts Dracone has finished 22nd, 20th, 23rd and 23rd.

Dracone will have a new teammate this weekend. Carlos Huertas has been replaced by Californian Rocky Moran, Jr. in the #18 Honda. Moran, Jr. won two races in Toyota Atlantics back in 2001 and 2002. His last open-wheel start was the 2005 Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he started 18th and finished 17th due to gearbox issues. The 35-year old last competed professionally in 2011 when he and another second-generation driver, P.J. Jones, shared a Rocketsports Jaguar in the GT class. Moran, Jr.'s deal only goes for Long Beach and Huertas could return for Indianapolis. Plans for Barber are still to be determined.

Indy Lights
A dozen cars are entered for the third race of the 2015 Indy Lights season. Ed Jones swept the season opening weekend at St. Petersburg as the Emirati driver won in Carlin's first two races in the series. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Jack Harvey and Juncos Racing's Spencer Pigot finished second and third in both races at St. Petersburg.

Californian Kyle Kaiser is tied for fourth in the championship with Canadian Scott Hargrove. Hargrove will not be competing at Long Beach as 8Star Motorsport did not enter for the street race. Nissan LMP1 driver and former Marussia F1 driver Max Chilton is sixth in the championship and finished fourth in race two at St. Petersburg. Belardi Racing's Juan Piedrahita is a point behind the Chilton.

SPM's Scott Anderson and Andertti Autosport's Matthew Brabham are tied on 25 points. Brabham will race at Long Beach. He previously was just announced for St. Petersburg. Ethan Ringel rounds out the top ten in the championship. Félix Serrallés, Shelby Blackstock and R.C. Enerson round out the championship with a point separating the three drivers.

The last European driver to win the Long Beach Indy Lights race was Austrian Philipp Petter in 2000. Note from 2002-2008 Indy Lights did not run at Long Beach. South Americans have won the last three races (Esteban Guerrieri, Carlos Muñoz, Gabby Chaves). Since Indy Lights returned to Long Beach, four of their six races did not feature a lead change.

The Indy Lights races will take place Sunday at 11:45 a.m. ET.

Pirelli World Challenge
Forty cars are entered as the GT and GT Cup classes head to Long Beach for their third round of the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season.

Olivier Beretta enters as the points leader driving for R.Ferri Motorsport. The Monegasque driver has won two of four races and holds a two-point lead over EFFORT Racing Porsche driver Ryan Dalziel. The Scotsman has finished runner-up in three of the four races. Third in the championship is K-PAX McLaren's Kevin Éstre. The Austin 2 winner is 16 points behind Beretta . Defending champion Johnny O'Connell is 89 points back as the Cadillac driver's best finish is third through four races. Fifth in the championship, Lamborghini driver Nicky Catsburg is not entered for Long Beach.

Acura's Ryan Eversley trails Beretta by 111 points after splitting the St. Petersburg weekend. Michael Lewis is top GT-A driver, seventh in the championship but the EFFORT Racing Porsche driver could be reclassified depending on his results. CRP Racing Audi's Mike Skeen, Nissan's James Davison and Cadillac's Andy Pilgrim round out the top ten in the championship.

In GT Cup, Colin Thompson has won three of four races and leads Lorenzo Trefethen by 79 points. Sloan Urry is 118 points behind Thompson. Preston Calvert is fourth, 151 points back and Phil Fogg, winner in St. Petersburg 1, rounds out the top five, six points behind Calvert.

Last year, Johnny O'Connell took won at Long Beach ahead of his teammate Andy Pilgrim and Anthony Lazzaro.

The PWC race will take place after the IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach at 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday night.

IMSA
Seventeen cars are entered for the third round of the 2015 United Sports Car Championship season. Nine Prototypes and eight GT Le Mans cars are heading to Long Beach.

Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa lead the Prototype championship after a dominant victory at Sebring. The defending champions hold a seven-point lead over Spirit of Daytona's Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook. Fourteen points back of Fittipaldi and Barbosa are their Action Express teammates Eric Curran and Dane Cameron. Ganassi drivers Joey Hand and Scott Pruett are a point behind Curran/Cameron.

Ricky and Jordan Taylor trail by 20 points after finishing runner-up at Sebring. Shank Racing's Oswaldo Negri and John Pew are three back of the Taylor brothers. The other three entries are the DeltaWing, featuring Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas and the Mazda prototypes with Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito in one car and Tom Long and Joel Miller in the other.

Corvette's Antonio García and Jan Magnussen won the first two rounds of the season and lead the GTLM championship by 14 points over the RLLR BMW drivers John Edwards and Lucas Luhr. Second through sixth in GTLM are covered by four points. Third in the championship is the other RLLR pairing of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner. Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer are fourth with Falken Tire Porsche's Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler rounding out the top five.

Corvette's Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner are tied with Porsche's Patrick Pilet. Frédéric Makowiecki will join Pilet as co-driver with Richard Lietz joins Jörg Bergmeister. Makowiecki and Lietz replace Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, who will focus on their upcoming LMP1 duties at Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans.

Ganassi won last year in Prototypes with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas while Antonio García and Jan Magnussen won in GTLM.

The IMSA race will take place on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. ET.

Fast Facts
This will be the tenth IndyCar race to take place on April 19th. The most recent race on April 19th was in 2009 and it is the only Grand Prix of Long Beach to fall on April 19th. Dario Franchitti took the victory, his first with Chip Ganassi Racing and first since returning after running in NASCAR.

The last four Grands Prix of Long Beach have been won by four different teams (Andretti Autosport, Team Penske, A.J. Foyt Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing). Since reunification, six teams have split the seven races held at Long Beach. The other teams to win were KV Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing. Andretti Autosport is the only team with multiple victories at Long Beach post-reunification.

Five of the last seven Long Beach races have had over 10 laps run behind the pace car.

Five of the last seven Long Beach races have had five or more lead changes.

Can you name the top five finishers in the Grand Prix of Long Beach during the IndyCar-era?

Will Power has been running at the finish of every one of his Long Beach starts. Sunday will mark his tenth start on Shoreline Drive.

This year's Grand Prix of Long Beach falls on Townsend Bell's 40th birthday.

This will be the 41st Grand Prix of Long Beach, 32nd-time IndyCar as the headliner. Eight times it was a Formula One Grand Prix and the inaugural edition was a Formula 5000 race.

Toyota has never won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

In the IndyCar-era, Honda has won the most Grands Prix of Long Beach with eleven victories. Chevrolet and Cosworth are tied with nine victories. Mercedes-Benz and Illmor each have one victory.

In last year's race, eight of the top ten finishers started outside the top ten. The two exceptions were Simon Pagenaud (started sixth, finished fifth) and Marco Andretti (Started and finished eighth).

Possible Milestones at Long Beach:

A victory for Scott Dixon will be his 36th and move him into sole possession of fifth all-time in IndyCar victories.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 70 laps to join the 1,000 laps led club.

Takuma Sato needs to lead ten laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 18 laps to reach the 200 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 50 laps to reach the 200 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs one podium to reach 50 career IndyCar podiums.

Predictions
No rain means Will Power gets his first victory of 2015 at Long Beach. There will be a new points leader after this race. Scott Dixon gets his second career top ten at Long Beach. There are at least four Hondas in the top ten including Marco Andretti. A rookie finally gets a top ten finish. Josef Newgarden finishes ahead of Luca Filippi. Sébastien Bourdais is the top finishing Frenchman. There are at least 65 green flag laps. Sleeper: Jack Hawksworth.

Musings From the Weekend: Bump, Set, Spike

It was a weekend full of racing from the wet in New Orleans to the wind of Silverstone. Texas hosted three major series in three major cities and a champion was crowned. Meanwhile, a man ran across the track in China. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Bump, Set, Spike
The good news: A plethora of drivers want to run the Indianapolis 500.
The bad news: The manufactures have a stranglehold on IndyCar and neither wants to supply more than 17 entries.

All 24 cars that ran at NOLA and 22 of the 24 drivers are scheduled to attempt to make the Indianapolis 500. The lone drivers not going to Speedway are Luca Filippi, who is splitting the #20 with Ed Carpenter and Francesco Dracone. Add to those 23 drivers the already confirmed Bryan Clauson, Jay Howard, Justin Wilson, Buddy Lazier, J.R. Hildebrand and driver to be named for the #19 Dale Coyne entry (which I think will be Rodolfo González seeing as he was spending time in the Dale Coyne Racing pits at St. Petersburg). That is 29 entries, 15 Chevrolets and 14 Hondas.

Coyne will probably enter a third car for Pippa Mann, Oriol Servià reportedly is working on a deal to return with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ran a third car last year and is consider likely to enter a third again this year. That would bring the entry list to 32, 17 Hondas, 15 Chevrolets.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in partnership with Davey Hamilton's Kingdom Racing look likely to return with Chevrolet power and Townsend Bell as their driver and that would get the field to 33.

This is where it gets depressing. Ryan Briscoe, Conor Daly, Gary Peterson's unofficial adopted son Sebastián Saavedra, James Davison, Katherine Legge, Stefan Wilson and Alex Tagliani are all reportedly working on rides or are interested in attempting the 99th Indianapolis 500. The bad news is the only seats remaining are the second Coyne (which will probably be González), the possible third Schmidt Peterson entry and possibly a fourth KV Racing Technology entry. You can't squeeze seven drivers into three seats.

Let's not forget to mention Ryan Phinny, who reported was working on a deal to attempt the Indianapolis 500 with KV or A.J. Allmendinger, who wants to attempt The Double but I think he is shooting to do that next year at this point. Then there is Guy Cosmo, who wants to fulfill his lifelong dream of competing in IndyCar. And let's just throw Zach Veach in the mix considering the Indy Lights race winner is currently unemployed and wanted to make his Indianapolis 500 debut last year.

You have 42 drivers who have openly expressed they are working on an Indianapolis 500 ride or are reportedly working on one and at best 8 won't get the opportunity to make a qualifying run, at worst 9 won't get a chance.

It is soul crushing. And I bet there are another handful of drivers we aren't talking about who would love to head to the Speedway in the month of May but know they have a better chance seeing God than getting a ride to attempt to make the Indianapolis 500. Bumping was a great part of the Indianapolis 500 and now the only bumping that takes place is in backrooms with paychecks, not on the racetrack with stopwatches. We are in the fourth year of the DW12 chassis. At this point there should surely be enough chassis to get 36-38 entries for the month of May. The new aero kits are hard to come by but the Dallara aero kit is still available and while it might not be as quick, I bet you could still put a car in the field with the Dallara kit. After all, I don't see all 33 qualifiers for this year's race topping Ed Carpenter's four-lap average of 231.067 MPH so I bet a few Dallara kit could sneak their way in and that wouldn't be a bad thing.

The only downside is the new floor doesn't mesh well with the Dallara kit but why couldn't teams with the Dallara kit be allowed to run the 2014 floor and those with the new kits run the new floor? Would it really matter, especially if qualifying is dramatic and you have four or five teams fighting to make it in the field? Would fans really be upset if the floors were different? Would fans really even notice?

The engines are the difficult part. It's getting Chevrolet and Honda to open up and run more than 17. The manufactures need to watch their wallets but they can't make the on-track action and talented drivers suffer because of it.

Here is my proposal: Incentivize having more cars in the Indianapolis 500 by awarding manufacture championship points. The manufactures' championship is so important to Honda and Chevrolet and the Indianapolis 500 is the backbone of the IndyCar season, why not have a lot of points on the line? Even better, have it on a sliding scale. The more cars you put in, the more points you get. The beauty of the Indianapolis 500 and there only being two manufactures is they can't be equal. Someone will have one more car than the other.

Here is what I envision: If a manufacture puts 17 cars in the field, they get 500 bonus points. If a manufacture puts 18 cars in the field, 700 bonus points. Nineteen cars, 900 bonus points. Twenty cars, 1000 bonus points. Limit it at 1000 points though. If a team puts in 21 in the field, they would still only get 1000 points.

Now it's a game of cat and mouse. If Honda enters 17, Chevrolet has to enter 17. They aren't going to give away 500 points to Honda. This means someone will be bumped. What if Chevrolet decides to enter 18? Honda can't run the risk of conceding 700 points and if Honda believes their super speedway aero kit is better than Chevrolet, then why not call the Bowtie Brigade's bluff and match their 18. Now you have 36 cars entered and at least three teams going home.

And what about the possibility of a team buying their way into the race à la Scott Goodyear in 1992 or Alex Tagliani in 2009 or Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2011? Make a regulation that if a team sells their seat their manufacture forfeits all manufacture points they accumulate for the Indianapolis 500 and that includes the bonus points. Does a team really want to get on a manufacture's bad side by being the reason why they lost 500-1000 points? I don't think so. To be fair, you will need to make an exception if a driver can't compete due to injury or worse and you can't punish a manufacture if that happens. Bring back the first alternate or if a driver replacement is made due to injury or worse, then no forfeiture of points.

Throw the gentleman's agreement out the window and have an all out war on qualifying weekend. I'd love to see Pole Day return to Saturday and Bump Day on Sunday but IndyCar brass seems set on setting pole position on Sunday. I will make a concession. Fill the field and set the Fast Nine on Saturday. Run the Fast Nine session at noon ET Sunday and put it on ABC. Once the Fast Nine is over, start Bump Day at 1:00 p.m. and go until 6:00 p.m. ET with coverage split over ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3. Maybe show 1:00-4:00 p.m. on ESPN3, then 4:00-5:00 p.m. on ESPN2 with the final hour on ESPN as a lead in to SportsCenter.

We have seen the Snake Pit return to the Indianapolis 500 and qualifying averages are back above 230 MPH and are expected to go up again this year. Let's bring the drama of bumping back as well.

Hindsight: New Orleans
1. Had IndyCar decided to postpone yesterday's race, you know that majority of the fans would be upset and make comments about the series ineptitude to run a road course race in the rain just like Toronto 1 last year. Then fans would be upset that the race would be moved to a Monday afternoon and they would be unable to watch it live. Ultimately, IndyCar was in a lose-lose yesterday and it wasn't their fault.

2. Notice that everything started going haywire when the teams switched to slick tires. The first 15 laps were fine and drivers started slipping off course when they got into the puddles or just off the dry line. Stefano Coletti wasn't at fault for his accident. He hit puddle. I am sure we all would have lost control if we were in his situation. If anything, the teams made the wrong choice to switch to slicks. The track might have been drier than when they started but it wasn't dry enough for slicks.

3. As for the man who pushed Gabby Chaves out of the grass, I just wonder how fast the cars were going around that corner? I know it was a "hot track" but how fast were the cars going? Forty-five MPH? Maybe 50 MPH? He wasn't any closer to the cars than if you or I are walking down the street to get a doughnut. If we are crucifying him for being in harms way than we are in harms way every day of our lives and should never leave our house because we are in constant danger. Come on people! Gabby Chaves was even praising him. Instead of making him into a bad guy, maybe the series should use this as a way to increase the presence of corner workers and use of local yellows. After all, that full-course caution took four laps and if that caution never happens, perhaps we see an entirely different race.

A Positive
We need some good news or just a positive thought to end on. J.R. Hildebrand and Justin Wilson are not only entered for the Indianapolis 500, they are entered for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis as well. It's nice to see one-offs for other races beside the Indianapolis 500 and I think this race being on ABC (as well as being at Indianapolis) has something to do with it. For their next television deal, the word exclusivity should not be used at all unless a network is paying IndyCar over $1 billion. IndyCar can't afford to have an exclusive network partner and exclusive cable partner. They need partners that are going to work together both on network and cable TV. That means NBCSN and NBC showing races as well as ABC and ESPN.

A little more network exposure could go a long way in terms of growth and attracting sponsors. Four-to-five ABC races with four-to-five NBC races with ESPN and NBCSN splitting the remaining races is what the goal should be and seeing how the series wants around 20 races, that would work perfectly. Half your races on network, half your races on cable with each channel getting a quarter of the schedule.

Back to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis: It's grown on me. It's nice to have a race a fortnight before the Indianapolis 500 and it drew a decent crowd last year, much larger than opening day for Indianapolis 500 practice. It's not so bad. With that said, I still think IndyCar should ran Indianapolis Raceway Park the Friday night of Brickyard weekend.

Champion From the Weekend
Ryan Dungey clinched his second career AMA Supercross championship with a second-place finish at Houston. There are three races left in the 2015 AMA Supercross season (Santa Clara, New Jersey and Las Vegas).

Winners From the Weekend
You know about James Hinchcliffe but did you know...

The #7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer won the FIA WEC season opener from Silverstone. The #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Romain Rusinov and Julien Canal won in LMP2. Defending world champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander won in GTE-Pro in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Aston Martin extended their GTE-Am winning streak to seven consecutive races as the #98 of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda were victorious.

Marc Márquez is undefeated at Circuit of the Americas as he won his third consecutive Grand Prix of the Americas.

Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix, his second victory of 2015.

The #41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson-Nissan of Jon Lancaster, Björn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch won the European Le Mans Series season opener from Silverstone. The #86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche of Adam Carroll, Phil Keen and Micahel Wainwright won in GTE. The #59 TDS Racing BMW of Franck Perera, Dino Lunardi and Eric Dermont won in GTC. Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy and Charlie Robinson made history as the first winners in LMP3 in the #3 Team LNT Ginetta-Nissan.

Andrew Palmer, Jeroen Mul and Fabio Babini crossed the finish line first in the Blancpain Endurance Series season opener at Monza in the #19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán. However, the team was excluded after using an illegal fuel restrictor. It was the debut race for the Huracán and Palmer. Palmer would have been the first American to win a Blancpain GT race before being excluded. The exclusion promoted the #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Rinat Salikhov and Norbert Siedler to victory.

Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Cup race from Texas, his second victory of the year and he is now in the Chase.

Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies split the World Superbike weekend at Aragón. Kenan Sofuoglu won the World Supersport race while American P.J. Jacobsen made it a Kawasaki 1-2. Sofuoglu now leads the WSS championship by 13 points over Jacobsen.

Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race from Austin and Danny Kent won the Moto3 race.

Santiago Urrutia won the Pro Mazda race from New Oreleans. The second race was cancelled due to rain. In U.S. F2000, Nico Jamin and Victor Franzoni split the doubleheader.

Cole Seely scored his first career AMA Supercross victory at Houston.

Erik Jones scored his first career NASCAR Grand National Series victory at Texas on Friday night.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar runs the 41st Grand Prix of Long Beach.
IMSA, Pirelli World Challenge and Indy Lights joins IndyCar at Long Beach.
Formula One runs their first night race at Bahrain.
MotoGP heads south to Argentina.
Super Formula starts their season at Suzuka.
NASCAR heads to Bristol.
World Superbike goes to Assen.
World Touring Car Championship makes it six different continents with major series in competition as WTCC heads to Morocco.

First Impressions: New Orleans 2015

1. This was the worst race in IndyCar history. It's not a negative. Let's embrace it. Let's laugh at ourselves. It was a terrible race. But laugh at ourselves. Instead of getting angry and pointing fingers, let's just laugh. And you can like this race! That's ok. It was nerve-racking. Could they complete two consecutive green flag laps? That doesn't sound good but that was the reality of the situation. Had the race been a week earlier, perhaps we have a great race in the dry. These things happen. Don't get down about it. The Long Beach sunshine awaits.

2. Congratulations to James Hinchcliffe and Honda. After it appeared Honda would struggle to get a victory, this one fell in their laps.

3. Hélio Castroneves had a great battle with James Jakes for second and both had to overcome adversity. Castroneves made contact with Francesco Dracone and Jakes spun on a restart. And they both finished on the podium

4. Someone get Simona de Silvestro a full-time ride. She showed speed at St. Petersburg, she kept it clean today and if it weren't for a puddle, she might have been on the podium.

5. Juan Pablo Montoya was fortunate the race was set by entrant points because I am not sure he would have been a factor if he started in the back.

6. Tony Kanaan overcame going off on slick to finish sixth. Will Power quietly finished seventh and Graham Rahal finished eighth, which I am sure he will take.

7. Really good day for CFH Racing with Josef Newgarden and Luca Filippi in ninth and tenth. CFH will win a race this year and all three of their drivers could get victories.

8. This was a rough for many teams. Got to give a shout out to Stefano Coletti for spinning, backing into the barrier and keeping the car going and finishing the race!

9. Francesco Dracone has to be parked. He shouldn't have been allowed to race in the first place but IndyCar officials don't have a backbone to try and keep the series little integrity intact.

10. You can't take much from this race since most of it was behind the safety car. I really wish we got to see a proper race at NOLA. IndyCar won't do this because they are IndyCar but they should go back later in the year, allow all fans who bought a ticket to this race to return for free, sell $10 tickets for new fans who want to attend and run a proper race and use it as a make up for Brasilia.

11. Off to Long Beach. Thank goodness.

Morning Warm-Up: New Orleans 2015

Mother Nature sets grid for IndyCar's Grand Prix of Louisiana

Qualifying was washed out after thunderstorms hit NOLA Motorsports Park mid-session on Saturday and the inaugural Grand Prix of Louisiana will be set by entrant points.

Juan Pablo Montoya benefits greatly as the Colombian will start from pole position. The St. Petersburg winner was not going to advance to round two in qualifying after being seventh in round one group one. For the second consecutive race, Penske sweeps row one as Will Power will start second. The Australian was fourth in round one group one. Tony Kanaan was quickest in round one group one and quickest overall in round one. The Brazilian will start third and be joined by his fellow countryman Hélio Castroneves on row two. Like Montoya, Castroneves was not going to round two of qualifying after finishing ninth in round one group one.

Simon Pagenaud and Sébastien Bourdais starts on row three. Pagenaud was second quickest in round one group one while Bourdais would have started 23rd had qualifying been completed. Bourdais was quickest in round one group one but had his fastest time annulled after being penalized for impeding Kanaan during the session. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jack Hawksworth make it an all-Honda row four. Hunter-Reay was second quickest in round one group two while Hawksworth was slowest in the same group. Luca Filippi and Marco Andretti round out the top ten.

Graham Rahal will start 11th while the fastest driver from round one group two, Josef Newgarden joins Rahal for an all-American row six. Takuma Sato and Carlos Muñoz make up row seven. While the likes of Montoya, Castroneves and Bourdais benefited greatly from the field being set by entrant points, Scott Dixon will suffer because of it. The New Zealander was third fastest in round one group two but will drop to 15th on the grid. James Hinchcliffe was also slated to advance to round two of qualifying but will start 16th.

Gabby Chaves has had a respectable weekend in practice but will have to start 17th just ahead of Simona de Silvestro. Like his Ganassi teammate, Sage Karam was in position to advance to round two but he drop to 19th on the grid with Stefano Coletti rounding out the top twenty. Charlie Kimball was fourth in round one group two while James Jakes was fifth in round one group one but both will comprise row 11 on the grid. The Dale Coyne Racing drivers Francesco Dracone and Carlos Huertas round out the grid on row 12.

NBCSN's coverage of the inaugural Grand Prix of Louisiana will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag pushed up to 2:45 p.m. ET due to the possibility of more heavy storms late Sunday afternoon.

Track Walk: New Orleans 2015

IndyCar Makes History in Louisiana

The inaugural Grand Prix of Louisiana will take place from NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana. The track is 2.74 miles in length and features 13 corners, nine right-handers and four left-handers. The race is scheduled for 75 laps, 205.5 miles. Juan Pablo Montoya won the first race of the IndyCar season a fortnight ago at St. Petersburg. He leads the championship by seven points over Will Power and 16 points over Tony Kanaan.

Coverage:
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 12th. Green flag at 3:37 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN.

Announcers: Brian Till (Leigh Diffey is on Formula One the next two weeks. He will make his season debut at Barber), Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy are in the booth with Kevin Lee, Robin Miller, Kelli Stavast and Marty Snider working the pit lane.

Can Anyone Beat Penske?
Forget about the Chevrolet vs. Honda narrative. It's Penske vs. the field. The Captain's fleet qualified 1-2-3-4 at St. Petersburg and finished 1-2-4-5 with Tony Kanaan being the lone driver to break up the monopoly at the front of the field. Juan Pablo Montoya took victory at St. Petersburg after Will Power had a slow pit stop and failed to get by the Colombian in the closing stages. All four Penske drivers led a lap at St. Petersburg and combined to lead 105 of 110 circuits.

Besides the Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Kanaan, the next best team at St. Petersburg was A.J. Foyt Racing. Takuma Sato was quickest in round one group one and was the lone Honda to make it to the Firestone Fast Six. His teammate Jack Hawksworth started 21st but was sixth in first practice and over came early front wing damage to lead 5 laps. He dropped from contention for a podium because he was pitting off strategy but Hawksworth was able to come home in eighth in his first race for Foyt.

Sébastien Bourdais was another driver who was consistently quick at St. Petersburg. The four-time champion was in the top ten in every session and started and finished sixth.

The Andretti Autosport quartet lingered in the background at St. Petersburg. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simona de Silvestro and Marco Andretti all advanced to the second round of qualifying and Hunter-Reay and Andretti both finished in the top ten with Hunter-Reay overcoming dropping outside the top fifteen after running wide in turn one lap one to finish seventh. De Silvestro's IndyCar return was marred by contact with James Jakes but she will return for NOLA. Carlos Muñoz started and finished 14th at St. Petersburg and was bumped by Andretti from making the second round of qualifying.

Speaking of Honda
The Japanese manufacture has not seen the top step of the podium since Ryan Hunter-Reay's late charge on fresh tires at Iowa. Chevrolet has won the last seven races with four different teams and six different drivers. Chevrolet has also won nine consecutive pole positions with Honda's last pole being Simon Pagenaud for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports at Houston 2.

Honda hasn't just struggled to get on the top step of the podium but on the podium in general. In the last seven races, Honda has only amassed three podiums (James Hinchcliffe at Mid-Ohio, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud at Sonoma). In the previous seven races before Chevrolet's winning streak, Honda had nine podiums.

St. Petersburg saw Chevrolet sweep the top six and only three Hondas in the top ten and only four of 12 Hondas made it through to the second round of qualifying.

A Chevrolet victory this weekend will give Honda their longest winless streak since 2003-2004 when Toyota and Chevrolet combined to win nine consecutive race, the final eight races of 2003 and the first race of 2004.

Despite the disappointing weekend at St. Petersburg, Honda leads the manufactures' championship after 11 of the 12 Chevrolet teams changed engines after a potentially faulty value spring was found. The lone Chevrolet not to change their engine was the #8 Ganassi Chevrolet of Sage Karam. Each engine change and minor repair to an engine component will result in a 20-point deduction for a manufacture; meaning Chevrolet was penalized 220 points for the 11 engine changes. Honda now leads with 72 points while Chevrolet sits on -92 heading to NOLA.

Road to Indy
Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000 join IndyCar at NOLA as Indy Lights take a break before returning for Long Beach next. Both Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000 had drivers sweep the weekend at St. Petersburg.

Neil Alberico won both Pro Mazda races and leads the championship by 20 points over Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia of Team Pelfey. Juncos Racing's Jose Gutierrez trails by 21 points with Alberico's Cape Motorsports w/ Wayne Taylor Racing teammate Canadian Daniel Burkett a distant fourth, 35 points back. JDC Motorsports' Kyle Connery and Andretti Autosport's Dalton Kellett are tied for fifth, 36 points behind Alberico.

Pro Mazda has raced at NOLA twice before during their Winterfest series. In 2014, Spencer Pigot and Garett Grist split the races. Pigot has since graduated to Indy Lights while Grist competes this weekend for Juncos Racing. This year Jack Aitken won two of the three races at NOLA with Andretti Autosport's Weiron Tan winning the other. Aitken decided to focus on European competition this season and will not be at NOLA this weekend.

Pabst Racing's Jake Eidson swept the U.S. F2000 races at St. Petersburg. The Floridan holds a 13-point advantage over Wisconsinite Aaron Telitz driving for Cape Motorsports w/WTR. Telitz's teammate, Frenchman Nico Jamin is third, 20 points behind Eidson. Australian Anthony Martin trails Eidson by 26 points while Martin's John Cummiskey Racing teammate and fellow Australian Jordan Lloyd rounds out the top five, 34 points back.

Like Pro Mazda, U.S. F2000 has run at NOLA twice for Winterfest. Victor Franzoni, R.C. Enerson and Clark Toppe split the weekend in 2014. Enerson has graduated to Indy Lights while Toppe is competing in IMSA Prototype Lites, which will also be competing at NOLA this weekend. Earlier this year Eidson won two of three Winterfest races while Franzoni won the other. Franzoni is tied for tenth in the U.S. F2000 championship on 20 points.

Both series will run doubleheaders again this weekend. U.S. F2000's first race will be at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday with their second race at 11:15 a.m. ET on Sunday. Race one for Pro Mazda will follow IndyCar qualifying on Saturday at 6:50 p.m. ET. Their second race will be at 1:50 p.m. ET Sunday.

Fast Facts

This will be the first IndyCar race at NOLA Motorsports Park and first IndyCar race in the state of Louisiana.

Louisiana will become the 39th state to host an IndyCar race. Can you name the 11 states yet to host an IndyCar race?

Two Louisianan drivers have made IndyCar starts. On July 30, 1914, T.C. Jones finished sixth at Galveston, Texas on Denver Beach, a 5-mile beach course. The race was 50 miles in length and was won by Ralph Mulford, the runner-up in the inaugural Indianapolis 500. It was the only start of T.C. Jones' career. Just under 12 years later, Tony Gulotta would make his debut in the 1926 Indianapolis 500, starting 12th and finishing 11th, completing all 200 laps. In 1927, Gulotta would finish third at Indianapolis behind rookie winner George Souders and Earl Devore and just ahead of rookie and future three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Wilbur Shaw. He would finish third in his next start that season at Altoona. Third was the Gulotta's best finish in his career. He amassed 17 starts from 1926-1939. Gulotta started all but one Indianapolis 500 in that time frame. He didn't start the 1936 race but did drive in relief for Cliff Bergere in the #42 Bowes Seal Fast Miller. Herb Ardinger also drove relief in the #42.

Team Penske has won three of the four inaugural races in the post-reunification-era. Will Power won the inaugural races at São Paulo and Baltimore. Hélio Castroneves won the inaugural Barber race. The lone inaugural event not won by Penske since 2008 was last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, which was won by current Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud and Schmidt Peterson Motorsport.

This will be the third race to take place on April 12th. The first was at Phoenix and won by Roberto Guerrero. It was Guerrero's first career victory in his 48th start and he won from the 22nd and final spot on the grid. Despite starting 22nd, Guerrero led the most laps in that race at 96. Dale Coyne failed to qualify for the race. The most recent race on April 12th was Long Beach 1992. Danny Sullivan won the race after contact with his teammate Al Unser, Jr. (Notice how Unser, Jr. spins, the car doesn't stall and there is no full-course caution. The race steward waits for him to find a gap, spin it back around and get back going. Current IndyCar race stewards, take note of how it's done). It was the penultimate victory in Sullivan's career.

Possible Milestones at NOLA:

Marco Andretti needs to lead 70 laps to join the 1,000 laps led club.

Takuma Sato needs to lead ten laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 18 laps to reach the 200 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 50 laps to reach the 200 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs one podium to reach 50 career IndyCar podiums.

Predictions

Will Power makes it back-to-back victories for Team Penske. However, Power is the only Penske on the podium. A Honda finishes in the top five. Rain tires are used at least once this weekend. A rookie finishes in the top ten. Francesco Dracone fails to be within 105% of the fastest time in every dry session. There are less than four safety car periods and at least 85% of the laps will be under green flag conditions. Sleeper: Stefano Coletti.

Musings From the Weekend: Paint The Rainbow

I hope you all had a Happy Easter and didn't stuff yourselves with too much candy. Not much happened on track in the motorsports world this past weekend but we have a doozy lined-up this weekend. I would just like to note that For the Love of Indy turned three years old yesterday. It has been a blast and look forward to the future. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Paint The Rainbow
The state of Indiana was at the center of attention all last week after Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law which could have allowed for discrimination against LGBT people. Many voiced their displeasure in the law and it was changed on Thursday.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway released a statement in response to the law saying the track will continue to welcome everyone to the track.

The state of Indiana has received a lot of bad press in the past week and the backlash will effect many who never supported the law. Will people decide not to go to IMS during the Month of May because of the law? Only time will tell but I think IMS can turn the month of May into a chance to show their support beyond just a statement.

This month of May should integrate the LBGT community into their festivities. Paint the outside wall in the colors of the Rainbow Flag and when I say the outside wall, I mean the entire outside wall. It should be a continuous rainbow from the start of the yard of bricks, into turn one, around the south end to the back straightway, around the north end and meeting back up at start/finish. It will be unique and a clear message where the Speedway stands on the issue. Bring in a prominent LBGT figures to the Indianapolis 500 to perform the national anthem, drive the pace car and wave the green flag.

For all of you who want people with ties to the Indianapolis 500 to drive the pace car and wave the green flag, that can wait until next year and the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. This year is for a bigger purpose.

Shut Up Penske
Last week, we talked about the discrepancy in visions between IndyCar management (Mark Miles) and team owners (Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi).

Penske noted he was upside with the cost increase especially with the introduction of aero kits. News flash skipper: No body forced you to buy aero kits. You could have kept the Dallara kit on the car and been at the back of the field but you know as well as I know Mr. Penske that you wouldn't want that, your sponsors wouldn't want that and most importantly, you would not have any of the four drivers you currently have if you told them, "Hey, we're going to run the old kit and be a second off the pace."

And you couldn't turn down being Chevrolet's test team. You didn't give a rat's ass about the cost because you were getting an advantage. You know if you turned down Chevrolet's offer to be the test team, Ganassi would have accepted it and the script would have been flipped at St. Petersburg. Ganassi cars probably would have had four of the top five instead of your cars.

To be fair to the Dallara kit, you could get some speed out of it. In 2012, the first year of the DW12-chassis and Dallara kit, Will Power won St. Petersburg pole position with a 61.3721. That time would have put him second in group one from qualifying at St. Petersburg this year and fifth in group two this year. That time would have been 11th-fastest in the second round. The following year, Power won St. Petersburg pole position with a 61.2070, which would have been fastest in group one this year and still fifth in group two. Power's 2013 pole time would have been ninth-fastest in round two this year. In 2014, IndyCar qualifying from St. Petersburg took part partially in the wet and ended on a drying race track.

It should be noted that a new floor has been mandated for 2015, which creates less downforce and doesn't mesh well with the Dallara kit, according to Dale Coyne Racing, who tested Francesco Dracone in the Dallara kit at Barber preseason testing. However, if there is one team that could figure out to find the right balance with the floor and Dallara kit, it's Penske.

So Penske, with the evidence on the table that the old kit not only could compete with the current kit, you tell me and the rest of IndyCar why you are paying more when you easily could have taken the old kit and spent much less developing it during the offseason and possibly still made the second round and Fast Six in qualifying?

Winners From the Weekend

Nelson Piquet, Jr. became the sixth different winner in six Formula E race after he won at Long Beach, 35 years after his father Nelson Piquet won his first career Formula One race at Long Beach.

Andrea Caldarelli and Ryō Hirakawa won the Super GT race from Okayama. Yuichi Nakayama and Koki Saga won in GT300.

The Monegasque pairing of Stéphane Ortelli and Stéphane Richmeli won the Blancpain Sprint Series qualifying race from Nogaro. Maxime Martin and Dirk Müller won the Blancpain Sprint Series main race earlier today.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar makes their debut at NOLA Motorsports Park for the Grand Prix of Louisiana.
MotoGP returns to Austin.
FIA World Endurance Championship kicks off their season from Silverstone.
European Le Mans Series joins FIA WEC at Silverstone.
Formula One goes to China.
Blancpain Endurance Series starts their season at Monza.
World Superbike runs their first race in Europe at Aragón.
NASCAR runs their first night race at Texas.
AMA Supercross heads to Houston.

2015 Long Beach ePrix Preview

The sixth round of the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship takes place on the streets of Long Beach this Saturday, April 4th. This is the the second round to take place in the United States.

Through the first five races there have been five different winners. Three weeks ago at Miami, e.dams driver Nicolas Prost took his maiden victory and in doing so took the championship lead. Prost is the only driver to score points from all five races and has 67 total. Seven behind the Frenchman is the winner of the inaugural Formula E race, Lucas di Grassi. The Brazilian Audi Sport ABT driver had finished on the podium in the first three races but retired at Buenos Aires and finished ninth at Miami. Virgin Racing's and Putrajaya winner Sam Bird is third in the championship, 15 points behind Prost. The Brit salvaged points at Miami after nearly not having enough power to make it make to the pit lane while leading. Nelson Piquet, Jr. has yet to win but is fourth in the championship driving for China Racing. Piquet, Jr. finished second at Punta del Esta and third at Buenos Aires and is 18 points behind Prost.

Prost's e.dams teammate and Punta del Esta winner Sébastien Buemi trails by 24 points while Buenos Aires winner, Aguri driver António Félix da Costa is 30 points back, sixth overall.

Long Beach is the second home race for Los Angeles-based Dragon Racing and Indianapolis-based Andretti Autosport. Dragon's Jérôme d'Ambrosio is seventh in the championship and has finished in the points in four of the five races with the Belgian scoring his best finish (fourth) at Miami. He will be joined for the second consecutive race by FIA WEC World Champion, Le Mans winner, Formula Nippon champion and Super GT champion Loïc Duval. The Frenchman finished seventh on debut. Scott Speed returns with Andretti Autosport for his second race. Speed finished second on debut. Jean-Éric Vergne will be making his fourth start with Andretti has won pole position for two of his first three starts and in each of those starts he failed to finish.

Virgin Racing's Jaime Alguersuari and Audi Sport ABT's Daniel Abt are eighth and ninth in the championship. The Spaniard has 26 points while the German sits on 19 and finished third at Miami, his first career podium. Mahindra Racing's Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna each have 18 points. Senna has won the fan boost in four of five races. Trulli GP returns with an all-Italian driver line-up. Jarno Trulli will be joined by Vitantonio Liuzzi for the second consecutive race. The team's only finish in the points came at Punta del Esta when Trulli finished fourth. Venturi Grand Prix drivers Nick Heidfeld and Stéphane Sarrazin have only combined for eight points through the first five races. Heidfeld was a corner away from being the inaugural winner in Formula E history before being taken out by Prost. The team's best finish is eighth.

Charles Pic and Salvador Durán round out the entry list for Long Beach. Pic is driving for China Racing. He finished fourth in Beijing driving for Andretti. Durán has run the last three races, all for Aguri. He finished tenth at Miami, securing his first points in Formula E competition.

In the Teams' Championship, e.dams has 119 points and leads Audi Sport ABT by 31 markers and Virgin Racings by 32 points. The American teams are fourth and fifth with Andretti having 62 points to their name and Dragon Racings sitting on 56 points. China Racing has 49 points with Aguri nine behind them. Mahindra has 36 points while Trulli GP has 12 and Venturi sits on eight.

Long Beach will mark the first time Formula E will have an unchanged driver line-up from the previous race. As well as having five different winners from the first five races, there have been five different drivers to have set fastest lap in the five races. Takuma Sato took the inaugural fastest lap at Beijing. Alguersuari, Abt, Bird and Piquet, Jr. took fastest lap in the subsequent races. Every Formula E race has had at least one driver score their first career podium. The driver to lead the first lap of a Formula E race has never won a Formula E race. Miami marked the first Formula E race to not feature a safety car period.

The Long Beach race will take place on a modified course compared to the one IndyCar will use a fortnight afterward. The Formula E course is 7 turns and 1.302 miles in length. The cars with have a chicane on the front straightaway before making a right hand turn at what is normally the IndyCar, left-hand turn six. The course is identical to the IndyCar one from that point forward as the cars will run the famed turn nine (which is turn five on the Formula E circuit) and hairpin sections of the course.

Qualifying will take place at 3:00 p.m. ET with the race starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. Fox Sports 1 will have live coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. A replay of the race will be aired on Fox Sports 1 the next day at 11:00 a.m. ET, Easter morning. The race is scheduled for 39 laps.