Alex Palou wrapped up his fourth IndyCar championship in the last five seasons on Sunday at Portland International Raceway when title contender Pato O’Ward lost power early in the race.
O’Ward started from the pole and was the only driver mathematically eligible to beat Palou for the championship. Palou went into Sunday with a cozy 121-point lead over O’Ward in the standings and so long as he left Portland up by 108 points, he’d clinch the championship in the first race of a three consecutive weekends to close the season.
The Astor Cup became his just 22 laps into the race on the Portland road course when O’Ward had an electronic issue on his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and had to make an unplanned pit stop. He returned to the track down nine laps from the leaders.
Palou finished third, O’Ward finished 25th and Palou has the title cemented with two races remaining in the IndyCar season and an insurmountable 151-point lead.
Palou was feisty in the closing portion of the race and raced unnecessarily aggressive at times — even driving off course with four laps remaining and drag-racing Christian Lundgaard for position.
“We’re here to win. That’s why we’re here. We’ve said it many times. When we come here, although we have that big goal of winning the championship, our priority is always to win races and win every single weekend,” insisted Palou. “Even though could have been OK to stay third, we wanted to win.”
Palou has won all four of his championships for Chip Ganassi Racing and ran away with this one, his third consecutive, by storming out of the gate with a win in the first two races of the year to set the pace for Ganassi to win its 17th IndyCar title in 30 years. The 17 championships tie Penske Racing.
Twelve of Ganassi’s IndyCar titles have come in the last 17 years, starting with Scott Dixon’s brilliant 2008 season in which he put together a run similar to the one Palou had this year. Dixon in 2008 won six races, including the Indianapolis 500, six poles and the first of his six championships.
Ganassi has many times before dressed-down drivers for putting themselves in unnecessary positions, but this time had no qualms with Palou racing hard for a race win rather than sitting back and coasting to to the title.
“It depends on the situation, the driver. Like Alex said, we go into this race with that 10 car team, every race, we want to win the race, OK? That’s how we got to this point,” said Ganassi. “We didn’t change anything today. You can’t play God.”
But Ganassi admitted Palou did cause a brief scare with his determination to race hard in the final laps.
“When he was fighting for second or third, I was fine with it,” said Ganassi. “I got to say my heart skipped a beat when he went off there, but other than that I was all for it.”
Only A.J. Foyt (seven) and Dixon (six) have more championships than Palou, who broke through this season by winning on ovals to finally show he’s the complete package. That was clear years ago, and he is embroiled in a $30 million breach of contract civil suit with Arrow McLaren for not honoring a deal to join that team.
He’s instead stayed loyal to Ganassi and this year, Palou won five of the first six races, including the Indianapolis 500 that had eluded him in five previous tries. That win at the Brickyard cemented the Spaniard’s path to another championship and he’s been untouchable since.
Palou went into Portland with a series-high eight wins, five poles, 11 top-five finishes in 14 races, 563 laps led and a 1.2 average finish. He padded those number on Sunday.
Palou joined Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais and Ted Horn as the only drivers in series history to win three consecutive titles. But, with two more races this season, Palou has a chance to tie the IndyCar record for victories in a season set at 10 by Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.
He lost his chance to break the most wins in a season record Sunday when Will Power won at Portland. It was the first victory of the season for the Penske fleet, which has been in a slump all year and did not get its first win until the 15th of 17 races.
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Drive along with a Va. teen racer pushing the limits of motor sport in the DMV
It’s the story of a talented Arlington teen — with a certain set of skills and a need for speed.
In today’s episode of “Matt About Town,” WTOP’s Matt Kaufax zips down to the Driver’s Club at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg, Virginia, where he found out if he has what it takes to be a professional racing driver. (Spoiler: It’s way tougher than some may think!)
At Dominion, Matt met 15-year-old Hudson Schwartz, the youngest driver in the USF2000 Championship, a racing series that’s just a couple of divisions away from IndyCar, North America’s highest class of open-wheel car racing.
Hudson, fresh off his championship win in the Lucas Oil School of Racing Series, is putting his competitors on notice in his first year in a faster, even more challenging series.
Hudson took Matt out to the racing circuit at Dominion, putting him through G-force turns and corners and 120 mph straights — and he even let Matt go through his training routine!
During his time with Hudson, Matt learned why race car drivers are some of the world’s most elite athletes — training their bodies to handle full-throttle machinery in grueling weather conditions, while also keeping a laser-sharp mental focus and employing superhuman reflexes to reach the checkered flag first.
Come along with Matt as he climbs into a rocket ship on wheels, and tries to keep his wits about him in the most full-throttle “Matt About Town” episode yet!
“Matt About Town” airs every Tuesday and Thursday on WTOP at 7:45 a.m., and runs throughout the rest of the day on 103.5 FM. His video pieces are always posted on wtop.com.
Six racing series will roar along the shoreline during three days of competition at the 2024 Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Fans will see purpose-built race cars, high-performance production cars, high-flying trucks and historic Indy cars. Three days of motorsports on the street course begin Friday with practice sessions and qualifying before shifting into high gear Saturday and Sunday.
Click here for the full weekend schedule. Download the 2024 fan guide here.
Here are the six different types of series featured at the 2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
NTT INDYCAR Series
These open-wheel cars — the same competing at the Indianapolis 500 in May — make up Sunday’s feature race. Raced on banked oval tracks, road and street courses, the versatile cars will reach top speeds around 185 mph in front of the grandstands on Shoreline Drive.
The top-five finishers averaged more than 97 mph around the 11-turn street course. Seven laps were run under the caution flag, which can make or break a team’s afternoon in Long Beach.
Alex Palou clocked the fastest lap of the race at 104.270 mph.
When to Watch: A knockout-style qualifying session starts Saturday at 11:25 a.m. before Sunday race day. The green flag drops at 12:45 p.m.
Broadcast/Streaming Schedule: Peacock will carry qualifying on Sunday. Watch the race Sunday on Peacock and USA.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
One of the world’s most exciting and competitive sports car racing series features Saturday in a 100-minute shootout. The event is actually two races in one — a competition among GT Prototype race cars (GTP) and another in the production car GT Daytona class (GTD), which features 11 of the world’s top automotive manufacturers.
The cars, drivers and teams have been battle tested at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring this year, so the 100-minute shootout on the 1.9-mile Long Beach street course will be a hard-fought sprint race with the winner largely determined by who can stay out of trouble and the pits.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet drove a Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 to victory last year in the GTP class after some late-race drama. TD PRO was won by Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. In GTD, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow finished first in the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.
Filipe Albuquerque, driving an Acura ARX-06, set the series track record last year with a lap of 1:09.909.
When to Watch: A 50-minute qualifying session is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday before the race at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Visitors also can tour the IMSA paddock Friday and Saturday for a close look at the cars and the teamwork that goes into race day preparations.
Broadcast/StreamingSchedule: Watch the race live on USA Network and Peacock. A live qualifying stream will be available Friday on Peacock.
Getty
Formula Drift driver Simen Olsen drives at the 2022 Acura Grand Prix Of Long Beach Media Day on March 29, 2022 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images)
Super Drift Challenge
The Super Drift Challenge is a tire-smoking fan favorite in which drivers slide through turns. Judges watch for a driver’s line on the course, angle in the turns and and style. A trailing car’s proximity to the lead car also is a factor in the tandem competition.
When to Watch: Friday and Saturday nights, 6:30 p.m.
Stadium Super Truck drivers Zoey Edenholm, Max Gordon, Robert Stout and Davey Hamilton Jr. all go airborne off a jump on Pine Avenue during the SST race at the 47th annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday, April 9, 2022. (Photo by Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)
SPEED/UTV Stadium SUPER Trucks
Stadium SUPER Trucks literally fly down Shoreline Drive. The powerful trucks provide some of the weekend’s best entertainment, soaring off ramps as they compete side-by-side.
When to Watch: Races are scheduled for 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, after the Indycar event.
GT America Powered by AWS
GT2, GT3 and GT4 spefc race cars will compete in two 40-minute races on Saturday and Sunday. Manufacturers in the field includes Acura, Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Toyota.
When to Watch: Watch qualifying from 4:25 p.m. to 4:40 p.m., Saturday. Races are scheduled for 4:45 p.m. to 5:25 p.m. Saturday and 4:20 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, the weekend’s final event.
Historic Indy Challenge
Turn back the clock. Vintage Indy cars from decades past rev up the nostalgia with 20-minute races on Saturday and Sunday. The cars include a 1966 Eagle, the oldest and among the most storied cars in the field. The car was built by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers in Santa Ana.
When to Watch: Races are 10:40 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday and 10:45 a.m. to 11:05 a.m., Sunday.
About the Street Course in Long Beach
A lap doesn’t take long in Long Beach. The course is only 1.968 miles with 11 turns. The fastest section is along Shoreline Drive and the start-finish line. Fans in the grandstands can watch cars reach their top speeds on the track and see what happens when pit lane gets busy.
From there, drivers brake hard into Turn 1, an overtaking opportunity before the dolphin fountain section and turns 2 and 3. After navigating turns 4 and 5, the track parallels a portion of Shoreline Drive — an exciting viewing area on the dive down into Turn 6.
Drivers set up through here for the blast down Seaside Way and entry into another technical section of track that includes a sweeping left into the hairpin Turn 11. This last section of the track is another great place to watch.
Take a lap with Colton Herta during his blistering qualifying run in 2022.
The tit-for-tat war between Zak Brown and Chip Ganassi took another turn Tuesday when Arrow McLaren SP announced it had signed both a Ganassi sponsor and Tony Kanaan to drive the Indianapolis 500.
Kanaan spent four seasons driving for Chip Ganassi Racing and the last two Indianapolis 500s. The 2003 winner finished third this past May at Indy.
Kanaan will be sponsored by NTT DATA for his 22nd Indy 500, and the technology and business solutions provider will also be the primary sponsor for Felix Rosenqvist for 10 races on the No. 6 Chevrolet.
NTT Data had been a Ganassi sponsor since 2013 and was the primary sponsor for 2020 champion Alex Palou, who spent most of the IndyCar season locked in a battle to move from Ganassi to McLaren in 2023.
Mediation led to a resolution in which Palou would finish the remaining year on his Ganassi contract and can test for McLaren’s Formula One team. But Palou’s sponsor is headed to McLaren early; Palou can’t drive an Indy car for McLaren before he makes his official move in 2024.
“We welcome the opportunity to partner with McLaren, a long-term and valued client, and to demonstrate how sponsorships simultaneously build awareness and enhance business-to-business relationships,” said Bob Pryor, CEO of NTT Data Services.
Brown and Ganassi have feuded for years but it reached a new height when Palou in July rebuked a Ganassi announcement that the option on his contract for 2023 had been picked up. He said he instead was moving to McLaren, which led to several civil court filings and the ultimate resolution for Palou to complete his Ganassi contract.
Also, McLaren team president Taylor Keil has left the organization and is expected to be announced as a Ganassi executive as soon as his non-compete clause expires. Keil is the stepson of longtime Ganassi managing director Mike Hull.
Kanaan, who spent four of the final six years of full-time IndyCar competition with Ganassi, is slowly moving toward retirement. His third-place finish at Indy in May made the Brazilian eager to return again in 2023 at age 48.
“I feel extremely lucky to get another shot racing in the Indy 500,” said Kanaan, who will be part of McLaren’s first four-car Indy 500 lineup alongside Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward and 2015 winner Alexander Rossi.
“I’m excited to work with Pato, Felix and Alexander and race with the Arrow McLaren SP team. My biggest battle in last year’s race was against these three drivers so working with them and driving with them will be exciting for all of us,” Kanaan said.
Rosenqvist started his IndyCar career with Ganassi and drove the No. 10 sponsored by NTT Data for two seasons. Rosenqvist moved to McLaren ahead of the 2021 season, the first year of NTT Data’s last Ganassi contact extension, and Palou replaced Rosenqvist as the driver in the No. 10.
“I look forward to representing NTT DATA once again,” Rosenqvist said. “They’re a great partner and are committed to the series.”
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AJ Foyt (center) flanked by son Larry Foyt (left) and grandson AJ Foyt IV with Foyt’s “Baby Borg” … [+] Trophy for winning four Indianapolis 500s.
IndyCar Photo
When Takuma Sato drove the famed No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing team Indy car to victory in the 2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, it was the last time the famed team won a race.
The team is owned by the legendary AJ Foyt, the first four-time winning driver of the Indianapolis 500 and the winningest driver in IndyCar history with 67 victories.
At 87, Foyt has long since turned the operation over to his son, Larry, who hopes to return the team to its past glory.
But that has been a struggle.
Before it can recapture glory, first it has to become competitive.
Since Sato’s last victory with the team nearly 10 years ago, the team has struggled to be escape backmarker status. Before it can contend for a victory, it has to become a consistent finisher in the top-10.
Drivers have been a revolving door, from famed veterans such as Tony Kanaan and Sebastian Bourdais, to rookies such as Kyle Kirkwood.
Thirteen different drivers have competed for Foyt’s IndyCar team since Sato drove to victory on the streets of Long Beach 10 seasons ago. Out of that group were some “Indy 500 only” drivers that did not compete for the full season.
Engineers have come and gone. The team has split its race shop into two – one in Waller, Texas near Foyt’s home and another in Speedway, Indiana – within the shadows of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It seems that every year, Larry Foyt is trying to reinvent the team.
He may have found the right formula for 2023 with the hiring of 24-year-old Santino Ferrucci of Connecticut and 22-year-old Benjamin Pedersen of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Santino Ferrucci
IndyCar Photo
Ferrucci has 43 career starts in the NTT IndyCar Series with 18 top 10s and was the 2019 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
Last year, Ferrucci became IndyCar’s “Super Sub.” When Jack Harvey crashed at Texas Motor Speedway and was not cleared to drive, Ferrucci jumped in the No. 45 Honda, started last in the 27-car field and finished ninth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He drove a second car for Dryer & Reinbold in the 106th Indianapolis 500 and finished 10th out of 33 cars.
He filled in the following week at Juncos Hollinger Racing and finished 21st.
Ferrucci was on standby status for Team Penske after Josef Newgarden had a crash at Iowa Speedway, but Newgarden was later cleared to drive by the IndyCar Medical Staff the following week.
Pedersen is from Denmark and grew up in Seattle. After an Indy Lights season, Pedersen spent last season as part of AJ Foyt Racing. He shadowed the team, got to know the mechanics and engineers, and listened in with the drivers debriefs.
It’s the latest remake of AJ Foyt Racing, so I asked Larry Foyt why he thinks this one will be different than any of the other attempts at returning to glory?
“I think it’s just been too many changes year to year,” Foyt told me. “Being able to announce this multiyear deal with Benjamin is very important for our company, IndyCar is so tight, everything is so close, that if you can get the right driver and engineer working together, get them to really know each other, and we just haven’t been able to put together that consistency. We’ve had different sponsorships, different engineers, and different things over the past couple years.
“That’s the biggest thing I’m excited about is getting to work with a driver knowing we’re going into a multiyear program, building the program around him, something that suits him. I think that’s going to take us a big step forward with the team.”
The biggest piece to the puzzle, however, was signing Ferrucci. He has proven to be fast on every team he has been a part of, and most of those teams are in the back half of the field.
“In any kind of racing, the driver is a huge piece,” Foyt said. “It’s a huge piece, but then also with that is how the driver works with the engineers and things like that. Obviously, that’s something we’re working hard on.
“It’s not like everything’s a total reset. I guess it is because you got two new drivers coming in. We have a lot of core pieces staying in place. We’re just building on that.
I think last year there were tracks we had speed on and there were tracks we struggled on. We’re trying to work on those tracks that we struggled.
“The good thing is Santino is going to get everything out of the car and get us some good finishes, get things rolling back the right direction. I really believe that.
“It’s not that we think consistently we’re going to be surprising people, but there’s no reason that we can’t have some really decent top 10s and even a little better.”
Ferrucci drove four races in IndyCar in 2018 after a controversial incident in an FIA Formula 2 race in Europe.
Team owner Dale Coyne liked what he saw in Ferrucci and brought him back full-time in 2019. His first race of that season, he finished ninth at St. Petersburg. He was seventh in the Indianapolis 500 and had a trio of fourth-place finishes at Texas Motor Speedway, Pocono, and Gateway – all ovals.
He was back with Coyne during the COVID season in 2020 with two sixth-place finishes in back-to-back races at Road American. He was fourth in the Indianapolis 500.
The driver from Connecticut split his time between NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series action in 2021. He drove five race sin the No. 45 Hy-Vee car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, shining once again in the Indy 500 with a sixth-place finish. He was also sixth at Belle Isle the week after the 500.
Santino Ferrucci in the 106th Indianapolis 500
IndyCar Photo
He drove in just three races in 2022, but with another stellar run in the Indy 500, where he had never finished out of the top 10, Foyt’s team believed he had the speed and fearlessness to help take that car to the front.
“Everybody has watched Santino and we know what he can do on the track,” Foyt said. “We got to know him a little bit before he jumped in at Texas to fill in, did an awesome job. He was there catching up with A.J., and him and I got to meet a little bit. We’ve been staying in touch.
“We both feel like we’ve got something to prove. We were really aligned on what we want to do, work together, and get out there. It really just all came together.
“We’re really excited to have him onboard. I think he’s going to bring a nice veteran presence with his rookie teammate. Just good to have everything settled this early, know where we’re headed. I’m really looking forward to it.”
At 24, Ferrucci already has some impressive experience to build on and has plenty of time to further develop.
Santino Ferrucci as the “Screaming Sicilian” — the pizza company that sponsored him in the Indy 500 … [+] — during driver introductions.
IndyCar Photo
As the latest driver in the No. 14, he also realizes he has a lot live up to.
“It’s an honor to be back,” Ferrucci said. “Like Larry said before, I really started to get to spend some time with him at Texas Motor Speedway, with A.J. I think we both feel very strongly about what we can achieve together as a team, building the program.
“It’s just a new chapter for me. It’s nice to not have a last-minute call finally to get in with no practices, go run a race car. It will be nice to build through the winter, see what we can do with this team.
“I have a lot of high hopes. Everybody seems to want to work incredibly hard, including myself. The 14 car, I have to laugh, because it’s one of my lucky numbers, too. As most of you know, absolutely fascinated with 14. I can’t wait to get back after it.”
At 87, AJ Foyt is more than a legend, he’s a national monument of motorsports. Ferrucci looks forward to getting to know more from Foyt because he feels as if he is learning the Old Testament from Moses.
“Honestly the coolest thing, I think Larry also appreciates this, we all have backgrounds in everything,” Ferrucci said. “All of us have driven multiple different cars throughout our years. We have all been at the top, we know how to build a team from nothing.
“I think the coolest thing, when I listen to A.J., the appreciation is there. I like to work on my own stuff as well. I definitely turn wrenches. In the garage, when I was growing up karting, I’d show up at the racetrack in the back of a pickup truck and do my own setups.
“Having the fundamentals, I’m not the typical driver that doesn’t get his hands dirty. There’s a lot of those today that don’t even know how to drive a stick, which is mind-blowing to me.
“I am a very old school mentality. I want to be in the weeds like everybody else, working on things, making sure everybody is doing it together.
“It’s a team, man, at the end of the day. I’m one part of many. We need to function like a team.”
According to Larry Foyt, his legendary father was “all in” on the decision to put Ferrucci in the No. 14.
“A.J. is a huge fan,” Larry Foyt said. “Obviously when you run good at Indianapolis, A.J. takes notice (smiling). Especially on the ovals, A.J. is at pretty much all the oval races for sure.
“I was super impressed with what Santino did at Texas. He’s watched him race at Indy, Gateway. Just Santino will jump in and race anything. He’s just a racer. That certainly catches A.J.’s attention.
“A.J. just really wanted somebody that really wanted to race. I’m really glad we were able to get him.”
Benjamin Pedersen
IndyCar Photo
Ferrucci will team up with Pedersen, who finished fourth in his only full-time Indy Lights season in 2021. He scored six races out of the 20 on the schedule.
When he decided to learn Foyt’s team from the inside in 2022, it paid off big with a fulltime ride for 2023.
“It kind just happened organically,” Larry Foyt said. “It was one of those things where we met each other, and I think there was a mutual interest in working together, and it was like, ‘Hey, look, why don’t you come feel the team out and kind of see the way an IndyCar weekend works?’
“As the year progressed and we got to know each other, I think just the desire to work together became more and more, and it was like, yeah, this could be a really good fit.
“That’s just where it kind of happened.
“To me it was kind of organically it just kind of grew together like this is a good fit for both of us, and let’s make this happen.”
Pedersen looks at his time with Foyt’s team as an internship.
“I was really eager to do it because I knew IndyCar was going to be the next step,” Pedersen recalled. “I was definitely pushing Larry a little bit, like let me be a part of it; I really want to learn. I think that eagerness went a long way, and obviously Larry let me stay for the whole year, and I learned a lot, especially through Kyle Kirkwood, going through his rookie year.
“Honestly, I know everyone on the team personally pretty well now, and it’s pretty surreal being the fact that at the time I wasn’t even a full driver for AJ Foyt Racing yet.
Just the whole team, super, super welcoming, and what a big help it has been even from my rookie IndyCar test I had earlier in the year with that transition, but more so into this coming year.”
Foyt’s team is also taking a different direction by announcing it won’t run an extra car in the Indianapolis 500, as it has done in the past. Also, for the past three seasons, Dalton Kellett has been part of the program but for now, there is no agreement between the driver from Canada and the team.
Foyt said if the team was going to be increased to three cars, Kellett would be the driver. Otherwise, it’s a two-car operation heading into 2023.
With two young, hungry drivers who want to win, and one of them already proving his capability in the series since 2019, Foyt’s makeover may finally pay off in 2022, which would end a 10-year victory drought.
Foyt’s last victory was Takuma Sato on April 21, 2013 on the streets of Long Beach, California. … [+] (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
