The Olympics overshadows everything and dominates domestic television networks that otherwise would be broadcasting races on weekends. So INDYCAR and NASCAR are standing down because NBC is in Tokyo. But there are things afoot in all three major racing series.
(INDYCAR)—Helio Castroneves has a full-time ride for the 2022 INDYCAR season, taking the primary seat at Meyer-Shank racing that Jack Harvey has this year. The team already is capitalizing on his “Drive for Five,” and effort to become the first five-time Indianapolis 500 winner. If he pulls it off he’ll be the first driver to win back-to-back 500s twice. He won his first two races at the Brickyard.
Although Castroneves (shown at the Speedway last week with A. J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., and Rick Mears) has won the 500 four times, he has never won the INDYCAR championship. He’s finished second in points four times. “I have been missing racing in INDYCAR full time so much,” he says. “I cannot wait to get a head start on next year with some strong races to finish this season.
MSR plans to run a second car full-time next year. Harvey will not be in it. The team says a new driver will be announced soon.
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INDYCAR fans might see a little history made at World Wide Technology Raceway just across the river from St. Louis next month. Testing on the rack today (Tuesday) will include Romain Grosjean, the former Formula 1 driver who has run road courses in the series this year. WWTR might be his oval track debut in the series. The race will be August 21.
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Some big-track names have signed up for the quarter-mile dirt track race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway August 18-19.
Defending NASCAR champion Chase Elliott will drive a midget for the first time. He’ll be joined by fellow NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe, who has a lot of dirt track experience, and INDYCAR driver Conor Daly.
The Speedway created the track inside the third turn four years ago and has run the annual BC39 midget races on it, except for last year when the pandemic caused its cancellation. The race honors Bryan Clauson, a three-time USAC midget champion and three-time starter in the Indianapolis 500 who was killed in a midget race crash in Belleville, Kansas in 2016. The event promotes organ donor awareness on behalf of the Indiana Donor Network and Driven to Save Lives.
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INDYCAR returns to action August 8 at Nashville.
(NASCAR)—-The decision was made in March, has been rumored for weeks, and is now public—Brad Keselowski is leaving Team Penske and will drive for and have a minority ownership interest in Roush Fenway Racing.
He’ll continue to drive, next year taking the 6-car that has been Ryan Newman’s ride. Discussions are under way with Newman about driving a part-time schedule next year.
Keselowski’s move is seen as part of the succession plan for the day Jack Roush steps away—although he says it’s not in his immediate plans. “I’ve been asked to say that I’m passing the baton to him, which I am, but I still have one hand on the thing, so I’m not going to give it up completely for a while. There are no retirement plans for me in my immediate future.”
Roush turned 79 last April.
Keselowski’s ride for Team Penske will go to Austin Cindric, who won the championship in NASCAR’s second-tier series last year and tops the point standings this year. Cindric is the son of the president of Team Penske, Tim Cindric. But Penske says the younger Cindric, 22, has earned his place: “He’s proven to be the driver he is; the individual he is today. It’s a big step for him, but as far as I’m concerned, the team, the sponsors, are fully committed.” Cindric has run six races in Cup this year. His best finish is 15th in the Daytona 500.
(FORMULA 1)—Formula 1 runs the Hungarian Grand Prix next Sunday. This past week, teams got their first look at of life-sized model of the next generation car that will be campaigned next year.
The new car is designed with new aerodynamic regulations designed to make it easier to pass by reducing the amount of “dirty air” behind the cars. The air flow over the present body work produces turbulence behind the car, upsetting control of trailing cars wanting to pass. The series says the turbulence is so severe that trailing cars lose as much as thirty-five percent of their downforce when they’re about three lengths behind another car.
The new design’s front and rear wings are expected to push the airflow up and over the trailing car. That coupled the use of ground effects for the first time since the 1980s is expected to produce more exciting racing.
Next year’s cars will run with 18-inch wheels instead of the 13-inch wheels now used.
(photo credits: IMS, Chris Owens; Keselowski, Bob Priddy; Formula 1)