Dale Coyne Racing’s Justin Wilson has a pair of new drivers he’ll be working with this week. One is an official co-driver and another could become his teammate at DCR later this year.
Wilson will spend his off weekend from his IZOD IndyCar Series commitments in the GRAND-AM Rolex Series’ Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen race at Watkins Glen International. He’ll rejoin Michael Shank Racing, the team in which he won the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona and finished third this year, to co-drive the rebuilt No. 6 Ford Riley Daytona Prototype with Gustavo Yacaman.
“Mike has a great group of guys so it will just be like seeing some old friends again, and we can just pick up where we left off at Daytona,” Wilson said in a release. “I’ve never raced in the Six Hour, so this is a great opportunity. I’m grateful that Mike rang me to help him out this weekend.”
Wilson scored Coyne’s first IndyCar win at Watkins Glen in 2009. He replaces Antonio Pizzonia in the car, as team owner Shank cited sponsorship issues for the Brazilian.
“Unfortunately Antonio’s group had some sponsorship challenges, so we needed to develop a new plan for this weekend,” Shank said in a release. “It is a shame, as Antonio is a true talent, and we really appreciated his efforts – he was quick right from the start for us.”
For the second race in a row, Shank’s crew has performed an incredible rebuilding effort on one of its DPs to ensure it made it to the next race. The team’s lead No. 60 was fixed after an accident in Detroit, and after Yacaman had an early accident and fire in Mid-Ohio, the team has managed to put the No. 6 back together for Watkins Glen.
Meanwhile Wilson is currently at Mid-Ohio alongside James Davison, the Australian who is performing his second IndyCar test and first in the Dallara DW12 in Coyne’s second car. Davison is fairly quick and has two Firestone Indy Lights Series race wins at Mid-Ohio in consecutive years.
He hasn’t raced in a series full-time since 2009, when he finished second in the Indy Lights series behind JR Hildebrand and ahead of 10 drivers who eventually made their IndyCar debuts (Sebastian Saavedra, Wade Cunningham, James Hinchcliffe, Mario Romancini, Ana Beatriz, Charlie Kimball, Martin Plowman, Pippa Mann, Jay Howard, Dillon Battistini).
Coyne’s notorious for naming his second driver as late as possible before a race weekend, but a good test today could go a little way in ensuring Davison joins that list of drivers stepping up to a race seat. Stefan Wilson has also tested for Coyne this year in hopes of securing a debut race in IndyCar.
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
