DeltaWing reveals 2014 lineup, including Rossi for Daytona - MotorSportsTalk

The DeltaWing Racing Cars team has made a splash for its Rolex 24 at Daytona 2014 lineup. Caterham Formula One reserve driver Alexander Rossi will join team regulars Andy Meyrick and Katherine Legge aboard the team’s No. 0 DeltaWing DWC13 Coupe for Daytona. The Jan. 25-26 race opens the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season.

Rossi participated in two Friday free practice sessions in F1 this year, in Montreal and Austin, and made his 24-hour race debut at Le Mans for the Caterham-backed Greaves Motorsport LMP2 entry in June.

“The 24 Hours of Daytona is an important motorsport event and I’m honored to be driving for Don Panoz and his DeltaWing project,” said Rossi. “Being able to race and work with Panoz is a bit surreal for me, as I grew up karting and watching his rich history in American motorsport and the cars he designed. I’m fairly new to endurance / sports car racing, but after the success of Le Mans I’m looking forward to the new challenge of Daytona. It’s also a privilege to work with experienced teammates like Katherine Legge and Andy Meyrick. I especially want to thank Don Panoz and David Price for their confidence in my abilities.”

DeltaWing team boss David Price reached out to Rossi to see if he’d be available for Daytona, and indeed he was.

“It wasn’t complicated,” said Price. “I asked him if he wanted to do Daytona and he said yes! There are not an abundance of American drivers in Formula One right now, so to have someone of his ability to drive for us is significant. Daytona is a circuit that suits the characteristics of this car; we were competitive at the test last month so we will focus on reliability and build on that going forward.”

Legge and Meyrick tested the DeltaWing coupe at Daytona in November and posted a very respectable 1:40.883 best lap in 131 laps of testing. The pair teamed to race the DeltaWing, run by managing partner Don Panoz, in seven American Le Mans Series events in 2013. Legge joined the team beginning at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May.

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The NBC Sports IndyCar power rankings naturally were as jumbled as the action on the streets of St. Petersburg after a chaotic opener to the 2023 season.

Pato O’Ward, who finished second because of an engine blip that cost him the lead with a few laps remaining, moves into the top spot ahead of St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi, who finished fourth in his Arrow McLaren debut. Scott Dixon and St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who led 31 laps) rounded out the top five.

St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who started first at St. Pete after capturing his second career pole position) Callum Ilott (a career-best fifth) and Graham Rahal entered the power rankings entering the season’s second race.

Three drivers fell out of the preseason top 10 after the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – including previously top-ranked Josef Newgarden, who finished 17^th after qualifying 14^th.

Heading into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, here’s NBC Sports’ assessment of the current top 10 drivers through the first of 17 races this year (with previous preseason rankings in parenthesis):

NBC Sports’ IndyCar Power Rankings

1. Pato O’Ward (5) – If not for the dreaded “plenum event” in the No. 5 Chevrolet, the Arrow McLaren driver is opening the season with a victory capping a strong race weekend.

2. Marcus Ericsson (7) – He might be the most opportunistic driver in IndyCar, but that’s because the 2022 Indy 500 winner has become one of the series’ fastest and most consistent stars.

3. Alexander Rossi (10) – He overcame a frustrating Friday and mediocre qualifying to open his Arrow McLaren career with the sort of hard-earned top five missing in his last years at Andretti.

4. Scott Dixon (3) – Put aside his opening-lap skirmish with former teammate Felix Rosenqvist, and it was a typically stealthily good result for the six-time champion.

5. Romain Grosjean (NR) – The St. Petersburg pole-sitter consistently was fastest on the streets of St. Petersburg over the course of the race weekend, which he couldn’t say once last year.

6. Scott McLaughlin (6) – Easily the best of the Team Penske drivers before his crash with Grosjean, McLaughlin drove like a legitimate 2023 championship contender.

7. Callum Ilott (NR) – A quietly impressive top five for the confident Brit in Juncos Hollinger Racing’s first race as a two-car team. Texas will be a big oval litmus test.

8. Graham Rahal (NR) – Sixth at St. Pete, Rahal still has the goods on street courses, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan remains headed in the right direction.

9. Alex Palou (4) – He seemed a step behind Ericsson and Dixon in the race after just missing the Fast Six in qualifying, but this was a solid start for Palou.

10. Will Power (2) – An uncharacteristic mistake that crashed Colton Herta put a blemish on the type of steady weekend that helped him win the 2022 title.

Falling out (last week): Josef Newgarden (1), Colton Herta (8), Christian Lundgaard (9)