IndyCar confirms 2014 Leaders Circle entrants

By Feb 21, 2014, 3:14 PM EST
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IndyCar’s collective team payout structure, formerly called TEAM (Team Enhancement and Allocation Matrix) and in more recent years, the Leaders Circle, was announced today. The release from IndyCar first, and then some more details on what it means:

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INDYCAR announced today enhancements to the bonus structure and the 21 entrants that will be part of its Leaders Circle program for the 2014 IndyCar Series season.

The Leaders Circle program was established in 2002 to provide incentives to teams that participate full time in the IndyCar Series. Each Leaders Circle member is assured a minimum of $1 million for the 18-race season if the entrant successfully qualifies for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

“The Leaders Circle program is an important resource for full-time teams in the IndyCar Series,” said Derrick Walker, President of Competition and Operations, INDYCAR. “We are looking at ways to continue to grow this resource in the future and further reward our teams for their continued participation in the series.”

Twenty entrants were selected based on their standing in the 2013 IndyCar Series entrant points, including Bryan Herta Autosport (car number and driver TBA). The entry for the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske car driven by Juan Pablo Montoya is also a new Leaders Circle member for 2014 through a partnership with Dragon Racing.

Additionally, all entrants will continue to compete for bonuses that will now be paid to the top-10 finishers at each IndyCar Series race aside from the races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis 500), Pocono Raceway and Auto Club Speedway. The race bonuses are: $30,000 for first place, $20,000 for second place, $15,000 for third, $10,000 for fourth, $9,000 for fifth, $8,000 for sixth, $7,000 for seventh, $5,000 for eighth, $4,000 for ninth and $2,000 for 10th at each race. At Pocono and Auto Club, the winning team will receive $40,000 with the remaining payouts remaining the same as other races.

Non-Leaders Circle entrants will compete for payouts awarded to the top-five finishers. In each race excluding the races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis 500), Pocono and Auto Club, the highest-finishing non-Leaders Circle entrant will receive $20,000. At Pocono and Auto Club, the highest finishing team will receive $30,000.

The next-placed Non-Leaders Circle entrants will receive $15,000, and $10,000, respectively. The fourth and fifth-placed Non-Leader Circle entrants will each receive $5,000 at all races excluding the Indianapolis 500.

The IndyCar Series driver champion and championship entrant again will share a $1 million bonus, with second through 10th in the standings sharing bonuses of $250,000, $90,000, $75,000, $60,000, $50,000, $40,000, $35,000, $25,000 and $15,000.

Contingency prizes will continue to be awarded at IndyCar Series events.

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To add a bit of insight beyond the release from INDYCAR above, a few numbers to note as far as Leaders Circle changes over the last two years:

  • In 2012, the Leaders Circle had a 20-car cap, with 18 carrying over from 2011 and two new spots awarded to Ed Carpenter Racing and what was then Lotus Dragon Racing. Payouts in each race aside from the Indianapolis 500 that year saw the highest-finishing entrant receive $80,000, followed by $65,000, $53,000, $40,000 and $26,000 for fifth highest finisher among the Non-Leader’s Circle entries.
  • In 2013, the number of Leaders Circle entrants was increased to 22, while the per-race payouts to non-Leader Circle entrants decreased. The three spots outside the top-22 in entrant points were awarded Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, Dragon Racing and HVM Racing (which became E.J. Viso’s car for Andretti Autosport, with HVM support). In each race aside from the Indianapolis 500 were awarded to the top three, with the highest-finishing entrant will receive $40,000, followed by $35,000 and $30,000.
  • So with those offered, the 2014 numbers for non-Leaders Circle entrants go down for a third consecutive year to $20,000, $15,000 and $10,000, except for the Pocono and Auto Club races where the top non-Leaders Circle entrant will get $30,000.
  • The absentees on the list of projected or expected full-time cars includes the NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing No. 8 driven by Ryan Briscoe, Panther Racing’s No. 4 and the second Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry, the No. 16. The No. 8 was not fielded full-time in 2013; Panther’s status for 2014 is TBD and RLL was not in the Leader Circle last year.
  • The note of Bryan Herta Autosport listed as Bryan Herta Autosport and not Barracuda Racing, without a car number listed, provides a very strong hint that Barracuda will not return to the team as title sponsor, or at the very least, will return in a minimized role.

Here’s the official chart of those who will receive the per-race number, per INDYCAR:

2014 INDYCAR SERIES LEADER CIRCLE ENTRANTS

Number Car name Driver Engine
2 Verizon Team Penske Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet
3 Team Penske Helio Castroneves Chevrolet
7 SMP Racing Mikhail Aleshin Honda
9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon Chevrolet
10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Tony Kanaan Chevrolet
11 Mistic KVSH Racing Sebastien Bourdais Chevrolet
12 Verizon Team Penske Will Power Chevrolet
14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Takuma Sato Honda
15 National Guard  Graham Rahal Honda
17 AFS KVAFS Racing Sebastian Saavedra Chevrolet
18 Dale Coyne Racing TBA Honda
19 Dale Coyne Racing Justin Wilson Honda
20 Fuzzy’s Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter/Mike Conway Chevrolet
25 Snapple Marco Andretti Honda
27 United Fiber & Data James Hinchcliffe Honda
28 DHL Ryan Hunter-Reay Honda
34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM Carlos Munoz Honda
67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Josef Newgarden Honda
77 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Simon Pagenaud Honda
83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Charlie Kimball Chevrolet
TBA Bryan Herta Autosport TBA Honda

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”