Will Power leads Penske 1-2-3 in 1st day of IndyCar Open Test (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Team Penske’s Will Power ended the 2013 Verizon IndyCar Series season on a hot streak with three wins (Sonoma, Houston 2, Fontana) in the final five races. So far, it appears he’s carried that momentum into the new year.

The Australian topped the charts on the first day of the series’ two-day Open Test at chilly Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama with a time of 1:07.6492 at 122.396 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.

Power led a 1-2-3 Penske sweep in today’s session, with IndyCar returnee Juan Pablo Montoya coming in an impressive second (1:07.7170/122.274) and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves winding up third (1:07.7214/122.266).

Defending series champion Scott Dixon was fourth-fastest in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy (1:07.8225/122.083), and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Takuma Sato led the Honda pack with the fifth-fastest time in his No. 14 ABC Supply-backed machine (1:07.8619/122.012).

Ganassi’s Ryan Briscoe, Dale Coyne Racing’s Justin Wilson, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Simon Pagenaud, and two Andretti Autosport pilots, James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay, rounded out the Top 10 in the session.

The track went hot around 11 a.m. ET, but low temperatures caused today’s testing to be delayed until well after lunch time.

There were some minor incidents during the day, including one that involved KVSH Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais making light contact after going off in Turn 6. IndyCar PR reported that Bourdais was medically checked, cleared and released to drive afterwards.

Red flags also came out for rookie Mikhail Aleshin and Graham Rahal, both of whom needed tow-ins. Aleshin was forced to come to a stop on the course after a problem emerged on his No. 7 SPM Honda (RACER Magazine’s Marshall Pruett tweeted that Honda said it was a fuel issue).

Testing is set to continue tomorrow at Barber with two sessions from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET and 3-6 p.m. ET (live timing and scoring will be available on IndyCar.com).

INDYCAR OPEN TEST AT BARBER – MONDAY RESULTS

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports