Red Bull GRC: Scott Speed, Andretti Autosport are golden at X Games Austin (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CS57TEP-4g

Scott Speed and Andretti Autosport are now 2-for-2 in Red Bull Global Rallycross this season after the ex-Formula One and NASCAR driver captured the X Games gold medal at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Speed, driving the No. 77 7Up Volkswagen Polo, ran the table in today’s elimination rounds, winning his quarterfinal and semifinal heats before beating skateboarding icon Bucky Lasek and another F1/NASCAR veteran, Nelson Piquet Jr., in the final.

“This thing is so fast – it’s always so fast,” Speed told ESPN. “It’s just a matter for us to stay clean and if we can get out in front, they can’t catch us…Our car is so good, it makes my job easy.”

Speed opened the season with a win on NBC last month at Top Gear Festival Barbados.

In today’s final, Speed won the holeshot heading into the first turn with Liam Doran and Piquet following in second and third. Those front three plus Austin Dyne took the joker on the opening lap of the 10-lap final, but on Lap 3, Dyne sustained contact with Patrik Sandell in the hairpin when the latter tried to pass him on the inside.

Dyne was left with a broken suspension and could not continue. That brought out a Red Flag and also led to Race Control barring Sandell from the remainder of the final.

Speed, Doran, Piquet and Lasek lined up again for the restart with eight laps left, but Doran ran his Citroen wide in the rush to Turn 1 and fell all the way to last.

Meanwhile, Speed earned the holeshot again and went on a relatively easy cruise to the win, while Lasek picked up the silver medal in his Subaru after Piquet earned a black flag for running the joker twice (a no-no in GRC racing).

The resulting five-second, stop-and-go penalty knocked the Brazilian down to last behind Doran, but on the final lap, Doran lost control and spun out.

As he tried to get his wounded Citroen in gear, Piquet was able to beat him to the checkered flag for the bronze medal in his Ford.

Red Bull GRC returns to action on June 22 with Volkswagen Rallycross DC at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. NBC will air the event LIVE at 2 p.m. ET.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107^th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.