Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney fastest in Eldora Truck practices - MotorSportsTalk

Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney recorded the top speeds in the two practice sessions for Wednesday night’s second annual MudSummer Classic NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Eldora Speedway.

Pole qualifying begins at 5:10 pm ET and will be televised on Fox Sports 1. All drivers will take two laps, with the best lap counted towards the qualifying result.

The main event race at the western Ohio half-mile dirt track begins at 9 pm ET (televised on Fox Sports 1). It will be preceded by five 10-lap heat races that begin at 7 pm ET, followed by a “last-chance” qualifying race at 8:10 pm ET.

Last year’s MudSummer Classic was the first NASCAR race run on dirt since 1970, and the first-ever for the Camping World Truck Series.

In Wednesday’s first practice session, Jones – who won his first NCWTS race at Iowa on July 12 – took to dirt like a duck to water (this is his first race on dirt of his career).

The 18-year-old rookie from Michigan topped the field with a speed of 90.749 mph at a time of 19.835 seconds.

Mason Mingus was second-fastest (90.653 mph), while NCWTS points standings leader Matt Crafton was third (90.221), Tyler Reddick was fourth (90.149) and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five (90.009).

Sixth through 10th in the first practice session were German Quiroga Jr. (89.632), Darrell Wallace Jr. (89.592), Timothy Peters (89.486), Chase Pistone (89.321) and Johnny Sauter (89.303).

Last year’s winner, Austin Dillon, was 25th-fastest (87.796 mph) out of only 32 trucks that took to the track in the opening session.

As for the second session, what a turnaround it was for Blaney, who is currently second in the NCWTS points standings.

After managing to be no faster than 28th (87.256 mph) in the opening session, Blaney was at the front of the pack in the second practice session with a speed of 87.869 mph.

All speeds in the second session were considerably lower than the opening practice, which saw five drivers exceed 90 mph.

And just like he was in the opening practice, Mingus once again was second-fastest in the second session at 87.771 mph.

Dillon, the 2011 NCWTS and 2013 Nationwide Series champion, also made a huge climb up from the opening session, with the third-fastest effort in the second practice at 87.596 mph.

Fourth fastest in the second practice was Ron Hornaday Jr. (87.125 mph), followed by Austin Dillon’s younger brother Ty, who was fifth-fastest at 87.007 mph).

Sixth- through 10th-fastest were Jody Knowles (86.931), JR Heffner (86.747), Chase Pistone (86.714), Larson (86.647) and Ken Schrader (36.626).

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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