IndyCar: Potential record-tying 11th season winner possible at Milwaukee

By Aug 13, 2014, 10:00 AM EDT
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The Verizon IndyCar Series has three races to tie or eclipse the overall record for most winners in a season a Sunday’s ABC Supply Co. Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest Presented by the Metro Milwaukee Honda Dealers.

If that sounds like deja vu from last year, it’s because it basically is.

Last season, there were 10 different winners through 15 races, and the series had four shots to tie the mark of 11, achieved in the 2000 and 2001 CART seasons. But it stayed stuck at 10 with Will Power, the 10th different winner of 2013, winning three of the last five races.

This year… we again have 10 different winners through 15 races.

So who could potentially break through as lucky number 11? We run down the candidates, in order of likelihood:

  • Tony Kanaan. “TK” is the active starts leader (14) and a two-time winner at Milwaukee (2006, 2007) and most recently finished second to Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. After leading 247 laps at the only other short oval this season at Iowa, Kanaan is a good bet.
  • James Hinchcliffe. The Canadian has the best average finish at Milwaukee in his three starts – 4.7 – and enters the weekend off his first podium of 2014 two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio. If the setup is right, Hinch should be a factor.
  • Marco Andretti. What’s been a recent stretch of rough races for Marco could be cleansed with a trip to one of his better tracks. His average starting position of 7.1 is third best in the field but he’s been unable to get a result to match on race day. Dominated a year ago before mechanical gremlins struck.
  • Ryan Briscoe. Briscoe and the NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing team have run better of late, and like Kanaan, he’s a former Milwaukee winner (2008). Also was strong at Iowa. Not the first person you’d pick to win, but wouldn’t surprise either.
  • Takuma Sato. It would make sense on several levels. Sato and the A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ team’s short oval package was very strong a year ago and seventh was a result unrepresentative of how the No. 14 Honda ran. Add in this is the home-sponsored race for sponsor ABC Supply Co. and you could well have a popular winner if Sato’s trademark “No Attack, No Chance” strategy comes good.
  • Josef Newgarden. Depends largely on setup, but as I wrote after his Mid-Ohio disappointment, his near miss there reminds me a lot of Michel Jourdain Jr. in 2003 – talented, promising young driver bouncing back and securing his first career win at Milwaukee.
  • Graham Rahal. Another in the “has run better of late than his results have indicated” camp, and also has a previous Milwaukee podium finish in the bank. Struggled on setup at this race last year and the hope is Bill Pappas’ engineering will improve what was a difficult race car in 2013.
  • Justin Wilson. Wilson’s been strangely anonymous this year – not bad by any stretch, but those usual Wilson/Dale Coyne Racing giant-killing performances haven’t come with the same frequency. Like Rahal, comes to Milwaukee with a different engineer, and with Pappas now at RLL it’s the Michael Cannon-led No. 19 crew trying to turn things around for the likable and tall Englishman.
  • Charlie Kimball. Milwaukee’s been something of a bogey track for Kimball, whose average start of 20th and average finish of 16th in three prior races is among the worst in the field. Here’s hoping the Ganassi short oval setup also helps the driver of the No. 83 car.
  • Sebastian Saavedra. The Colombian posted an oval career-best qualifying of sixth this race last year but was unable to sustain it in the race.
  • Carlos Munoz, Mikhail Aleshin, Jack Hawksworth. The rookie trio is unproven at this track and a win actually would be a surprise. I’d expect more from Aleshin this weekend given his quick adaption to ovals. Munoz is a hard one to project in Milwaukee. His team, Andretti Autosport, have been excellent in oval setup and so he could well be in the top five. Or, as in Iowa, midpack and out of lead contention. Neither he nor Hawksworth did particularly well here in Indy Lights, either.

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.”