IndyCar: Key stats of note coming out of Sonoma

By Aug 25, 2014, 5:00 PM EDT
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As the Verizon IndyCar Series heads towards the conclusion of its 2014 season, we’ll start looking through the numbers a bit from this season. Here’s a few deduced after Round 17, the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma:

  • Sonoma winner Scott Dixon must be rueing his poor start to the season. Through Round 10, Houston Race 2, Dixon was 168 points behind points leader Will Power (405-237). Now through Round 17, Dixon is still 103 back of Power (626-523), but he’s moved from ninth to fifth in the points. He’s also been the highest scoring driver in the last seven races, going since Pocono.
  • The top 10 scorers since Pocono? Dixon has 298, then Juan Pablo Montoya on 256, Simon Pagenaud 250, Power 240, Tony Kanaan 237, Sebastien Bourdais 225, Helio Castroneves 222, Ryan Briscoe 212, Josef Newgarden 205 and Ryan Hunter-Reay 198. Newgarden has moved from 20th to 13th in points on the strength of his last seven races.
  • With Dixon scoring seven top-10 finishes in a row, he’s one away from tying the longest most consecutive top-10 finishes streak of the year. Power banked a top-10 in each of the year’s first eight races through Texas.
  • Castroneves has not scored a top-10 finish in any of the last four races. In that time frame, Castroneves went from leading Power 512-484 to trailing him 626-575, for a 79-point swing in the championship chase.
  • Others of note in relative droughts, finishing-wise: Marco Andretti hasn’t posted a top-five since the Indianapolis 500 (12 races) Justin Wilson hasn’t since Detroit race 1 (11 races) and Briscoe hasn’t since Pocono (six races).
  • Hunter-Reay’s runner-up snapped a four-race drought of top-five finishes; Pagenaud’s podium was his first non-win top-three this season.
  • Mike Conway ends his season with 252 points, which from only 12 races started was only 13 points less than Sebastian Saavedra – the lowest-scoring driver in all 17 races – has managed. That’s with two of Saavedra’s races that Conway did not enter (500-milers at Indianapolis, Pocono) paying double points.
  • With the road and street course portion of the schedule complete, here’s a final rundown of the points achieved in those races (note E is for Engine, C for Chevrolet, H for Honda, with Round numbers across the top):

 

# Driver E 1 2 3 4 6 7 9 10 13 14 15 17 Pts
12 Power C 53 40 32 24 51 41 16 19 22 36 28 24 386
77 Pagenaud H 30 30 32 51 8 28 16 51 33 8 22 35 344
9 Dixon C 32 19 36 15 20 32 11 12 30 26 53 51 337
28 Hunter-Reay H 40 14 53 41 14 11 26 28 9 16 21 40 313
3 Castroneves C 36 19 11 36 34 53 22 13 41 21 11 12 309
11 Bourdais C 17 16 15 33 17 10 32 30 54 22 42 19 307
10 Kanaan C 28 12 22 20 35 22 17 20 35 40 9 18 278
83 Kimball C 10 7 20 30 22 35 12 32 26 32 26 9 261
27 Hinchcliffe H 11 9 26 10 28 32 33 16 24 12 36 18 255
19 J.Wilson H 24 14 29 20 32 18 21 18 20 21 15 22 254
20 Conway C 15 51 16 11 9 20 13 17 15 51 17 17 252
2 Montoya C 15 32 9 14 18 17 40 26 12 11 19 31 244
25 Andretti H 8 24 41 16 21 14 24 22 14 24 8 24 240
98 Hawksworth H 9 15 18 29 11 17 28 35 17 28 14 15 236
8 Briscoe C 20 13 19 28 16 20 18 24 18 19 24 13 232
34 Munoz H 13 35 7 6 26 24 35 8 13 13 32 11 223
15 Rahal H 16 17 13 9 41 9 19 14 28 10 30 11 217
7 Aleshin H 18 28 8 5 14 27 7 41 19 7 16 26 216
18 Huertas H 12 20 14 17 24 15 51 7 16 15 13 8 212
14 Sato H 28 8 17 22 12 14 9 11 7 30 12 33 203
67 Newgarden H 22 12 24 13 10 13 10 10 10 18 19 29 190
17 Saavedra C 19 23 13 8 16 8 15 13 11 9 10 14 159
16 Servia H 26 10 19 55
16 Filippi H 9 15 8 14 46
41 Plowman H 12 12
26 Montagny H 8 8
  • The Firestone Fast Six qualifying portion of the season is over as well. Final tabulations on who made how many of the nine sessions (the three doubleheader weekends offered a different qualifying format for Race 2): Power 6, Hunter-Reay 6, Castroneves 5, Dixon 5, Hinchcliffe 5, Pagenaud 4, Newgarden 4, Kanaan 3, Bourdais 3, Hawksworth 3, Briscoe 2, Sato 2, Montoya 1, Saavedra 1, Filippi 1, Conway 1, Andretti 1, Munoz 1.
  • Mikhail Aleshin, Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson made it into the top six in the second race of a doubleheader weekend, but not into a single Firestone Fast Six. Charlie Kimball nor Carlos Huertas didn’t make it to the top six on any road or street circuit.

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.”