Edwards: Schmidt Peterson Indy Lights program set to continue

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INDIANAPOLIS – Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team manager Rob Edwards has revealed its Indy Lights program plans to continue for 2015, with the introduction of the new Dallara IL15 chassis.

The expectation, Edwards said, is that the new Indy Lights car will produce a car count much higher than the current 8-10 car level of the last two years, closer to 15-16 in 2015, to where the SPM portion isn’t a high percentage of the field.

“We want to continue; Sam’s history is built on Lights, and success in Lights,” Edwards told MotorSportsTalk at James Hinchcliffe’s signing at Flat 12 Bierworks in Indianapolis.

“From our point of view, it doesn’t make sense to invest in new equipment if we’re 50 percent of the field again. Our requirement, or threshold, is like 16 cars or so running around. If Dan can get to that sort of number we will be part of it.”

Edwards expects to have a final decision taken within the next two to three weeks. But the team is planning to hire additional engineering strength for the Indy Lights program.

“We need some other engineering for the Lights program as well (besides Hinchcliffe’s), so we’re taking a company-wide approach,” he said.

Edwards said Indy Lights is important to make bigger as the final rung on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder. Schmidt has seen many of its Lights drivers go onto IndyCar careers, although Josef Newgarden (2011 champ) has had the longest staying power in IndyCar among its last four champions (JK Vernay, Newgarden, Tristan Vautier and Sage Karam from 2010 through 2013).

“We believe the stepping stones to get to IndyCar need to be there,” he said. “It’s too big a jump from (Pro) Mazda straight to IndyCar.

“But when you win the championship, you want to have had your driver race against a deep enough field where it means something.”

As for drivers, one of SPM’s 2014 drivers, Jack Harvey, was in attendance Tuesday night. The Englishman, who stormed through the field in the second half of the season with four wins in the last five races, is hopeful of a second season. Harvey only lost the Indy Lights title to Gabby Chaves, a former SPM driver, on a tiebreaker.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.