Tickets on sale for GP of NOLA today as Andretti and IndyCar complete weekend promotional blitz

3 Comments

Tickets are officially on sale for the new Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana as of Monday, via http://www.gpofnola.com. A kickoff event was held today with Andretti Sports Marketing principal Michael Andretti and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power on site at NOLA Motorsports Park.

It capped off a weekend where the promotional blitz hit the Alabama-LSU college football game at Tiger Stadium and the 49ers-Saints game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome; unfortunately both LSU and the Saints lost their home games.

Nonetheless, that wouldn’t put a damper on the weekend where Andretti, himself, was excited about the new event’s prospects.

“It’s been really good – I’m quite surprised. There’s a ton of interest,” Andretti told MotorSportsTalk in an interview from New Orleans. “Even before tickets went on sale, they’ve signed up 2,000 people or so interesting in buying tickets. There’s a lot of interest and curiousity. There’s not a lot of big (racing) events.

“I think this is a big event, people will be surprised how big it will be,” he added. “It’s an untapped market. It will be a great place for our sponsors, to do entertainment for the customers. I think it will surprise some people.”

The NOLA Motorsports Park circuit is flat and wide, and can almost be entirely viewed from a grandstand seat. That will make it unique on the calendar; Andretti likened the potential to Cleveland’s old Burke Lakefront Airport, a popular staple on the North American open-wheel calendar from 1982 to 2007. Here’s a view of the track Power tweeted out from the plane:

Justin Wilson was down in New Orleans as well to promote the event on Saturday. Wilson doesn’t have his IndyCar program finalized for 2015 as yet – many would love to see him take up the fourth seat at Andretti Autosport after completing his third straight year at Dale Coyne Racing – but nonetheless, one of racing’s nicest, fastest and tallest drivers was all-too-happy to be asked to help promote the event.

“It’s the first time here and yeah, it’s huge. It’s so great to be here,” Wilson told MST. “At first, I thought I’m not sure it’s gonna work. It’s a new market for IndyCar. Not sure how many know what it’s about. But I’ve been very impressed and we’re making race fans, and you see actual young kids racing go-karts. I think it’s got a lot of potential. They like the party-like atmosphere, and I see it being a big success.”

“If anyone can make a new venue work, it’s Andretti Sports Marketing, as they’ve done well with the races they’ve done so far,” he added. “So this event will do just fine.”

It’s an interesting proposition for Wilson to be in this offseason, knowing he doesn’t have a deal sorted and is promoting a race that potentially, if he doesn’t get a deal together, he might not be racing in. But going down to New Orleans for the first time and having the opportunity to sell his sport is something he still jumped at.

“You’d always prefer to have your deal done and have a good time, but when they said go to the LSU game, and promote the race, I’m like, ‘Uh why are you asking me?’ I don’t know how I got selected, but I jumped at the chance,” Wilson said. “So it’s a good time, and it was cool to tell my friends I’m going to the LSU game.”

Here’s a social round-up of the pics from the weekend:

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

0 Comments

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.

FLAVOR FLAV POWERS UP: Iconic rapper hangs out with Team Penske

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.