Dakar: Casale revives hopes of another quad title; 19-year-old Ferioli wins - MotorSportsTalk

Ignacio Casale (pictured, from Stage 4) is back on top.

His second-place finish in Monday’s Stage 8 of the Dakar Rally (Uyuni – Iquique) to 19-year-old Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli has propelled him to the overall lead in the quad category once again.

Casale finished almost eight minutes back of Ferioli, but his main competition – the man seeking to take his Dakar title away, Poland’s Rafal Sonik – entered the bivouac almost a half an hour behind him in eighth.

And what had been a 22-minute edge for Sonik after Sunday has completely flipped to a six-minute, 49-second lead for Casale just one day later.

It was especially satisfying for Casale, who said he had to ride the final kilometers of Sunday’s stage with fuel in his left boot and then fix his quad until late that night in the bivouac.

“[Sunday] was a nightmare,” Casale explained. “I’ve never experienced anything like that on a quad or a bike, the cold, the mud, the water…It was very tough and very unpleasant. The quad suffered and I had to do a fair bit of soldering. Yesterday was very complicated.

“This morning, I woke up with a bit more motivation. I’d repaired the quad. We set off early but nobody wanted to start. It was cold. In the end, we set off. There was water on the salt lake and it was majestic. From the start, I felt good and fast. I think I’ve ridden a good special.

“I’ve regained time on my rivals, Rafal Sonik and [third-place overall] Sergio Lafuente. I’m happy about that, because I went to sleep late yesterday. I worked very hard to prepare the quad. In the evening when I arrived in Uyuni, I really just wanted to go home…In the end, today was a great stage and I want to be Number 1 again.”

And right now, that is where he’s at. But if Casale’s motivation has been re-fired, you have to think Sonik’s own has done the same.

A post on Sonik’s Facebook page acknowledged that he had lost the overall lead but one phrase stands out: “The game is over.”

With five stages to go, their duel is now officially on.

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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