Indy Lights notes: Juncos leads oval test, Chilton digs ovals, Piedrahita confirmed

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There have been several Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires bits of news over the last week. Here were the recaps of road course testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway (day one, day two), but oval testing followed on Thursday.

JUNCOS LEADS OVAL TESTING

Juncos Racing led a tightly packed timesheets in the Indy Lights’ first official oval test day on the HMS 1.5-mile oval, converted to its normal layout rather than the road course. Nine tenths of a second covered the 11-car field, even as the teams experimented with different setups.

Kyle Kaiser and Spencer Pigot – Juncos’ pair of rookies – led the combined lap times with Kaiser posting a best lap of 188.851 mph.

“The team continues to demonstrate their ability to adapt to this new car,” Kaiser said. “It’s still early and there is a lot of work ahead, but we are making steady progress. It was my first time driving on an oval at this speed and the team gave me the perfect car to make the transition seamless. I’m looking forward to NOLA in a few weeks to continue our development.”

Times are linked here.

CHILTON, CARLIN WELCOMED – AND THEY DIG OVALS

Max Chilton’s presence at the test this week was something of a big deal. The former Marussia F1 driver is a relative big fish in a small pond in the Lights field, and with he and Carlin Racing present, it adds two further degrees of legitimacy to the championship.

Chilton spoke highly of the experience and posted a couple tweets from his opening oval experience.

Team boss Trevor Carlin praised the American culture after a successful first week of testing for both Chilton and the team’s first confirmed driver, Ed Jones.

SCHMIDT PRAISES ANDERSON AFTER HIS FIRST SPM TEST

Scott Anderson missed the Palm Beach test while news of his deal with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports was yet to be confirmed. But Homestead marked his first week on board, and his presence solidified SPM’s effort for 2015.

“Testing is even more productive now that to our Indy Lights team is solidified,” SPM co-owner Sam Schmidt said. “Scott Anderson completing our driver lineup is helpful because he can contribute and adds another voice to the equation. We’ve put the pieces of the puzzle in place, which now allows us to focus on racing.”

PIEDRAHITA OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED

Belardi Auto Racing confirmed Juan Piedrahita last week as second driver alongside Felix Serralles. The Colombian raced with SPM in 2014, and also has past experience on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder in both Pro Mazda and USF2000.

“I’m very grateful that Brian Belardi has given me this opportunity, and it looks like I have some big shoes to fill, those of my friend, Gabby Chaves,” Piedrahita said. “In regards to the new Dallara, I can’t wait to drive it. The new car is very similar to the DW12 and it will help us in preparation for the next step.”

Piedrahita tested on both the road course and oval last week, although 2012 Indy Lights champion Tristan Vautier filled in for a day on the second day on the road course to help evaluate the team’s progress. While Piedrahita is a veteran, Serralles will be a rookie in 2015.

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.