SH Rallycross, HYDROXYCUT return to Red Bull GRC with Nelson Piquet Jr. - MotorSportsTalk

Nelson Piquet Jr., SH Racing and HYDROXYCUT are back for the 2015 Red Bull Global Rallycross season. See release below:

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SH Racing Rallycross announced today it will return to the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship for the 2015 season with International Racer and X GAMES medalist Nelson Piquet Jr. behind the wheel.

The team also unveiled a fresh look on its OMSE built Factory Ford Fiesta ST with new Primary sponsorship from HYDROXYCUT. The No. 07 will showcase the newly revealed HYDROXYCUT livery at seven of twelve Red Bull GRC races this year, as well as the 2015 Austin X GAMES.

Commenting on the twin announcements, SH Racing Rallycross team owner James “Sulli” Sullivan said, “Last year we laid the foundation and this year we’re building the house. Not only do we have continuity with Nelson, but the 2015 team we’ve built is stronger and smarter than last year. I’m stoked!”

SH Rallycross had a break out first season contending for the RedBull Global Rallycross Championship its first year in the series with four consecutive podiums including taking Bronze at the Summer X GAMES with Piquet Jr. behind the wheel.

Piquet Jr., who quickly adapted to Rallycross with SH in 2014, spent four years working his way up the NASCAR ranks. During his NASCAR career, Piquet Jr. became the first Brazilian to visit Victory Lane in the Nationwide Series by taking the checkered flag at Road America in 2012. He is best known for his time in Formula 1 with the ING Renault team, starting as a test driver and graduating to a full-time ride. He also won the Formula E event in Long Beach.

“I am really looking forward to competing again with SH Rallycross in this year’s Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship,” Piquet Jr. said. “It’s a series that I absolutely love. I had so much fun last year. Together we achieved a lot and had numerous podiums and a lot of highlights. We didn’t get that elusive win, but this year that is very much our expectation. The team and set up we have this year is a different ballgame.”

Piquet Jr. went on to say, “SH Rallycross is mixing IndyCar engineering with Rallycross knowhow and our aim is to make a step up from last year and be consistently competing at the top end of the action. It’s also really exciting to have Hydroxycut on board. They’ve been involved with motorsports now for three years and already have Indy 500 and Toronto GP wins under their belt – I’m aiming to add a GRC win to that tally for them! The start of the season can’t come quick enough.”

SH Rallycross expects to make another major sponsorship announcement in the coming weeks which shall include the unveiling of the sponsor and livery for the season opening race in Ft. Lauderdale on May 31st.

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