United States GP Paddock Notebook – Thursday

By Oct 22, 2015, 5:37 PM EDT
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AUSTIN, Texas – Pick your weather term de jour – rainy, cloudy, muggy or overcast – and you have Thursday from edition 4.0 of the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas in a nutshell.

There haven’t been a ton of updates to note, but still enough to keep things interesting.

Here’s a roundup of news, features and other items from the paddock at COTA today (and some from Wednesday rolled into this post):

PADDOCK NEWS AND FEATURES

WEDNESDAY PRE-RACE ITEMS

THOUGHTS FROM THE TRACK

How wet will it get?

Preparations are in full force for rain this weekend, as evidenced by the frantic, furious and frequent mounting of Pirelli intermediates and full wet weather tires up and down the paddock. The question on most minds isn’t necessarily will it rain, but how much, for how long, and more.

I guess it’s fitting I’m here for this one – having been to two prior Circuit of The Americas events this year, the Pirelli World Challenge event back in March when it was absolutely freezing (ambient temperatures hovering in the 30s, Fahrenheit, then with rain on the Sunday) and then last month for the Lone Star Le Mans joint FIA World Endurance Championship/IMSA weekend (a scorcher with temps in the 90s), that the trilogy of less than ideal weather acts rolls on with a likely swampy deluge set to occur here this weekend.

There’s a long running joke about me and rainy weather, and combined with USA Today Sports’ Brant James, I think the two of us have locked down the title of “rain-meisters” in the media centre.

Hamilton enters with poise, confidence, swagger

Five of the six drivers in the FIA Press Conference held earlier today appeared in normal kit, with the lone exception perhaps Daniel Ricciardo of Infiniti Red Bull Racing in his “Wolverine 2.0” get up of intense side burns and a goatee. Then champion-elect Lewis Hamilton walked in, sunglasses on, gold chain present atop his black Mercedes AMG Petronas T-shirt, and it was though you needed an American wrestling type announcer or something to say “The champ is here!” upon entry.

A reporter asked a question you don’t ordinarily hear in these type press conferences – asking how to create more enthusiasm in urban black America for F1 – and Hamilton responded, “Don’t look at me, ask the others first… I’d love to see what others think!” When it did get around to Hamilton, he said it’s difficult for people to get attached, but he hopes one day F1 can engage with some of the stick-and-ball sports that are so popular in this country.

Frankly, F1 could do worse with an “F1 in America” ambassador; as my colleague Luke Smith touched on earlier today, this is Lewis’ de facto second “home grand prix” as it is, and he embraces it. NBC’s Leigh Diffey had an interview with Hamilton earlier today that will be part of our broadcast this weekend (TV times linked here). The early mood this weekend is already one of “this is Hammer Time,” as Hamilton stands on the precipice of clinching his third World Championship.

Rossi ready for racing

The build-up is obvious for American Alexander Rossi ahead of his home Grand Prix. But I have to imagine for as great as he’s been in all his pre-race media commitments, Rossi is keen to get behind the wheel and actually drive his Manor Marussia Ferrari in Friday’s sessions.

I asked him during today’s FIA Press Conference whether having done FP1 here two years ago, then in a Caterham, would be of any help to him. He said it was good to have the track experience, but the car difference night and day will make for an entirely different session.

“It gives you a baseline but at the same time the cars in ’13 were clearly very different to what they are now,” Rossi said. “I don’t know how much is applicable to be honest. I think it’s more of a bonus, the fact that I’ve actually driven the track, more than anything else.”

Fan events kick off tonight

Come rain or shine, tonight marks the true and proper kick off to the fan events taking place this weekend in Austin. I’ll be at Buxton’s Big Time Bash later this evening (details here), with a full report to come later in the weekend. Additional link outs to other fan events are featured in this post.

That’ll be it for today, with more to come on Friday and throughout the weekend on MotorSportsTalk. We appreciate your reading and support.

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

By May 29, 2023, 6:01 PM EDT
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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