MRTI: Big test ahead at Barber for Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, USF2000

By Mar 2, 2016, 3:35 PM EST
Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography
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All three Mazda Road to Indy series will be in action in the coming days for its winter warm-up Spring Training Test, as the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda will all be together for the first time in 2016.

The test at Barber Motorsports Park supplants the Cooper Tires Winterfest as the traditional offseason gathering, and will be the best and last opportunity for teams and drivers in all three series to prep ahead of the St. Petersburg season-opening weekend, March 11-13.

In total, nearly 50 up-and-coming race car drivers representing no fewer than 18 nations will converge this week at Barber, in Birmingham, Ala. Indy Lights will be out on Saturday, March 5, with Pro Mazda and USF2000 splitting time Sunday and Monday, March 6-7.

The same 16 drivers that tested at Phoenix International Raceway last week will be in Birmingham for Indy Lights this week. The full preview from the series is linked here.

Pro Mazda and USF2000 test as series for the first time since the Chris Griffis Memorial Mazda Road to Indy test at Circuit of The Americas in November.

The upside of the increased Indy Lights field has the unintended consequence of having a negative effect on Pro Mazda, with only 10 cars set to test this week.

With timing & scoring available, it will be interesting to see who emerges ahead in the inter-team battles at Juncos Racing, Team Pelfrey and Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing, who field eight of the 10 cars between them.

Juncos features two series returnees in Garett Grist and Will Owen, and Pelfrey has Weiron Tan returning as well. The remaining five drivers – Jake Parsons and Nicolas Dapero of Juncos, Aaron Telitz at Pelfrey and Nico Jamin and Jake Eidson at Cape – are all intriguing rookie prospects.

By contrast, USF2000 moves from the mid-teens in 2015 to 22 cars for this first test. Eight returning drivers from 2015 are among those 22, with Cape’s trio of Parker Thompson, Nikita Lastochkin and Anthony Martin among the headliners. Pabst Racing, also with three drivers, could impress with Jordan Lloyd, Garth Rickards and Yufeng Luo. There’s enough intriguing rookies as well.

Also of note in the last couple days, Replay X D announced it has continued as Official Camera of the Mazda Road to Indy. More information on that is here.

All entry lists are below.

ENTRY LIST: Indy Lights
ENTRY LIST: Pro Mazda
ENTRY LIST: USF2000

Texas starting lineup: Felix Rosenqvist back on pole; Scott Dixon qualifies second

By Apr 1, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
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FORT WORTH, Texas — For the second consecutive year, Felix Rosenqvist will lead the NTT IndyCar Series starting lineup to the green flag at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Arrow McLaren driver is hoping the third time will be the charm at the 1.5-mile oval, where he has run extremely well but has only a career-best 12th in five starts.

“We’ve always been good here, but this is a whole different confidence level compared to last year,” Rosenqvist told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Let’s try to wrap it up (Sunday).”

In 2020, Rosenqvist was competing for a podium when he crashed with 10 laps remaining at Texas.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for speeds from Saturday’s time trials

INDYCAR AT TEXAS: Schedule, start times, how to watch on NBC, Peacock

Last year, he started first on an oval for the first time in his career but finished 21st because of a broken halfshaft.

“It’s definitely one of my favorite tracks, and naturally, I’ve always been OK here,” Rosenqvist said. “It was the first oval that made sense to me. Every year I’m building on that. But looking at the results, they don’t represent the speed I normally have.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, but I hope tomorrow is going to go a bit better and some luck our way would be nice. It’s been feeling super good. Arrow McLaren has been mega every session, so just keep it rolling.”

Arrow McLaren qualified all three of its Chevrolets in the top five, building on a second for Pato O’Ward and fourth for Alexander Rossi in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The March 5 season opener was a disappointing start for Rosenqvist who was squeezed into the wall by Scott Dixon on the first lap.

Dixon, a five-time winner at Texas, will start second Sunday, followed by Rossi and Josef Newgarden. O’Ward will start fifth alongside Takuma Sato, who will start on the outside of the third row in his Chip Ganassi Racing debut.

During nearly four hours of practice and qualifying (including a special high-line session), Saturday’s lone incident involved Conor Daly.

The Ed Carpenter Racing driver spun three times but stayed off the wall and in the frontstretch grass. Aside from a front wing change and new tires, there was no damage to his No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet during the incident midway through the 30-minute session in which drivers were limited to the high line.

“I hadn’t really had a moment before, but it snapped really aggressively,” Daly told NBC Sports after final practice. “Not ideal, but I do know my way around correcting a spin it seems like. I drove NASCAR last weekend and that seemed to help a little bit. I drove in the dirt a lot in USAC Midgets and seemed to be able to save something but not ideal or what we wanted to have happen.”

Daly will start 25th of 28 cars alongside teammate Rinus VeeKay in Row 13. Carpenter qualified 18th.

“Our three of our cars were clearly looking for something. Mechanical grip is for sure what we need. Qualifying we actually expected to be a lot better, but we found an issue there. We’ll see what happens. This race can change a lot. I’m confident in the team to hopefully figure some things out for tomorrow.”

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine and speed):

ROW 1

1. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Chevy, 220.264 mph
2. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 219.972

ROW 2

3. (7) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Chevy, 219.960
4. (2) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevy, 219.801

ROW 3

5. (5) Pato O’Ward, Dallara-Chevy, 219.619
6. (11) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 219.508

ROW 4

7. (10) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 219.480
8. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 219.355

ROW 5

9. (18) David Malukas, Dallara-Honda, 219.256
10. (26) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 219.184

ROW 6

11. (28) Romain Grosjean, Dallara-Honda, 219.165
12. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 219.146

ROW 7 

13. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Dallara-Chevy, 219.100
14. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Dallara-Chevy, 218.892

ROW 8

15. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevy, 218.765
16. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 218.698

ROW 9

17. (77) Callum Ilott, Dallara-Chevy, 218.427
18. (33) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 218.375

ROW 10

19. (78) Agustin Canapino, Dallara-Chevy, 218.367
20. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Honda, 218.227

ROW 11

21. (06) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 218.196
22. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 218.103

ROW 12

23. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Dallara-Honda, 217.676
24. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 217.611

ROW 13

25. (20) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevy, 217.457
26. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Dallara-Chevy, 216.880

ROW 14

27. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Honda, 216.210
28. (30) Jack Harvey, Dallara-Honda, 216.103