Age hasn’t slowed these three down in IndyCar

By Aug 29, 2019, 2:51 PM EDT
INDYCAR Photo by Joe Skibiniski
INDYCAR Photo by Joe Skibinski
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PORTLAND, Oregon – It was “Turn Back the Clock Night” last Saturday at World Wide Technology Speedway at Gateway and the podium celebration should have been sponsored by Geritol, or at the very least, “Just for Men” hair coloring.

The winner, Takuma Sato, is 42 years. Second place was a relative youngster, 38-year-old Ed Carpenter who looks closer to 48. And rounding out the podium is the oldest active full-time driver in the NTT IndyCar Series, 44-year-old Tony Kanaan.

As the series heads to Portland for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland, the NTT IndyCar Series has been a showcase of youthful aggression most of the season with 27-year-old Alexander Rossi battling 28-year-old Josef Newgarden for the championship. Added to the “Fountain of Youth” is the youngest race winner in IndyCar Series history, 19-year-old Colton Herta who won at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) when he was still 18, and 21-year-old Santino Ferrucci.

The battle for the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series championship heats up this weekend with the penultimate race of the season at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway in Portland, Ore., as NBC Sports presents coverage of the Grand Prix of Portland this Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Pre-race coverage on NBC begins at 3 p.m. ET.

Last weekend, however, proved there is race-winning experience in the older group of NTT IndyCar Series drivers.

These drivers, however, prefer to be called “experienced” rather than “old.”

“I think we were up getting ready for the podium, Tony (Kanaan) made a really mean comment and said, ‘We’re all 40 years old up there,’” Carpenter recalled. “Hey, I’m 38. Like I’m a legit 38. I don’t really know how old TK is. I don’t know how old Takuma is. Everybody lies about their age. I am a legit, honest to God, 38 years old. Born in March 1981.

“Working with Spencer (Pigot) and Ed (Jones), these children that were starting racing when I was already in Indy cars, it keeps me young, even though I’m going gray, losing my hair and everything else. It keeps me young. I love racing with these guys. Josef and I are still very close and good friends from our time together.

“It’s just fun to be in the mix with them again.”

Carpenter is an owner/driver in the series, specializing on oval racing. Because last week’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 was the last oval race of the season, his time behind the wheel is over for 2019. He oversees his two-driver lineup of Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones at Portland International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca for the remainder of the 2019 season.

Kanaan, however, returns to the cockpit of the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing hoping to turnaround a very dismal season.

His third-place finish was Kanaan’s first podium since Texas Motor Speedway on June 10, 2017.

“That’s a long time,” Kanaan admitted. “I told the boys on the cool-down lap; I probably don’t remember where I had to stop my car (for the podium).

“We’ve been overcoming a lot of adversities throughout the year. We’ve been hearing a lot of things, good things and bad things, some support, some people thinking we shouldn’t be doing this.

“This is a great night for us. It paid off. When I joined A.J. Foyt Racing, it was to make this team better. We’ve been struggling quite a bit. This is a great night for us.

“The boys did a great job. Now it proves it’s making us stronger, definitely. A result like this, it’s a huge boost for everybody. I’m so happy.”

Kanaan is now 15thin the NTT IndyCar Series standings but proved last week he still has the aggressiveness that once made him one of the most feared drivers in the paddock earlier in his career.

“Slowly we are turning it around,” Kanaan said. “We brought Don Halliday back (as engineer), which is a guy my first year here in America in 1996. He was engineering myself at Tasman. He came in to do some damage control. It’s been great.

“Yes, it was a good result. Obviously let’s not get ahead of the game. We still have two races to go, still have a lot of work to do. I’ll take it, enjoy it tonight and go back to work tomorrow.”

By driving to victory last Saturday night, it was Sato’s second win of the season, the first time in his career that the driver from Japan has won more than one time in a season. He is also the defending winner at Portland International Raceway and could conceivably keep his streak going into Sunday’s race.

Sato isn’t just getting older; he’s getting faster.

“If you take the three of us added I think is 150 years old for sure,” Sato said of the aging podium. “I think that’s the beauty of this sport, with motor racing. If you’re talking only in physical terms, might not be able to do that. With the combination of experience and the team behind it, the race craft, all the things, I think age is sometimes something, but it is not everything.

“I think we can still perform like this. Today was a great day for three of us. Three of us is very happy.”

Happiness with a result, however, doesn’t last long in the NTT IndyCar Series. Friday morning, these three drivers will be back on track, practicing for Saturday’s qualifications and Sunday’s race.

But for a rare moment last Saturday night, three of the oldest drivers in the series told the younger drivers to, “Step aside, we’re coming through.”

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”