IndyCar drivers open for more NASCAR doubleheaders in the future - MotorSportsTalk

On Thursday’s “Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico on NBCSN, IndyCar Series owner Roger Penske said he would like to see more doubleheaders between IndyCar and NASCAR in the future.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first IndyCar/NASCAR doubleheader is scheduled for July 4 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Penske is also the owner of that fabled facility.

IndyCar will stage the GMR IndyCar Grand Prix on the IMS road course. Also scheduled that day is the Pennzoil 150 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

The next day, the Brickyard 400 is scheduled for the NASCAR Cup Series.

Just a few days after he won his second NTT IndyCar Series championship, Josef Newgarden got that conversation rolling when he drove his Chevrolet Indy car around the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

Because real racing has been halted because of COVID-19 pandemic, virtual racing has given fans a chance to see how drivers from one series stack up against those in another.

The fourth race of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge is the Firestone 175 at virtual Twin Ring Motegi in Japan (Saturday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN). NASCAR’s Kyle Busch will be included in that contest. It also marks the return of three-time Indianapolis 500 winning driver and longtime NTT IndyCar Series star Helio Castroneves.

Newgarden also would like to see more drivers from other series try to compete in different forms of racing when real racing returns.

“Oh, definitely,” Newgarden said. “For me as a younger guy in the sport, sort of reaching the middle point, I’ve always wanted to see more crossover from drivers and teams and series. I think most drivers do, to be honest with you.

“We got in this place over the last however long you want to call it, 20 or 30 years, where everyone became specialists. There was less of this. If you’re an IndyCar guy, you can’t run NASCAR, this or that.

“This has provided a really fun push where series can come together and provide more value for the fans, can provide more action for the drivers to really take in or soak in different experiences. Maybe that will lead to more crossovers from different drives.”

So far in the six-race IndyCar iRacing Challenge, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. have competed in a virtual Indy car. In Saturday’s race, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch will compete in an Indy car.

“Kyle Busch really wants to run the Indianapolis 500,” Newgarden said. “All of us want that. We want to run against the best in the world. I think it’s vice versa. If there’s a guy like Scott Dixon that wants to run in NASCAR for an event, I think those guys want to see that happen, too, because Scott is one of the best.

“Without a doubt, there’s been some positives from this sim racing. I think what they’re proposing in reality as we go back to the real world is quite exciting. I think we’re all pretty excited and confident that Roger is leading that charge and is probably the best person positioned to get something like that done.”

Scott Dixon is a five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, a winner of the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and a multi-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner.

Although he doesn’t think the virtual form of racing is the same as the real thing, it does allow drivers from different series to square off with one another.

“The format itself is fun,” Dixon said. “I think having the accessibility and ease to have that crossover is pretty cool, probably more so for the sponsors.

“The way these things drive, it also depends on a lot of things: how long you’ve done it, what kind of car you’ve been driving on the sim for a period of time, trying to get up to speed. Even going from an IndyCar to a GT car, there’s all these tiny little things that you need to mold into your driving pattern and how you use it.

I think it’s cool for a spectacle. It’s been a lot of fun. Even yesterday with Kyle Busch running in the practice sessions, it’s a lot of fun, conversations, everybody is chatting and getting along.

“The reality of it is very unreal in a lot of ways. I think the racing has been a lot of fun. Yesterday I think Motegi leading into this weekend, the multiple lines, what we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be pretty cool.

“Last week at (virtual) Michigan, even though I had to watch most of it from my couch, it was pretty cool to watch.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500

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