IMSA will resume its revised 2020 season at Daytona and Sebring

By May 15, 2020, 12:30 PM EDT
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IMSA announced the resumption of its WeatherTech Championship season Friday, returning July 4 at Daytona International Speedway with a live broadcast on NBCSN

The Michelin Pilot Challenge also will resume with the WeatherTech Championship Series at Sebring International Raceway on July 17-18 (also on NBCSN).

The events will be held without fans.

IMSA also announced the rest of its 2020 slate, which continues with Road America on July 31-Aug. 2. Series officials said it hasn’t been decided which races would have crowds after Daytona and Sebring.

The season will conclude Nov. 11-14 with the 12 Hours of Sebring, which was rescheduled from March because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

IMSA has been on hold since Wayne Taylor Racing won the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January (here were the final results by class in that event).

Here’s the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Revised Schedule:

Date                 Venue                                                  Length                Classes

Jan. 25-26         Daytona International Speedway            24 hours           DPi, LMP2*, GTLM, GTD

July 3-4             Daytona International Speedway            2 hr., 40 min.     DPi, GTLM, GTD

July 17-18         Sebring International Raceway               2 hr., 40 min.     DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD**

July 31-Aug. 2   Road America                                       2 hr., 40 min.       DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD

Aug. 21-23        VIRginia International Raceway              2 hr., 40 min      GTLM, GTD

Sept. 4-6           WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca     2 hr., 40 min.     DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD

Sept. 25-27       Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course                  2 hr., 40 min.     DPi, GTLM, GTD

Oct. 2-4             Watkins Glen International                      6 hours             DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD

Oct. 14-17         Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta             10 hours           DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD

Oct. 30-31         Lime Rock Park                                     2 hr., 40 min.     GTLM, GTD

Nov. 11-14        Sebring International Raceway               12 hours           DPi, LMP2, GTLM, GTD

 

Here’s the release from IMSA:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 15, 2020) – In a series of video conferences with stakeholders earlier today, IMSA revealed its plans to return to racing this summer with a revised 2020 calendar for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.

The WeatherTech Championship will return July 4 at Daytona International Speedway. This Fourth of July event will feature an evening race with WeatherTech as its entitlement partner and a live television broadcast on NBCSN.

The Michelin Pilot Challenge will resume alongside the WeatherTech Championship at Sebring International Raceway on July 17-18. The WeatherTech Championship event also will be televised live on NBCSN.

Both event weekends will be conducted without fans in attendance.

“IMSA is grateful to all of our promoter partners for collaborating with us to develop a revised schedule of outstanding events,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “Our No. 1 priority since March has been to get back to racing as safely and as quickly as possible, and this revised schedule is evidence of that. We appreciate the patience, cooperation, and input of our IMSA stakeholders, and we all are very much looking forward to going racing again this summer and putting on amazing races for our audience.”

Further NBC Sports television broadcast information and any additional details will be announced soon.

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