Kiel named President of Arrow McLaren - MotorSportsTalk

Taylor Kiel has been appointed President of Arrow McLaren SP and will oversee the entire company, including the competition and commercial efforts of their IndyCar team. Kiel also retains his position as chief strategist for the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet piloted by Pato O’Ward.

Kiel has been with the organization since 2007 when he joined Sam Schmidt’s Indy Lights team. In the intervening years, he has graduated from the role of junior mechanic to his present role.

“This is the next natural step for Taylor and for the evolution of the team,” said Schmidt, now an owner of Arrow McLaren SP, in a release. “I’ll never forget him showing up to the shop 14 years ago, without any tools, looking for a job in racing.

“He started pushing a broom and has excelled in every position from mechanic to Car Chief to IndyCar Team Manager and now President, learning and applying knowledge from some of the best in the industry. We are incredibly proud of the leader he has become.”

In 2020, Kiel helped usher the No. 5 team to a top-five position in the championship with O’Ward. They did not win a race, but finished second three times. These runner-up finishes showed a variety of setups as they came on the permanent road course of Road America in July, the oval of Gateway Motorsports Park in August and on the temporary street circuit of St. Petersburg in the season ending race in October.

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O’Ward scored one other podium after securing a sweep of the top three at Gateway.

“I want to thank Sam and Ric (Peterson) for giving me the opportunity to lead this team at a higher level,” said Kiel. “Last year we showed our ability to grow and improve as a team, both competitively and commercially. This year we continue our journey towards becoming one of the top IndyCar teams, on and off the track.”

O’Ward will be back behind the wheel of the No. 5 in 2021.

Arrow McLaren will field a second entry for Felix Rosenqvist, who beat O’Ward to the checkers at Road America.

Juan Pablo Montoya joining the team for the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Taylor Kiel named President of Arrow McLaren

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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