Supercross 2022: Results and points after Round 8 in Arlington

By Feb 27, 2022, 11:41 AM EST
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A drama filled night saw Eli Tomac take the overall win in 450s as the Round 8 results continue to show a tight battle for the top spot in the Monster Energy Supercross championship.

Tomac got off to a slow start in the first feature and had to battle his way through the field, but accidents at the head of the pack opened a door for him to finish third. His next two starts in the Triple Crown showdown were much better and Tomac had to be content with a pair of runner-up finishes. With a 3-2-2, Tomac swept the podium and earned his third overall win of the season.

One of Tomac’s two previous wins came in another Triple Crown race earlier this year at Glendale.

Tomac extended his points lead over Anderson to six.

RESULTS: Click here for 450 Results; Click here for 250 Results

The second and third races of the night featured head-to-head matchups between Tomac and Jason Anderson, who last week trimmed Tomac’s points advantage to three. Anderson got the best of both duels and won those races, but an altercation with Malcolm Stewart as they battled for the lead in Race 1 sent Anderson to the ground and outside the top five. His sixth-place finish in that race was the only time he stumbled during the night.

The Arlington race began where it ended in 2021: with Cooper Webb standing on the podium. Last year, Webb swept three separate nights of racing as the Monster Energy Supercross series took up residency in this stadium. In 2022, he followed his Race 1 win in the Triple Crown format with a pair of fourth-place finishes and third overall.

Click here Race 1 results | Race 2 | Race 3

Chase Sexton swept the top five and earned one podium finish on his way to fourth in the overall standings. His Supercross Round 8 results of 4-3-5 allowed him to close on Justin Barcia for fifth in the points standings.

Stewart was leading Race 1 when a mistimed pass by Anderson sent both to the ground. On his way back to his bike to remount, Stewart tackled Anderson to insure he would be the one to remount first. Stewart finished fifth in that race, sixth in Race 2 and stood on the podium in Race 3 with a third. That extends a current top-five streak to seven.

Click here for Round 8 450 Overall results | Rider Points | Manufacturer Points

Cameron McAadoo swept the podium in Supercross Round 8 and the results were enough to give him the overall win. McAdoo began the night with a second in Race 1 and a third in Race 2. He saved his best for last and won the final feature. It was his first 250 win since Daytona, 2021.

Jeremy Martin got off to a slow start Saturday night with a ninth-place finish in the first race. He picked up the pace in Race 2 and 3 with a pair of podium finishes that landed him second on the overall chart.

Click here Race 1 results | Race 2 | Race 3

Jett Lawrence won Race 2 and finished third overall, but that was not the story everyone wanted to talk about at the end of the night. In the final race after making a pass on Austin Forkner for third, Lawrence clipped a Tuff Blox and collided with Forkner in mid-air, which sent both to the ground. Lawrence remounted. Forkner did not and was carted off the track with an injury.

Mitchell Oldenburg finished 5-6-5 on the night to score a fourth overall. Last week in Minneapolis, he stood helplessly behind the gates as the crew tried to fix a mechanical problem on his bike for his heat. He never recovered and failed to advance to the Main.

Click here for 250 East Overall results | 250 East Rider Points

Jordon Smith rounded out the top five with a 6-10-7.

After winning the first race, Forkner narrowly missed the podium in Race 2 and finished 19th after crashing in Race 3. He ended the night seventh overall.

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 1 AT ANAHEIM: Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb renew rivalry with 1-2 finish

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 2 AT OAKLAND: Jason Anderson wins, Roczen struggles to tighten points’ standings

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 3 AT SAN DIEGO: First time wins for Chase Sexton (450s) and Michael Mosiman (250s)

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 4 AT ANAHEIM: Eli Tomac solidifies points’ lead with first win of season

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 5 AT GLENDALE: Tomac is first rider to repeat in 2022

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 6 AT ANAHEIM: Anderson ties Tomac with two wins in 2022

POINTS, RESULTS AFTER ROUND 7 AT MINNEAPOLIS: Anderson makers it three, closes in on Tomac

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Strong rebounds for Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi amid some disappointments in the Indy 500

By May 28, 2023, 10:00 PM EDT
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INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Palou had not turned a wheel wrong the entire Month of May at the Indy 500 until Rinus VeeKay turned a wheel into the Chip Ganassi Racing pole-sitter leaving pit road on Lap 94.

“There is nothing I could have done there,” Palou told NBC Sports. “It’s OK, when it is my fault or the team’s fault because everybody makes mistakes. But when there is nothing, you could have done differently there, it feels bad and feels bad for the team.”

Marcus Ericsson was a master at utilizing the “Tail of the Dragon” move that breaks the draft of the car behind him in the closing laps to win last year’s Indianapolis 500. On Sunday, however, the last of three red flags in the final 16 laps of the race had the popular driver from Sweden breathing fire after Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden beat him at his own game on the final lap to win the Indianapolis 500.

Despite the two disappointments, team owner Chip Ganassi was seen on pit road fist-bumping a member on his four-car team in this year’s Indianapolis 500 after his drivers finished second, fourth, sixth and seventh in the tightly contested race.

Those are pretty good results, but at the Indianapolis 500, there is just one winner and 32 losers.

“There is only one winner, but it was a hell of a show,” three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Chip Ganassi Racing consultant Dario Franchitti told NBC Sports. “Alex was very fast, and he got absolutely caught out in somebody else’s wreck. There was nothing he could have done, but he and the 10 car, great recovery.

“Great recovery by all four cars because at half distance, we were not looking very good.”

After 92 laps, the first caution flew for Sting Ray Robb of Dale Coyne Racing hitting the Turn 1 wall.

During pit stops on Lap 94, Palou had left his stall when the second-place car driven by VeeKay ran into him, putting Palou’s Honda into the wall. The car sustained a damaged front wing, but the Chip Ganassi crew was able to get him back in the race on the lead lap but in 28th position.

Palou ultimately would fight his way to a fourth-place finish in a race the popular Spaniard could have won. His displeasure with VeeKay, whom he sarcastically called “a legend” on his team radio after the incident, was evident.

“The benefit of being on pole is you can drive straight and avoid crashes, and he was able to crash us on the side on pit lane, which is pretty tough to do, but he managed it,” Palou told NBC Sports. “Hopefully next year we are not beside him. Hopefully, next year we have a little better luck.”

Palou started on the pole and led 36 laps, just three fewer than race leader Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren Racing.

“We started really well, was managing the fuel as we wanted, our car was pretty good,” Palou said. “Our car wasn’t great, we dropped to P4 or P5, but we still had some good stuff.

“On the pit stop, the 21 (VeeKay) managed to clip us. Nothing we could have done there. It was not my team’s fault or my fault.

“We had to drop to the end. I’m happy we made it back to P4. We needed 50 more laps to make it happen, but it could have been a lot worse after that contact.

“I learned a lot, running up front at the beginning and in mid-pack and then the back. I learned a lot.

“It feels amazing when you win it and not so good when things go wrong. We were a bit lucky with so many restarts at the end to make it back to P4 so I’m happy with that.”

Palou said the front wing had to be changed and the toe-in was a bit off, but he still had a fast car.

In fact, his Honda was the best car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway all month. His pole-winning four lap average speed of 234.217 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a record for this fabled race.

Palou looked good throughout the race, before he had to scratch and claw and race his way back to the top-five after he restarted 28th.

In the Indianapolis 500, however, the best car doesn’t always win.

“It’s two years in a row that we were leading the race at the beginning and had to drop to last,” Palou said. “Maybe next year, we will start in the middle of the field and go on to win the race.

“I know he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s better to let that pass someday.”

Palou said the wild racing at the end was because the downforce package used in Sunday’s race means the drivers have to be aggressive. The front two cars can battle for the victory, but cars back in fourth or fifth place can’t help determine the outcome of the race.

That is when the “Tail of the Dragon” comes into the play.

Franchitti helped celebrate Ericsson’s win in 2022 with his “Tail of the Dragon” zigzag move – something he never had to do in any of his three Indianapolis 500 victories because they all finished under caution.

In 2023, however, IndyCar Race Control wants to make every attempt to finish the race under green, without going past the scheduled distance like NASCAR’s overtime rule.

Instead of extra laps, they stop the race with a red flag, to create a potential green-flag finish condition.

“You do what you have to do to win within the rules, and it’s within the rules, so you do it,” Franchitti said. “The race is 200 laps and there is a balance.

“Marcus did a great job on that restart and so did Josef. It was just the timing of who was where and that was it.

“If you knew it was going to go red, you would have hung back on the lap before.

“Brilliant job by the whole Ganassi organization because it wasn’t looking very good at half-distance.

“Full marks to Josef Newgarden and Team Penske.”

Franchitti is highly impressed by how well Ericsson works with CGR engineer Brad Goldberg and how close this combination came to winning the Indianapolis 500 two-years-in-a-row.

It would have been the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.

“Oh, he’s a badass,” Franchitti said Ericsson. “He proved it last year. He is so calm all day. What more do you need? As a driver, he’s fast and so calm.”

Ericsson is typically in good spirits and jovial.

He was stern and direct on pit road after the race.

“I did everything right, I did an awesome restart, caught Josef off-guard and pulled away,” Ericsson said on pit lane. “It’s hard to pull away a full lap and he got me back.

“I’m mostly disappointed with the way he ended. I don’t think it was fair and safe to do that restart straight out of the pits on cold tires for everyone.

“To me, it was not a good way to end that race.

“Congrats to Josef. He didn’t do anything wrong. He is a worthy champion, but it shouldn’t have ended like that.”

Palou also didn’t understand the last restart, which was a one-start showdown.

“I know that we want to finish under green,” Palou said. “Maybe the last restart I did, I didn’t understand. It didn’t benefit the CGR team.

“I’m not very supportive of the last one, but anyway.”

Dixon called the red flags “a bit sketchy.”

“The Red Flags have become a theme to the end of the race, but sometimes they can catch you out,” Dixon said. “I know Marcus is frustrated with it.

“All we ask for is consistency. I think they will do better next time.

“It’s a tough race. People will do anything they can to win it and with how these reds fall, you have to be in the right place at the right time. The problem is when they throw a Red or don’t throw a Red dictates how the race will end.

“It’s a bloody hard race to win. Congrats to Josef Newgarden and to Team Penske.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500