IndyCar at Indy road course: How to watch, start times, streaming info, schedules

By Jul 30, 2022, 11:00 AM EDT
0 Comments

Indy road course start times: Defending race winner Will Power will be aiming to make a championship charge Saturday as the NTT IndyCar Series makes it second annual visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Power trails Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson by eight points in the championship standings with five races remaining this season. Ericsson, who has been ranked first since after Road America, has led the points after six of 12 races this season.

Power is aiming for his second title after winning the 2014 championship.

Since 2008, the points leader with five races left has won the championship in eight of 14 races.

Power leads all IndyCar drivers with five victories on the IMS road course. The No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet driver has won the pole position three times (2015, ’17, ’18). Team Penske also has eight drivers on the layout through the infield of IMS.

Here are the details and IndyCar start times at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course this weekend (all times are ET):

INDY ROAD COURSE INDYCAR START TIMES

TV: Saturday race broadcast will begin at noon ET on NBC and will be streaming on Peacock Premium, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com. Peacock Premium also will be the streaming broadcast for both practices and qualifying. (Click here for information on how to sign up for Peacock.)

Leigh Diffey is the announcer with analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch are the pit reporters. Click here for the full NBC Sports schedule for IndyCar in 2022.

RADIO BROADCAST: The IndyCar and Indy Lights races, practices and qualifying sessions live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the IndyCar app.

COMMAND TO START ENGINES: 12:23 p.m.

GREEN FLAG: 12:30 p.m.

POSTRACE SHOW ON PEACOCK: After the race’s conclusion, an exclusive postrace show will air on Peacock with driver interviews, postrace analysis and the podium presentation. To watch the extended postrace show, click over to the special stream on Peacock after Sunday’s race ends.

PRACTICE: Friday, 9:30 a.m. ET (Peacock Premium)

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the lone session on the Indy road course

QUALIFYING: Friday, 1 p.m. (Peacock Premium), three rounds of knockout qualifying

STARTING LINEUP: Click here to see where the 25 drivers will be starting Saturday

RACE DISTANCE: Saturday’s race is 85 laps/207.3 miles on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.

TIRE ALLOTMENT: Five sets primary, four sets alternate (Note: A sixth set of primary tires is available to any car fielding a rookie driver.)

PUSH TO PASS: There are 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. The push-to-pass is not available on the initial start or any restart unless it occurs in the final two laps or three minutes of a timed race. The feature increases the power of the engine by approximately 60 horsepower.

FORECAST: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 79 degrees Saturday with a 0% chance of rain at the green flag.

INDYCAR ENTRY LISTS: Click here for the 25 cars racing Saturday

INDYCAR WEEKEND SCHEDULE

(All times are Eastern)

Friday, July 29

9:30 a.m.: NTT IndyCar Series practice (90 minutes), Peacock Premium

1 p.m.: IndyCar qualifying (three rounds of NTT IndyCar Series knockout qualifications), Peacock Premium

Saturday, July 30

8:15 a.m.: NTT IndyCar warmup, Peacock Premium

12:30 p.m.: Gallagher Grand Prix (85 laps/207.3 miles), NBC

Will Power shows Flavor Flav what time it is in IndyCar: ‘This is the highlight of the weekend’

By Jun 4, 2023, 11:00 PM EDT
Will Power Flavor Flav
Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
0 Comments

DETROIT – When Flavor Flav unexpectedly showed up in Team Penske’s pits for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix weekend, Will Power knew what time it was.

So the defending NTT IndyCar Series champion dropped it on the man who made oversized clocks as fashion accessories famous.

And he used the kind of wordplay that was the pride of Public Enemy (the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group led by Chuck D with Flavor Flav as loyal sidekick).

“I said to Flavor Flav, ‘You know, people today are going to have to ‘Fight the Power,’ ” Power said with a broad smirk, referencing one of Public Enemy’s most memorable and strident anthems. “And it was true! They had to ‘Fight the Power.’ ”

With a second place in Detroit, the No. 12 Dallara-Chevy driver earned his best finish since last September and impressed a musical hero who apparently attended his first IndyCar race this weekend and promptly fell in love with the sport.

After being interviewed by NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee during the Peacock qualifying broadcast Saturday, Flavor Flav made the rounds.

He met with Roger Penske in Team Penske’s at-track headquarters, freestyled in an on-stage cameo during Steve Aoki’s Saturday night concert in Hart Plaza and then rode with Power in a pickup truck around the 1.645-mile street course during driver introductions Sunday morning.

Flav was wearing a red No. 12 shirt that Power believes was purchased at a track merchandise trailer.

“That is the highlight of the weekend,” he said. “Flavor Flav was wearing my shirt, man.”

It was a dream come true for the two-time IndyCar champion and 2018 Indy 500 winner. Power, 42, grew up listening to Public Enemy with his buddies in Toowoomba, Australia, and they went nuts when he posted photos with Flavor Flav to his personal Facebook page.

“My friends are like, ‘Dude, you should just quit racing now. You have made it to the top,’ ” Power said. “We all listened to Public Enemy, and they would never believe that I actually would be hanging out with Flavor Flav. That is nuts. I’ll have to go Vegas to hang out with him. Maybe we’ll do a rap together.”

“Yeeaaah, boy!” third-place finisher Felix Rosenqvist, who apparently might have given “It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” a few spins while growing up in Sweden, chimed in during the postrace news conference.

The only disappointment for Power was coming up 1.1843 seconds short of beating Alex Palou.

Flav had promised to celebrate on the podium if Power had won the race.

“He is the most positive dude you will ever meet,” Power said. “Pretty cool experience. Pretty cool to put it on your personal Facebook.

“All your friends that you went to school with, they’re like, ‘Man this dude is big-time, he’s hanging out with Flavor Flav. ‘I sat next to Ice-T at dinner. I have also had dinner with Slash from Guns N’ Roses. I wish I got videos of those ones as well so I could put it on the personal Facebook

“No one cares about race cars or that I won the Indy 500. It’s like, ‘You had dinner with Slash? You know Flavor Flav?’ Yeah!”

Power already has in mind some future musical guests he’d like to meet, starting with another of Detroit’s own.

“I’m more of a ’90s rap guy, but if I met Eminem, that would also be epic,” Power said. “Ice Cube’s the one, man. If I could meet Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg in Long Beach. Why doesn’t someone bring them to Long Beach? Maybe they should have an Ice Cube day. That would be dope.”