IndyCar Testing Is High-Speed Summer School

SportsMoney IndyCar Testing Is High-Speed Summer School Bruce Martin Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I have been chasing race cars since the first Michigan 500 in 1981. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jun 20, 2022, 06:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin 106th Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson is the IndyCar points leader heading into the summer . . .

[+] break. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Getty Images A dramatic “Month of May” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway followed by two dramatic contests on the streets of Detroit and at Road America has sent IndyCar into its “Summer Break. ” In fact, Sunday was a rarity in the United States because there was no Nascar Cup Series race, either.

Racing fans in America had to find another racing series for their adrenalin rush, such as Max Verstappen’s impressive win in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. On Saturday night, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was a last-day entrant in the season-opening SRX race at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. Castroneves went from out of the race to Victory Lane, climbing the fence at the asphalt short track in the Florida Panhandle.

SRX is an “All-Star Series” created by Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham (who has since departed SRX) that pits drivers from various forms of racing in equally prepared stock cars at six of the most famous Saturday Night tracks around the country in a made-for-TV event televised on CBS. While race series such as NASC SC A AR R and Formula One race nearly every weekend during the season, IndyCar has smaller teams and budgets. That is why five racing events in five weekends is taxing on an IndyCar team and its crewmembers.

The next race on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule is the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on July 3. That begins a stretch of six races over the next six weeks including the Honda Indy Toronto on July 17, a doubleheader at Iowa Speedway July 23 and July 24, the Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 30, and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on August 7. MORE FOR YOU WWE Extreme Rules 2021 Results: Winners, News And Notes As Roman Reigns Beats The Demon The World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players 2021: Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo Reclaims Top Spot From PSG’s Lionel Messi The Good, Bad And Ugly From The Green Bay Packers’ Win Over The San Francisco 49ers After that hectic stretch is over, there will be just three IndyCar races left in the season including the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway, the final short oval of 2022, on August 20.

The season concludes with the Grand Prix of Portland on September 4 and the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on September 11. IndyCar did not have a race over the weekend, but 20 of its cars and drivers are currently at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa for the beginning of a private test on the . 875-mile short oval.

That facility will host the HyVeeDeals. com 250 on Saturday, July 23 and the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 on Sunday, July 24 with both races on NBC. Drivers that will are testing at Iowa include Castroneves, Scott Dixon, 106 th Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, Jack Harvey, JR Hildebrand, Callum Ilott, Jimmie Johnson, Dalton Kellett, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin, David Malukas, Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, Simon Pagenaud, Alex Palou, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist and Takuma Sato.

IndyCar action from 2008 at Iowa Speedway. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images) Getty Images Two more tests are scheduled with seven drivers on the 14-turn, 2. 439-mile road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Those drivers include Devlin De Francesco, Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta, Kirkwood, O’Ward and Alexander Rossi. That is a private Andretti Autosport test with Arrow McLaren SP choosing to participate. Four drivers are scheduled to test on June 27 at Sebring International Raceway, a track that will help simulate street course racing on July 17 at Toronto and August 7 at Nashville.

Those drivers include Harvey, Lundgaard, Rahal, and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires star Benjamin Pedersen with Juncos Hollinger Racing. There is a short window between the three racing weekends counting Indy 500 qualifications at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May with trips to Detroit and Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin immediately after the Indy 500. That makes this week’s test at Iowa so important to the teams that hope to contend for the championship.

In addition to winning the 106 th Indianapolis 500, Ericsson is the NTT IndyCar Series points leader. He is 27 points ahead of second-place Power of Team Penske. “Coming into the small break we have now with some good confidence,” Ericsson said.

“We’re in a good position for the second half. Power’s teammate, Newgarden, is 32 behind the leader. Newgarden is a two-time IndyCar Series champion and the only driver this season with multiple wins.

His victory in the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America on June 12 was his third of the season. Every other driver with a win has just one. “It’s been a little bit too up and down for us,” Newgarden explained.

“Kind of feast or famine. I think we genuinely had the potential for four or five wins up to this point. So, we’ve done three of the potential five, let’s say.

The other ones that we weren’t winning, we were finishing too far back. Road America winner Josef Newgarden (left) sprays IndyCar points leader Marcus Ericsson with . .

. [+] champagne in Victory Lane. INDYCAR Photo “We’ve got to up our consistency.

It’s a little abnormal for us. I feel like we’re a fairly consistent group. So, I’m not going to lose sleep on why that was happening.

Sometimes you get in these little micro trends where we didn’t have the consistency we needed. “Number one, we need to clean that up. We need to win a couple more races before the year is out because of the way the first part of the season went.

We definitely have wins on the board. “But definitely more than wins, consistency is going to rule the day this year, for sure. ” Power is followed by Arrow McLaren SP’s O’Ward, 45 out of the lead.

Defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Palou is fifth, 47 points out. Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon is sixth, 69 points behind the leader followed by Rossi (75 points out), Rosenqvist (90 back of the leader), McLaughlin (94 points behind) and Pagenaud (96 out). There are 11 drivers within 100 points of the championship lead.

Colton Herta is 11 th , 97 points out. Although Newgarden has the most wins, the biggest winner is Ericsson because he won the biggest race of them all – the Indianapolis 500. Now, the driver from Sweden has to focus on the championship.

“It’s so competitive in the series at the moment,” Ericsson said. “Any given weekend can be a new winner. It’s hard to be even in the top 10 if you don’t get everything right.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 31: Winner of the Indy 500 Marcus Ericsson and Iris Tritsaris Jondahl visit . . .

[+] the Empire State Building on May 31, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust) Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust “I think it’s going to be a tough season, a long season. We put ourselves in a really good position now, leading.

So, we just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. The last 12 months we were the top scorer in the championship. I think that says something about where we’ve been performing since Detroit actually last year, it was actually 12 months ago.

“I think we’re in a strong position, but it’s going to require a lot of hard work, keep doing what we’ve been doing. ” From a business standpoint, IndyCar seems to be on an upward trajectory. According to statistics provided by NBC, the NTT IndyCar Series viewership is off to its best start since 2017 across NBC Sports.

IndyCar is averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1. 721 million viewers across NBC Sports platforms (NBC, Peacock, USA Network) this season, making it the most-watched start to a season through the first eight races since 2017 (1. 760 million; ABC/NBCSN).

The beginning of the 2022 season is also up percent from last year’s comparable coverage (1. 634 million; NBC/NBCSN). With its Peacock streaming platform, 2022 ranks as the most-streamed INDY INDY CAR season on record with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 60,900 viewers.

Last month’s 106 th Running of the Indianapolis 500 was the most-streamed INDYCAR race ever with an AMA of 218,800 viewers. The AMA also includes streaming on NBCSports. com and the NBC Sports app via authentication.

The June 12 Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America averaged a TAD of 1. 110 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, making it the most-watched edition of the race since 2019 (1. 110 million; NBC).

Viewership for Newgarden’s third win of the season last Sunday peaked with a TV-only audience of 1. 279 million viewers and averaged a household rating of 0. 69.

TAD is based on data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. It’s coverage of the 106 th Indianapolis 500, however, was down from 2021. NBC’s broadcast coverage of the Indy 500 averaged a 2.

69 Nielsen rating and 4. 618 million viewers. That’s down from a 3.

15/5. 547m last year. However, according to NBC, this year’s Indianapolis 500 telecast was the largest single-day sporting event on the network since the Super Bowl and Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

It was still the most watched motorsports telecast of the day, with higher ratings and more viewership than Formula One’s Grand Prix of Monaco on ABC and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 on FOX. NBC’s Mike Tirico and Danica Patrick at the 106th Indianapolis 500 on May 29, 2022 INDYCAR Photo Follow me on Twitter . Check out my website .

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