KV Racing Technology

All posts tagged KV Racing Technology

This weekend, the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season will wrap up in dramatic fashion in Las Vegas. There are so many storylines entering this final race of the season, with all of the changes coming after Sunday’s race.

Tony Kanaan won his first Pole of the season today, the 15th of his career. Oriol Servia will start beside him on the front row. He is the seventh different Pole winner this year. Five different teams are represented in the top 5, and eight in the top 10.

For the 12th time in the past 16 years, the Championship winner will be determined during the final race of the season. Once again it will come down to Dario Franchitti for Chip Ganassi, and Will Power for Roger Penske. Franchitti holds an 18 point lead heading into Las Vegas.

Dario is looking to win his third Championship in a row this weekend. Power will be looking to finally win his first, and the first for Penske since Sam Hornish won it in 2006. Both of these drivers have won their fair share of Pole Awards this year, yet they will both be starting from row nine on Sunday.

Another battle that will play out on Sunday is the Rookie of the Year award between James Hinchcliffe and JR Hildebrand. He currently sits just six points ahead of Hinchcliffe, although James missed the first race of the season.

Dan Wheldon will of course be trying to win the $5 million challenge in Las Vegas. Although he won the Indianapolis 500 in dramatic fashion this year, this might be even tougher. He will be driving Alex Tagliani’s number 77 machine, and will have to start from the end of the field, back in 34th position.

This will be the final race for Danica Patrick in the IZOD IndyCar Series, where she really made a name for herself. It is well documented that she only has one win, which she won on fuel strategy. Even though she may come back to try her hand at Indianapolis, this could be the last time we ever see her in an open-wheel car.

Not only will this be the final race for Danica, but it will also be the final race for the current IndyCar machines. When they take the green flag on Sunday, it will be the last time they ever see the track. The new concept car will be thrust into the sport beginning next year.

Helio Castroneves will be trying to keep an eleven-year streak alive on Sunday. He has won at least one race every year since 2000. This is his final shot at getting a win to extend it into next season.

We have had one of the most memorable finishes in Indy 500 history, heated rivalries, many new faces in victory lane, and many other surprises along the way. This season has been very special, and it will all conclude this Sunday. One driver will leave with bitter disappointment, while the other hoists the Championship trophy.

Will Power dominated yet another race on Sunday, putting him one step closer to the Championship. With his sixth win of the season, he now trails Franchitti by just five points with just three races remaining.

Power crushed the competition in the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. His margin of victory over second place Oriol Servia, was ten seconds. After winning the race from Pole position last weekend, he did the same in Baltimore, which has set up another great battle for the Championship as we enter the final races.

Joining Power and Servia on the podium was Tony Kanaan. Ganassi teammates Franchitti and Dixon rounded out the top five. There were a few drivers that had cars capable of finishing in the top five, but ended up further back in the pack.

Graham Rahal had arguably the second-best car in the field, but the fuel strategy they ran ended up biting them as he came home in 10th. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ryan Briscoe were running in fourth and fifth, when Briscoe made a bad move trying to go under Hunter-Reay in turn three. That move on lap 38 not only took both of them out of contention, but also caused a 12-car pile up.

Briscoe was given a drive through penalty. These two had some issues at Barber earlier in the year, when Hunter-Reay took out Briscoe while running up front. Briscoe claimed that Hunter-Reay was blocking him, but the Andretti Autosport driver didn’t agree with that assessment.

What started out as an incredibly scary day for Tony Kanaan, ended up with a podium finish. In the early morning practice, Kanaan lost his brakes going more than 170mph heading into turn one. Luckily for Kanaan, Castroneves was just ahead of him, and crashing into the right side of him, actually saved his life. Tony started at the back of the field, and passed 24 cars on the way to a third place finish.

The inaugural race in Baltimore was a huge success. The fans came out in masses to attend the event, and the drivers praised them all weekend long. The circuit was bumpy and extremely challenging for the drivers. Power said that it was the most demanding race he has ever driven.

The next race on the schedule is a particularly interesting one. The Indy Japan 300 has always been run on the oval track, but due to the earthquake in the area earlier this year, they will be running on the road course at Motegi. This likely gives the Penske team (especially Power) a big break, as they struggled on the oval there last year.

Power has two more wins and five more poles than Franchitti on the season. While Dario has led more laps than the Penske driver, Power has earned more bonus points throughout the year. With Scott Dixon sitting 77 points back in the standings, it appears that the final three races will determine this year’s Championship, between Franchitti and Power.

On Saturday Scott Dixon won his first Pole Award of the season. Today he followed that up with his first win of 2011.

Dixon clearly had the best car all weekend, as he started on the pole and led 50 of the 85 laps in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. His teammate Dario Franchitti was six seconds behind, giving Target/Chip Ganassi another one-two finish on the year.

Ryan Hunter-Reay got a podium finish, coming across in third place, while KV Racing teammates Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top five.

It was a rough day for Team Penske, especially Will Power who came home in 16th position. All three of the team cars were running up front for most of the race, but they had an unlucky break during a caution when they tried to pit. They went to the back, and couldn’t get around all of the traffic.

Power has finished 14th or worse in three of the past four races. He now trails Dario Franchitti by 62 points heading into next weekend’s race at New Hampshire. Dixon trails by 93 points.

It was also a frustrating day for hometown kid Graham Rahal. Graham had trouble on his first pit stop, then made contact with Danica Patrick, sending him spinning off the course.

In the five IndyCar races here at Mid-Ohio, Scott Dixon has now won three of them.

With more oval races coming up on the schedule, it looks like the championship could be Dario’s to lose. Power is slightly better on the road and street courses, while Dario is a bit better on the ovals.

Next Sunday’s MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 from Loudon, New Hampshire is set for 3:30 pm, and can be seen on ABC.

For the second consecutive race, the IndyCar Series was in Canada, with all eyes on the championship contenders. Will Power and Dario Franchitti got together again, but this time it was after the race, as they both celebrated on the podium.

While everyone was watching Franchitti and Power’s every move, Takuma Sato went out on Saturday and won the pole for Sunday’s race in Edmonton.

Sato led the first 18 laps of the race, in what was a great run for KV Racing. All three of the Lotus cars were running in the top ten. On lap 19, Power was able to get under Sato to take the lead, and the Ganassi cars followed. Scott Dixon and Franchitti both were able to follow Power, putting Sato back into fourth.

It was a rough start for two of the three Canadian drivers, and Graham Rahal. Surprisingly, all 26 cars made it through turn one without any contact, but soon after, Alex Tagliani pressed hard going into turn five, and locked up his wheels. He slid into the back of Rahal, cutting his left-rear tire. Rahal eventually spun off the track, and came back on directly into the path of Paul Tracy.

Both Rahal and Tracy were out of the race on the first lap, and Tagliani had to serve a drive through penalty, although he was already set to restart in the back of the field after changing his damaged wing.

On lap 25, Oriol Servia got put into the tire barrier after Mike Conway attempted to make a pass. Conway got under him, but there really wasn’t much room to make a pass. Servia had just made his first pit stop of the race. Conway was given a drive through penalty.

On the restart, Dixon had problems when he and EJ Viso got together. Dixon’s car was smoking, and he brought his car into pit lane. The team discovered the problem was with the radiator, and he had to go behind the wall for the repair. He finished the race in 23rd, and is now more than 100 points behind in the championship.

Once again turn five was the center of attention on lap 39, when Ryan Hunter-Reay got into pole sitter Takuma Sato. Both drivers were running in the top five, but Sato fell back into 19th position. Ryan was given a drive through penalty, which put him back into 13th position.

Alex Tagliani came into pit on lap 49, which gave the top three positions in the race to team Penske. The team has had quite an up and down season, but they all looked good in Edmonton.

Dario got by Briscoe as the final pit stops cycled through, and both he and Castroneves closed the gap on race leader Power. These three separated themselves from the rest of the field, and it was a three-car shootout from there on.

Power was able to fend off his teammate to win the race, and Franchitti settled for third. Tony Kanaan finished in fourth after Briscoe had to come in on the final lap for fuel. Justin Wilson had a solid day as he rounded out the top five.

Will led 58 of the 80 laps on Sunday, which was his fourth win of the 2011 season.

Power was able to make up a few points on Dario in the championship as they head to Mid-Ohio for the next race on August 7th. The gap between the two now is just 38 points, with seven races remaining.

Defending race winner and Championship contender Will Power couldn’t have been happier when today’s race at Toronto began. Unfortunately for him, the day went downhill from there.

Power started the race from Pole position, and led 32 laps on the day. Late in the race, Dario Franchitti got on the inside of Will Power, and spun him out. Originally, Dario was given a drive through penalty, which was retracted just a few minutes later.

After the race though, IndyCar officials claimed that there never was a penalty issued to Dario.
As if that weren’t enough to make Team Penske’s blood boil, Alex Tagliani then spun Power out a few laps later. Will was able to make it back to pit lane, but his car was too badly damaged to repair.
This is the second straight race that Will Power ended with a DNF.

While Franchitti won the race, his teammate Scott Dixon was right behind him in second, and Ryan Hunter-Reay joined them on the podium with a third place finish. Marco Andretti and Vitor Meira rounded out the top five.

While Franchitti won his fourth race of the season, it was the fourth runner-up finish for Dixon.
Power finished the race in 24th position, while Dario went on to win the race. Without being given the drive through penalty, Franchitti now has a 55 point lead in the standings heading into the next race at Edmonton, Alberta.

The old saying goes “cautions breed cautions”, and that couldn’t have been more true of today’s race. It was a mess out there, especially in the hairpin turns, which could easily be blamed on the double file restarts.

All three Penske cars and all four Andretti Autosport cars made contact with other cars at some point on the day.

Naturally, drivers were frustrated after the race, most of them for good reason. After Power climbed out of his car, he expressed his displeasure with Franchitti and the penalty that was retracted for taking him out.

In an interview on Versus, he said that “Dario never gets penalized” and that it was a “dirty move” that Dario used to take him out. When then asked about the contact with Tagliani, Power just called him a “wanker” and left it at that.

With five laps remaining in the race, Ryan Hunter-Reay made contact with Graham Rahal, who was running in second place at the time. Ryan went by as Rahal was spun around and lost 11 positions, finishing in 13th.

Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Briscoe, JR Hildebrand, EJ Viso, and Simona de Silvestro rounded out the top ten finishers. Ana Beatriz, Oriol Servia, and Rahal were the last cars to finish on the lead lap. It wasn’t a good day for the home town drivers either, as Hinchcliffe finished in 14th, Tracy in 16th, and Tagliani in 23rd position.

The series will now have two weeks off before the next event. The teams and cars will head to Edmonton City Centre Airport for the next race on Sunday, July 24th.

The IZOD IndyCar Series hit the streets of Toronto today to qualify for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto race.

Will Power did exactly what everyone thought he would; winning the Pole Award for the event in Toronto. He won the race here last year, and is the obvious favorite heading into the weekend. This is the fifth pole for Power this season.

The Firestone Fast Six consisted of Oriol Servia, Graham Rahal, Mike Conway, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Will Power.

Power has swept the pole in the five road/street course races this season, and extended his streak to eight over two seasons. Dixon was the closest threat to him, and he will start on the outside of row one. Row two will consist of Franchitti and Conway, while the third row belongs to Rahal and Servia.

Sebastien Bourdais, the 2004 Toronto race winner and a three-time pole sitter, will share row four with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Alex Tagliani and Ryan Briscoe round out the top ten starters.

KV Racing seemed to struggle on the streets, with Tony Kanaan starting in 16th position; best of the three green cars. EJ Viso will start in 18th, and Takuma Sato will roll off 19th.

Toronto native James Hinchcliffe missed on advancing to the second round of qualifying by 0.0250 of a second, and will start in 13th position.

Sunday’s 85 lap race on the 1.755 mile, 11 turn circuit is set to begin at 2pm.

The Iowa Speedway was looking good under the lights on Saturday night, primed for another intense battle of side-by-side racing. It did not disappoint.

Marco Andretti finally got to victory lane on an oval track. He had a great battle with former teammate Tony Kanaan towards the end of the race. The Iowa Corn Indy 250 was the second win for Marco. His first and only win was 79 races ago, back in 2006 at Infineon Raceway.

Perhaps no team needed a win more than Andretti Autosport. Their struggles at Indianapolis have been well documented, and they haven’t had a good showing overall since Mike Conway’s win at Long Beach early in the year.

The race was a big punch in the gut for Will Power and Team Penske as far as the Championship standings go. During the first round of pit stops, Power’s team finished their services and sent him out, right into the path of Charlie Kimball. The two came together, and Power’s car was severely damaged.

While he was able to repair the nose of the car, it was not handling the way they needed it to, and he ended up spinning out on his own on lap 90, giving him a DNF and a 21st place finish. He suffered a mild concussion in the wreck, and (per IndyCar rules) will have to take the IMPACT test and be re-evaluated and cleared before he can race at Toronto in two weeks.

Power took a big hit in the standings as Dario Franchitti finished in fifth place. They were tied for the lead coming into tonight’s race. Dario now has a 20 point advantage heading into Toronto.

While Franchitti dominated the early part of the race (led 172 of 250 laps), the second half belonged to former teammates Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan. They exchanged the lead multiple times in the final 50 laps.

Kanaan (last year’s winner) came home in second, and Scott Dixon joined them on the podium, finishing third after starting in 23rd. JR Hildebrand and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top five.

Ryan Briscoe had a good night, finishing in sixth, while teammate Helio Castroneves rebounded from an early tire problem to finish behind him in seventh. Ryan Hunter-Reay came home in eight place, while rookie James Hinchcliffe wound up ninth. Danica Patrick, who started in second, finished in the tenth position.

The series will now have a week off before the next race on the schedule, which is set for July 10 in Toronto, Ontario. After completing the fifth straight oval race, the drivers and teams will now shift back to the road/street courses. Starting with the race in Toronto, six of the next seven races are on road/street venues.

The only three ovals that remain are New Hampshire (August 14), Kentucky (October 2), and the season-ending race in Las Vegas on October 16. That should be music to the ears of Will Power and his team, as the driver will look to make up for the points he gave away tonight.

The focus of the night though should belong to Marco Andretti, who definitely deserved it tonight.

For the better part of the past decade, the IndyCar Series has been dominated by three teams. While Andretti Autosport seems to be on the decline, there are two teams ready to step up and challenge Ganassi and Penske.

This season was supposed to be the year where Michael Andretti’s four drivers made a run at the “red and black” cars. Danica Patrick in a contract year has something to prove. Marco Andretti ready to prove that he is more than just a last name. Ryan Hunter-Reay was supposed to become the vocal leader of the team, and Mike Conway was the fresh face that was ready to make the ultimate comeback after last season’s crash at Indy.

This supposed to be their year to make a statement. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them.
We are now eight races into the 2011 IZOD IndyCar season, and of the four Andretti Autosport cars, only one of them can be found inside the top ten of the championship standings. Danica Patrick climbed into the tenth position after last week’s fifth place finish at Milwaukee.

Marco finds himself in 12th, while Conway sits in 14th, despite winning the race in Long Beach earlier this year. Missing out on the Indianapolis 500 really bit him in the rear. The biggest disappointment though has to be RHR, who is all the way back in 21st position in the standings.

In eight starts this year, Hunter-Reay has just one top ten finish, and has led a total of two laps. More importantly, he has three DNFs.

With the struggles of Andretti Autosport, has it become a Penske and Ganassi battle once again? Some would say yes, but there are two other teams you should watch out for.

The KV Racing Technology trio of Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato, and EJ Viso has been quite a story this year. Not only has Kanaan lit a fire under the entire team, but he is also learning on the job from Sato. The knowledge that Sato has of the cars from his days in Formula 1 have gone a long way in teaching Tony about his car.

Despite crashing in four of the first eight races, EJ Viso has shown some potential throughout the season. He finished in the top ten in both races at Texas, and was running in the top five most of the day at Milwaukee, when he lost control of his machine.

Right now Sato sits in ninth place in the standings, with Kanaan in sixth. Had Tony held on to his car towards the end of that race, he may very well have gotten the win, and put himself in the top four in the championship.

Sato has four top ten finishes this year, including two top fives. He has led 23 laps on the season, and has just one DNF. Kanaan also has just one DNF (last weekend at Milwaukee) to go along with his five top ten finishes, three top five finishes, and his unofficial Pole award at Texas.

Then you have the two boys from Newman Haas Racing. The perfect blend of youth and a savvy veteran. James Hinchcliffe has seven starts on the year since he missed the first race of the season, yet he has three top ten finishes to go along with a top five performance.

Despite missing that first race, he is 16th in the standings, just 13 points behind Helio Castroneves. His teammate Oriol Servia currently sits in third place in the overall championship standings.

Servia trails both Power and Franchitti by 73 points, as the two are tied for the lead going into Iowa this weekend. Oriol has finished every race this season, and has six top ten finishes to go along with three top five results. He has led 18 laps on the year, which took place at Indianapolis where he qualified on the front row.

While none of the drivers with KV Racing or Newman Haas have won a race or dominated the field the way Franchitti and Power have, they have certainly out-performed all of the Andretti Autosport cars this year. Don’t be surprised to see one, two, or even three of these drivers get a win before this season is finished.

Dario Franchitti was extremely upset after the second race at Texas last weekend. Today he certainly made up for it, winning at Milwaukee from the pole.

The win ties Dario with Rick Mears for ninth all-time on the wins list. Just as important, he tied Will Power for the top spot in the series championship standings. Entering this weekend, Dario trailed Power by 21 points.

The race got off to a slow start, as Ryan Hunter-Reay lost control of his loose race car going into the first turn just after the green flag was waived. The second caution came out just before teams were getting ready to make green flag pit stops. Ana Beatriz barely brushed the wall, but the real action was on pit lane afterwards.

Takuma Sato ran into both Scott Dixon and his own crew member coming into his pit box. Sato was given a penalty, which really set the tone for the rest of the day for KV Racing.

Dario led the first 115 laps of the race before Tony Kanaan took over the lead on lap 116. Kanaan went on to lead 31 laps in the race. Power caught a big break, as he was about to be put one lap down by the leader, but JR Hildebrand smacked the wall in turn four to bring out a caution.

EJ Viso had been running near the top five for most of the race, before he lost control of his KV Racing car with about 60 laps remaining. We are seven races into the season, and today marked the fourth DNF for Viso on the year.

Helio Castroneves made his way towards the front, taking the lead for 33 laps. He had a left rear tire going down, and the crew was deciding whether or not they should come in. Everyone in the field had enough fuel to make it to the end.

Unfortunately, about that time, Kanaan lost control of his car coming out of turn four. He said he was pushing too hard to try to catch Castroneves. He spun and hit the outside wall hard, ending his day.

What started off as a great day for KV Racing Technology, ended on a sour note. All three cars qualified in the fourth, fifth, and sixth positions for this race, led by Kanaan. Both he and Viso were running well before they lost control and took themselves out of the race. Sato recovered from his penalty, and came home in seventh.

Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia had relatively quiet days, but both joined Dario on the podium. Rahal’s second place finish was the second one this year for him, and his third overall this season.

Will Power recovered from a disastrous 17th place starting position to finish in fourth, and Danica Patrick scored her first top five finish of the season. She seemed to be the only bright spot for Andretti Autosport today though. Conway and Andretti finished 12th and 13th respectively, and Hunter-Reay crashed on the first lap.

James Hinchcliffe, Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato, Helio Castroneves, and Justin Wilson rounded out the top ten. The third place and sixth place finishes for Newman Haas were very good, but not surprising. Both drivers have run well at every track this season, and Servia has actually taken back third place in the points standings following today’s race.

While some will say that the racing Gods made sure Franchitti was taken care of this weekend, the only thing that matters now is that he and Power are now tied for the championship lead, heading into the next race, Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.

This Sunday’s Milwaukee 225 will mark the return of the IndyCar Series to the famous Milwaukee Mile.

The track is the oldest track in the world that is still used today. The first race of any kind was back in 1903 when it was a simple dirt track. It was paved in 1954 and has been used by many different types of cars. The first time that IndyCars took to the famous oval was in the summer of 1937.

The interesting question heading into the race is, who is the favorite to win?

There are plenty of choices for this answer, and many of them would be hard to argue against. Of course you will always have the “big five” right near the top each weekend, but there are others they are going to have to battle at Milwaukee.

Tony Kanaan has been lightning quick at Milwaukee. In his last six races here, he has two wins, a third and a fourth place finish. The other one was in 2009 when he started in third, but finished in 19th after completing only 132 laps. He wasn’t quite himself in that race, though.

The Brazilian was black and blue before that race, after his broken suspension sent his car into the concrete wall during the Indianapolis 500. He took one hard hit, then with no steering or brakes, slammed into the wall again at more than 180 mph.

While Helio Castroneves has struggled here over the years, his teammate Ryan Briscoe has given Roger Penske some success. In 2008 he won the race, and after winning the pole the next year, he finished second.

Will Power has had only one race here, but he is a completely different driver now. We saw last weekend that he can fly around these ovals. He is the points leader and winner of the last event, which makes him a strong contender.

Scott Dixon is not just the defending winner of this race. In the last three races here, he has never started worse than fourth. In addition to his win in 2009, he has second and fourth place finishes here. On Saturday night he finished in second place twice, behind his teammate in the first race and behind Power in the second race. He is ready to break through.

The other Target/Chip Ganassi driver isn’t so bad either. The defending series champion has never finished worse than sixth in his last five races here. In those five events, he has finished first, second (twice), third and sixth. Winning at Texas last weekend was nice, but he lost some valuable points to Power in the championship, and he will look to make up for it at Milwaukee.

Other drivers outside of the “big five” have run well here too. Vitor Meira has three top-10 finishes here, including two top-fives. In two races here, Graham Rahal has qualified in second twice and finished in fourth in 2009.

Oriol Servia finished in sixth place in his only race here in 2008. Alex Tagliani is someone that you know will be up front and put himself in position to win.

While the talent does extend a bit further than the “big five,” it is hard to confidently say one of them will be the favorite this weekend. If I was forced to pick a favorite, I would probably go with Dario, but I have a strong hunch that Ryan Briscoe will get the job done on Sunday.

Open Wheel America

Premier coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series

KV Racing Technology

All posts tagged KV Racing Technology

Las Vegas Closes Season With A Bang

Power Dominates at Baltimore, Championship Lead Cut to Five Points

Dixon Dominates at Mid-Ohio, Will Power Loses Ground in Championship

Power Fends Off Helio and Dario to Win at Edmonton

Franchitti Spins Power, Goes on to Win Honda Indy Toronto

Will Power Claims Fifth Pole of the Season at Toronto

Marco Andretti Snaps Winless Streak at Iowa, Will Power Finds Trouble

Have Newman Haas and KV Racing Surpassed Andretti Autosport?

Franchitti Dominates in Return to Milwaukee Mile

Who Is The Favorite Heading Into Milwaukee Mile?

Donate

Archives

Authors

Similar Blogs

2012 Indianapolis 500

Follow “Open Wheel America”