IndyCar News

The 12th annual Phil Casey Indy Racing Golf Tournament will take place Monday, Oct. 16, at the Tour 18 Golf Course in Fort Worth, Texas, the day after the Indy Racing League's season-ending Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"There have been a lot of thoughts going through my mind, a lot of things in the past couple months. I've been thinking a lot about my life, my career. I've been training really hard in order to keep my physical fitness up, even if it's very difficult because you're not in a car.

Dario Franchitti holds half the rights to the track qualifying mark at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With a time of 124.394 mph (65.347 seconds) in 1999, Franchitti joins Gil de Ferran (2000) as co-owner of the record around the 2.258-mile permanent road course.

Fernandez Racing has announced that Max Papis will replace owner/driver Adrian Fernandez at the CART Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio on August 11.

Ozzie Smith, the St. Louis Cardinals' newest member of Baseball's Hall of Fame, will serve as the Grand Marshal at the Gateway Indy 250 at Gateway International Raceway later this month.

Vitor Meira, the 2000 South American Formula 3 champion, passed the speed phase of his Indy Racing League rookie test last week at Kentucky Speedway in what could be the first laps of a longer relationship between team and driver.

A gearbox problem ended a solid debut performance by Visteon/Patrick Racing driver Oriol Servia in Sunday's Molson Indy Vancouver leaving the Spaniard a disappointed 14th in the final standings.

Once again Felipe Giaffone came within a whisker of his maiden Indy Racing League victory as he drove to a third place finish in Sunday's superb Michigan Indy 400.

CART FedEx Championship Series veteran Adrian Fernandez is wasting no time in recovering from the injuries suffered in Sunday's Molson Indy Vancouver, as he went through his first full day of rehabilitation therapy in Indianapolis on Tuesday.

Ray Parsons of Parsons Motorsports Marketing's health has taken an unexpected turn for the worse, causing him to put everything on hold for the remainder of the 2002 Indy Racing League season on Tuesday and leaving popular driver Robby McGehee without a ride.

"We had a great car. We had no problems this weekend. I don't think they should have called the race. It had already been raining for 10 laps or more. To finish the race like that, it really is a bummer. I wish they would have waited." - Aaron Fike

Scotsman Dario Franchitti dedicated his Molson Indy Vancouver triumph to his late friend Greg Moore and then vowed to 'have a good time' in his memory with fellow podium finishers Paul Tracy and Tony Kanaan.

While their far more illustrious namesakes were struggling in the main Indy Racing League event this weekend at Michigan International Speedway, the next single-seater racing generation of the Luyendyk and Foyt clan's were continuing to build their reputations.

"The cars are quite easy to drive around here with the downforce that we have. So from that point, it's not hard to get back in and get back up (to speed). After a few laps in practice yesterday, I was flat out, but we just didn't have the horsepower in that engine. We changed engines overnight.

A.J. Foyt IV topped the speed chart after both practice sessions for the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series on July 26 at Michigan International Speedway, recording a top lap of 39.8217 seconds, 180.806 mph.

With the resignation of David Bowes, who has held the post of Managing Director at Lola Cars for the past four years, Chairman Martin Birrane moved to put in place new management structure for the chassis design and manufacturing firm. Bowes' departure is effective the end of August.

As preparations continue for this weekend's Indy Racing League debut at Michigan International Speedway, no one is more excited about the event than a group of 25 youngsters from Mott Children's Hospital in Detroit.

Buddy Rice, the latest rapid rookie at Red Bull Cheever Racing, led the opening day of practice for the Michigan Indy 400 as the Cheever team swept the top three spots on the speed chart.

This season's return of the CART FedEx Championship Series to Denver received a boost on Thursday when long-time series partner Shell Oil announced that it would stand as the title sponsor of the 1 September event, to be known as the Shell Grand Prix of Denver.

Sports-car standout and U.S. F2000 veteran Ryan Hampton will make his Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series debut this Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Hampton will drive the No. 34 Ryan Hampton/CGF Special Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone.

Championship Indy Racing League team owner Ron Hemelgarn will return to the two-mile Michigan International Speedway with the Indy Racing League this weekend. The inaugural Michigan Indy 400 will mark Hemelgarn's first appearance at the historical oval in a decade.

The opening day of Indy Racing League action at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway was not blessed with fine weather but the rains held off long enough to allow the IRL contenders virtually a full practice session which saw Red Bull Team Cheever take an amazing 1-2-3.

In his debut Indy Racing League appearance, 2000 Toyota Atlantic Champion Buddy Rice sensationally topped the timesheets after the first day of practice for Sunday's Michigan Indy 400 as Eddie Cheever's Red Bull squad dominated proceedings.

Two of the leading junior Canadian drivers - Jonathan Macri of P-1 Racing and Barber Dodge's Josh Beaulieu - spoke to CART ahead of this weekend's 'home' race in Vancouver, where both will be present in support the CART FedEx Championship on the Concorde Pacific Place street circuit.