OCTOBER 5, 2016

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)
Josef Newgarden, shown here with his girlfriend prior to the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship Celebration, is joining Team Penske for the 2017 season to drive No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Newgarden, the 2011 Indy Lights champion, spent his entire Verizon IndyCar Series career with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing following a merger of the two teams in 2015. That 2015 season was a breakout campaign for Newgarden, who won at Barber Motorsports Park and on the streets of Toronto to finish seventh in the championship. This year, the 25-year-old overcame a fractured right clavicle and right hand suffered in a massive crash at Texas Motor Speedway to dominate the Iowa Speedway race - leading 282 of the 300 laps in winning. "When you look at the top talent in the series, both from a driving and commercial perspective, Josef is near the top of the list," said Roger Penske. "We are always looking to build toward the future and, when we had the opportunity to talk with Josef, we knew that he would be a great fit with our program. He is a fantastic driver on the track and will be great with our partners off the track. He is hungry to win more races and win championships and we hope to give him that opportunity as part of our team." Newgarden, from Hendersonville, Tenn., finished the 2016 season with four podiums and 11 top-10 finishes. He has made 83 starts in his five-season career, not missing a race after sustaining the injuries at Texas in June. "For any open-wheel racer - or any race car driver in general - Team Penske is a dream job," Newgarden said. "Roger Penske is a legend in the motorsports community and his team has done just about everything they've ever set out to do. I look forward to working with all of Team Penske's great partners. To get an opportunity to work with Simon, Will and Helio, along with the rest of the team, will just help make me a better driver." Celebrating its 50th anniversary of racing in 2016, Team Penske swept the top three spots in the championship for the first time since 1994, when it accomplished the same feat with Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. During the course of the 2016 season, Team Penske earned 10 wins - five for Pagenaud, four for Power and one for Juan Pablo Montoya - 11 poles and 22 podium finishes. The team led 811 of the total 2,070 laps (39 percent) over the course of the season. Montoya is moving on after a successful return to Indy car racing with Penske.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Olivier Pla (No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Curb Records/AERO Honda Ligier JS P2, co-driven by Ozz Negri and John Pew) held off Pipo Derani (No. 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Honda Ligier JS P2 co-driven by Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek) in a battle of Honda-powered Ligiers to win overall in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. The No. 60 machine led 230 of the 412 laps in their second victory of the season. Pla beat Derani to the checkered flag by 3.524 seconds after 10 hours of competition. “It was a dream weekend from the beginning,” said Pla, who won his second TOTAL Pole Award in Friday’s qualifying session. “I had a really good feeling and sometimes it works. I always go for it, but I really wanted this one.” “I was catching him a little bit at the end, but unfortunately there were a few GT cars between us at the restart,” said Derani. “It was a great result for Ligier. We couldn’t do it this time, but congratulations to Ollie (Pla) and his team.” To celebrate its 250th Prototype race, Michael Shank Racing featured a red, white and blue livery on the No. 60 and invited spectators from the crowd to autograph the race car during the pre-race grid walk. Brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, joined by Max Angelelli (No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype) finished third in the final appearance of the Daytona Prototype in IMSA competition. Editor-In-Chief's Note: See all of John Thawley's sensational images from Road Atlanta here. -PMD

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Dane Cameron and Eric Curran (No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Corvette DP, joined by 2016 IndyCar Champion Simon Pagenaud) captured the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the Prototype class with a fourth-place finish. “It felt like a real fight the whole year,” said Cameron. "This is a very stressful race, there are a lot of things that go wrong.”
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and James Calado (No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE) finally delivered their first victory of the season in the GTLM class in last Saturday's 10-hour Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, the final race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Fisichella took the lead for the final time with just under 30 minutes remaining when Dirk Mueller (No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, co-driven by Joey Hand and Sebastian Bourdais) came in for a pit stop. Mueller finished 15.618 seconds behind Fisichella. It was the Risi team’s first WeatherTech Championship race victory since VIRginia International Raceway in 2014. It was Fisichella’s third victory in WeatherTech Championship competition, but the first for both Vilander and Calado. It also was the first GTLM victory of the season for Ferrari. The No. 62 team also won the DEKRA Green Award. The award recognizes the cleanest, fastest and most efficient team in the GTLM class in each race through a scoring system developed in a partnership between IMSA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and SAE International.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin (No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, with Marcel Fassler) captured their first WeatherTech Championship GTLM title by finishing third at Road Atlanta. The No. 4 Corvette team picked up its seventh podium result of the 11-race season to sweep WeatherTech Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup drivers’ titles for Milner and Gavin, team championships for Corvette Racing and manufacturer championships for Chevrolet. “Every year, this class somehow gets more competitive,” Milner said. “This year was even that much more so. Ford came in with a great car, great drivers, and pushed us to the end. A good example of the guys who keep pushing was the Risi guys; they got the win and you could see the relief on their faces. That shows how much it means to get a win in this class. This whole year, we can think about all the good memories and moments we had. I’m proud to be a part of this team and represent Chevy and Corvette. It’s exactly what a driver wants in a car, is a chance to win. It’s good to see all those efforts were rewarded this year.”
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
As it is with every IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, the battle in GTLM at Petit Le Mans was the highlight of the weekend. Peter will have more to say about it in this week's Fumes.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Though GTLM championship contenders Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon (No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT) encountered problems during Petit Le Mans, including a broken turbo waste gate pipe, the No. 66 team car driven by Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand and Sebatian Bourdais finished a fine second in class on Saturday night.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Marc Miller (No. 33 ViperExchange.com/Cruising with the Monkey Dodge Viper GT3-R) won the GTD class at Petit Le Mans in the final WeatherTech Championship race for the Dodge Viper. Bleekemolen – who earned the TOTAL Pole Award in qualifying on Friday – originally crossed the finish line behind Andy Lally (No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3), but the No. 44 car was moved to last place in the GTD class as John Potter, who was paired with Lally for the full season, did not meet the three-hour drive-time requirement for a Bronze- or Silver-rated driver in the Pro-Am class. Patrick Lindsey, Joerg Bergmeister and Matt McMurry teamed up to finish second in the No. 73 Park Place Porsche/Justice Brothers Inc. Porsche 911 GT3 R. Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Segal (No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3) finished third. Nielsen and Balzan wrapped up GTD championships for themselves and the Scuderia Corsa team with their seventh podium result of the season. Nielsen became the first woman to win a major, full-season professional sports car championship in North America, while Balzan picked up his second title, having also won the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT championship in 2013. It was the second consecutive GTD title for Scuderia Corsa, which won last year with drivers Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler. Audi claimed the GTD manufacturers’ championship.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Audi won its first IMSA WeatherTech Manufacturer’s Championship in the GTD category; the Audi R8 LMS won the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup Manufacturer’s Championship in its debut year; and the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS driven by John Potter, Marco Seefried and Andy Lally grabbed significant points with a strong performance at Road Atlanta to win the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup (TPNAEC) Team Championship in the GTD class. Magnus Racing and Stevenson Motorsports contributed greatly to help Audi's effort in 2016.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Robert Alon, Tom Kimber-Smith and Jose Gutierrez (No. 52 PRI/Mathiasen Motorsports Prisma/Professional Security Consultants/Westfield ORECA FLM09) combined to lead all but 65 of the 404 circuits to win the Prototype Challenge class, the team's third victory of the season. “It’s great to end the season with a win,” Kimber-Smith said. “We’ve been consistently strong this season, we just had some bad luck at a couple of circuits. My teammate’s stints (Alon) were really impressive, he set the fastest lap of the race in our car. It’s amazing at how much he’s progressed in the last nine months.” James French, Kyle Marcelli and Kenton Koch (No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/ Children’s Miracle Network/NeuroSpine Institute ORECA FLM09) finished second. French needed a late pit stop for a splash of fuel with six minutes remaining, putting him 51 seconds behind the winners. Misha Goikhberg, Stephen Simpson and Chris Miller (No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports LaModerna/Hi-Tide Boat Lifts/Red Line Oil FLM09) finished third.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande (No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09) retired with less than two hours remaining due to brake problems, but their sixth-place finish was good enough to tie the race winners in the final standings with 355 points each. For the tiebreaker, the Starworks drivers took the championship due to winning four races. “It’s a sweet and sour feeling, because we wanted to win the race,” Popow said. “But a championship is a championship. It’s amazing for what we’ve done all year. We’ve fought a lot up until now. We won it this way, but racing is what it is.” For consolation, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and drivers Alon, Kimber-Smith and Jose Gutierrez took the championship in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, winning the team title while edging Kenton Koch for the driver’s title by one point. All champions were honored on Monday during the WeatherTech Night of Champions at Chateau Élan Resort and Winery in Braselton, Georgia.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Winning three of the four longest races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship carried Honda to the coveted manufacturer’s championship in the 2016 Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. Ed Brown, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Pipo Derani opened the year with back-to-back victories in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida in the No. 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Honda Ligier JS P2, and then finished second in Saturday’s season-ending Petit Le Mans Presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Casino behind the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Curb Records/AERO Honda Ligier JS P2 of Ozz Negri, John Pew and Olivier Pla. Winning the opening four-hour segment of Saturday’s finale enabled Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype to clinch their third consecutive Patrón Endurance Cup driver and team titles. The team won Round 3, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
(Ford Performance)
Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell (No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C) delivered their sixth win in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport class this year in the Road Atlanta 150 last Friday. The duo clinched the manufacturers’ championship for Ford in the process. Maxwell put the No. 15 on pole on Thursday in competition that was separated by only tenths of a second. It’s their first championship title together for the Toronto-based team, and Johnson’s first ever in Continental Tire competition. “It was the longest 45 minutes of my life,” said Maxwell, who had to complete a minimum drive time of 45 minutes to earn his half of the drivers’ championship. “The car was fine, it was just trying to go around and not get involved in any trouble.” “With Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson in a Ford Shelby GT350R-C, my sheepdog could’ve run that race and won it,” said Multimatic’s Larry Holt with a laugh. “That’s not to say anything about the competition. The competition in this series is fantastic and we had to fight for every win this year. It’s just Scott and Billy are so good and that car is so good. It was an unbelievable year. Every single piece of this team is good, from the car to the partnership with Ford and we’re excited to see what next year brings.” “We’re very pleased with how the Shelby GT350R-C has performed on the track since its debut,” said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. “It’s just another proof point where we have used the race track as a laboratory to help develop an outstanding performance car for the street. Congratulations to Scott, Billy, Multimatic and the whole Ford Performance team on their efforts this year.”

(Getty Images/NASCAR)
Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota Camry) dominated the Sunday's Citizen Soldier 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, finishing 7.527 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch (No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing M&Ms Core Toyota Camry) at The Monster Mile. "We're not messing around, I guess," Truex said. "I don't know - what else can you say? We're here to get it done, and, golly I'm telling you just the best bunch of guys you could ever ask for. It's just amazing to drive their race cars and do what we were able to do. I'm just ecstatic." Chase Elliott (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS) finished third. Besides the top three finishers, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick advance to the Chase's Round of 12, which begins this coming weekend at Charlotte. Get more NASCAR info at www.nascar.com.

(Peugeot)
Sebastien Loeb (No. 9 Team Peugeot-Hansen Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar) won his first ever rallycross victory at last weekend’s Neste World RX of Latvia, round ten of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy. Loeb is the first driver ever to win events in three different FIA World Championships - World RX, WRC and WTCC. Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom (No. 5 EKS Audi S1 RX Quattro) finished second, while Timmy Hansen (No. 21 Team Peugeot-Hansen Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar) finished third to make it a double podium for Team Peugeot-Hansen. In the overall World RX driver standings, Ekstrom now leads the standings by 27 points over Johan Kristofferson (No. 3 Volkswagen RX Sweden Volkswagen Polo) with only two rounds remaining.

(Rex Features/BBC)
Daniel Ricciardo (No. 3 Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer) won the Maylaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, finishing just ahead of his very racy teammate, Max Verstappen (No. 33 Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer). Nico Rosberg (No. 6 AMG Petronas Mercedes) finished third. But the big news was Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 AMG Petronas Mercedes), who was cruising at the front with a 20-second lead when his Mercedes engine blew up real good, crippling his run for the F1 World Driver's Championship. Needless to say, he was not happy. After the race, Hamilton told BBC Radio 5 live's Tom Clarkson: "My question is to Mercedes. We have so many engines made, but mine are the only ones failing this year. Someone needs to give me some answers because this is not acceptable. We are fighting for the championship and only my engines are failing. It does not sit right with me." The Mercedes Team offered no answers as of yet.