SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 03:59PM 
(Photo of Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi by Chris Owens for Penske Entertainment)
Alex Palou was honored for his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship during the Victory Lap Celebration on Sept. 21, the headline of an incomparable 2023 season for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Palou dominated this season to earn another title to join his 2021 championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He won a series-high five races in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda, with a total of 10 podium finishes in 17 races. Palou finished eighth or better in all 17 races this season and became the first INDYCAR SERIES driver to clinch the championship at least one race early since Sebastien Bourdais in 2007.
Spanish driver Palou won the Astor Challenge Cup for the title by 78 points over teammate and six-time series champion Scott Dixon, earning the 15th INDYCAR SERIES championship for Chip Ganassi Racing and the organization’s third in the last four seasons. Palou was one of six members of Chip Ganassi Racing to receive special honors at the ceremony, which took place at the Gallagher Pavilion at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Marcus Armstrong of New Zealand received the Rookie of the Year Award as the top-finishing first-year driver in the standings. Armstrong scored five top-10 finishes in just 12 starts in the No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda to surpass full-time rookie Agustin Canapino of Juncos Hollinger Racing by 34 points in the standings.
Team owner Chip Ganassi accepted the Championship Owner Award, and Palou’s chief mechanic, Ricky Davis, was presented the Pennzoil Chief Mechanic Award. Additional season honors for the Ganassi team included the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Team Manager award to Barry Wanser and Blair Julian.
The awards haul was a reward for a dominant year by Indianapolis-based Chip Ganassi Racing. The team achieved the unprecedented feat of taking the top two spots in the driver standings and winning the Rookie of the Year title in one season.
While Palou’s winning margin in the driver standings was the largest since 2016, the Manufacturers Award race came down to the final laps at the season finale Sept. 10 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Chevrolet edged Honda by just 16 points to win its second consecutive engine manufacturer title and eighth overall since it returned to the series in 2012. Mark Stielow, General Motors director of motorsport competition engineering, accepted the award on behalf of the Chevrolet team.
A successful first season with a rebrand and Firestone sponsorship for INDYCAR’s development series also was recognized at the Victory Lap Celebration, as Christian Rasmussen of HMD Motorsports was honored as 2023 INDY NXT by Firestone champion. Rasmussen won a series-high five of the 14 races this season in the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with DCR entry. He beat Andretti Autosport’s Hunter McElrea to the title by 65 points.
Danish driver Rasmussen’s HMD teammate, Nolan Siegel, was named INDY NXT by Firestone Rookie of the Year. Siegel, from Palo Alto, California, finished third in the series standings with two victories. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media)
(Formula1.com)
Carlos Sainz (No. 55 Scuderia Ferrari) converted pole position into a second career victory as the Spaniard held off the charge of Lando Norris (No. 4 McLaren F1 Team) and the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team) and George Russell (No. 63 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team) – who crashed on the final lap – to take a well-earned win at the Singapore Grand Prix – the first non-Red Bull win of the season. Watch the Race Highlights here.
It was somewhat expected that Porsche Penske Motorsport would dominate Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after topping the charts in Friday practice and Saturday’s qualifying session. What emerged, though, was somewhat unexpected – an unusually close battle among at least three teams for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) title next month. Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet propelled the team’s No. 6 Porsche 963 to victory in the 2-hour, 40-minute race, with Tandy finishing ahead of Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Penske team car with co-driver Matt Campbell. “I said before the weekend that we really needed to win here to have a decent shot going into Atlanta,” Tandy said. “It’s given us a chance at the end of the day. The teamwork that’s gone into giving the people that work in this team a chance to win in Atlanta is amazing.” The GTP points shake out like this: Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims will go into Petit with the lead in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R after finishing fourth Sunday. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 and its co-drivers, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, are three points behind after finishing fifth, while Sunday’s victory pulled Jaminet and Tandy to within five points of Derani and Sims. Watch the Race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. (Thank you to Jeff Olson, IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
Steven Thomas took a moment before answering a question Sunday to praise his co-driver, Mikkel Jensen. “Mikkel is being very humble,” Thomas said. “He was the fastest car on track by two seconds. He drove from 50 seconds down all the way to the lead and we won by (19.909) seconds. I think he’s the best prototype driver on the planet.” Jensen anchored their winning run on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, a victory that gave the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 the championship lead going into the season finale next month. Thomas, Jensen and TDS now have a 20-point lead over the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, who finished fourth Sunday. Ben Hanley and George Kurtz, who finished third in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA, remain in the championship hunt, 100 points off the pace. Jensen outlasted Louis Deletraz in a back-and-forth duel over the final 48 minutes of Sunday's race. Deletraz’s No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA regained the lead with 42 minutes left before Jensen took control again with 26 minutes remaining. “At every race, we’ve been the fastest but we didn’t stay out of trouble,” Jensen said. “That’s been the difference. … We just have to keep working, developing the car and win it in Atlanta.” The victory was the second of the season for TDS, which won in May at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service)
Anthony Mantella and Wayne Boyd (No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08) won the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) portion of the Battle on the Bricks, following their LMP3 triumph in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January. “It’s a dream come true,” Mantella said after starting the race before turning the No. 17 over to Boyd on the first pit stop. “I’ve been following auto racing all of my life and you dream of doing something like this. It is surreal." AWA’s victory ended the four-race winning streak of the No. 74 Riley Ligier. Still, by finishing second, Robinson and the No. 74 hold a comfortable 244-point lead over Mantella, Boyd and the No. 17 Duqueine with only the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 14 remaining on the schedule. (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service)
Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella (No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3) won the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class on Sunday in the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on the IMS road course, the penultimate round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Gounon assumed the GTD PRO lead just 10 minutes into the 2-hour, 40-minute contest when Motul Pole Award winner Klaus Bachler served a drive-through penalty for a start procedure violation. He and Juncadella were never seriously challenged after that, ultimately winning by 4.394 seconds over Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. “It always tastes good to win a race, this is the third one after a tough summer,” said Juncadella. “There were a lot of things out of control at the last couple events that didn’t play into our favor results-wise. Performance-wise we were not far off, but obviously at this event, we were stronger. I think the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is very good around this place." “This track suits our cars and it suits our driving, and today was a smooth race,” he added. “We avoided mistakes and brought it home.” Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat finished third in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, extending their GTD PRO championship lead to 188 points over the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R GTD and drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor. Juncadella and Gounon leapfrogged Bachler and his co-driver Patrick Pilet into third in the GTD standings, 227 points behind the No. 14 Lexus. As a result, the No. 14 team and drivers will only need to leave the grid at the start of next month’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to secure their first WeatherTech Championship team and driver titles. (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
The GTD class featured a more closely contested race that resulted in Russell Ward guiding the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a 1.268-second win over Loris Spinelli and Misha Goikhberg in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 after a battle that sometimes turned contentious. Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers led the majority of the race before determining that with the championship in mind, discretion was the better part of valor. They dropped back to third place, letting Ward and Spinelli fight amongst themselves for the race win. Spinelli’s driving was especially aggressive, to the displeasure of Ellis. "Initially, I had a battle with Bryan, which was all clean and fair,” Ellis remarked. “That was good, and nice to watch, I guess. Then Loris came along and tried to pass me on the grass, which is quite risky. Luckily our car wasn’t too badly damaged, and in the end, I just gave back what he dished out." Ward was delighted to deliver Winward Racing its first WeatherTech Championship race win in 13 months. Sellers and Snow wrapped up the GTD class crown one race early, in addition to clinching their second consecutive WeatherTech Sprint Cup sub-championship. The duo won five races so far this year. "We led quite a bit of the race, but didn’t have quite enough for the No. 57 or the No. 78,” Sellers said. “As soon as those guys (Spinelli and Ellis) started mixing it up, our goal was just to beat the No. 27 (the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and drivers Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen), watch the points situation, and let the race win go – which is difficult to do. But in the end, we were able to achieve our goal." The final round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Motul Petit Le Mans, October 11-14 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
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