Round 11: MAVTV 500. Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA. 26-27 June, 2015

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 11: MAVTV 500. Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA. 26-27 June, 2015

Formerly known as the California Speedway, the track was built in April 1994 by Roger Penkse in Fontana, California. In 1999, Penske Motorsport who owned the track, merged with International Speedway Corporation, ISC, owned by NASCAR President Bill France Jr. The newly merged company retained the name ISC and operates the track. In February 2008, The Automobile Club of Southern California, ACSC, became the title sponsor of the venue with Auto Club Speedway becoming the official name.

The first race to be held was a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event, on June 20, 1997. The first open wheel race was CART's "Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota", on September 28, 1997 and was won by former F1 British driver Mark Blundell, in a Reynard 97i-Mercedes-Benz IC108D, for Bruce McCaw's PacWest Racing. The venue continued to host the event up to and including 2002. In 2002, the IRL IndyCar Series also added Fontana to its calendar, with the 400-mile "Yamaha Indy 400". Fontana became the first track to host races in both CART and the IRL series. The inaugural IRL race was won by Sam Hornish, Jr. driving a Dallara-Chevrolet for Panther Racing.

2002 was the last time CART raced at Fontana, because the following year, the "King Taco 500", which was to be the final race of the 2003 CART season, was cancelled due to the Old Fire, one of a series of wildfires, North of the track. Also in 2003, the IRL race changed its name to the "Toyota Indy 400" and continued racing there until 2005 but with dwindling crowds it was removed from the calendar. IndyCar eventually returned to Fontana, with the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012, as the season finale and as a night race, which was won by Ed Carpenter, in a Dallara DW12-Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Track Layout:


Length: 2.00 mi - 3.22 km
Turns: 4

Lap record:
October 28, 2000. Gil de Ferran, Penske Racing, Reynard 2KI-Honda HRK, 29.823 seconds, 241.428 mph - 388.541 km/h. This is the World Closed Course Speed Record.

Last year's winner:
Tony Kanaan
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet

Laps: 250
Distance: 500 mi - 804.672 km
Race Time: 2:32:58
Average Speed: 196.111 mph - 315.61 km/h

TV Coverage: NBCSN
Green flag: 4:00pm ET.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Tristan Vautier and Pippa Mannto get drives with Coyne at Fontana.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119652

[Yannick]

Looking at the starting lineup, it's good to see the oval specialists toward the front again for a change. Here's to a safe and clean race today.

It really should be an evening race, though, with the heat and all.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Yannick

It really should be an evening race, though, with the heat and all.

Especially when this kind of a large oval circuit just absorbs all the heat to itself. The forecast for Saturday says it will be around 32C (90F) in the afternoon. It's ridiculous they scheduled an afternoon race in California for June.

Heat wouldn't be a problem on (non-Tilke) road courses from spectator's view because you can always stay in shade.

[10TENTHS]

Originally Posted by Yannick

Looking at the starting lineup, it's good to see the oval specialists toward the front again for a change. Here's to a safe and clean race today.

It really should be an evening race, though, with the heat and all.

Oval specialists? Other than Ed Carpenter, there's no such thing. Pagenaud is on point after all, and he has the least oval experience in Team Penske.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Starting Grid:

1 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:05.7679, 218.952 MPH
2 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:05.8335, 218.734 MPH
3 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.1166, 217.797 MPH
4 Ed Carpenter, CFH Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.1563, 217.666 MPH
5 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.2830, 217.250 MPH
6 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.3033, 217.184 MPH
7 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.3033, 217.184 MPH
8 Will Power, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.3057, 217.176 MPH
9 Takuma Sato, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.3261, 217.109 MPH
10 Sage Karam, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.3412, 217.060 MPH
11 Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.3967, 216.878 MPH
12 Josef Newgarden, CFH Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.5159, 216.490 MPH
13 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.5921, 216.242 MPH
14 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.6718, 215.983 MPH
15 Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:06.7534, 215.719 MPH
16 Ryan Briscoe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.8132, 215.526 MPH
17 Jack Hawksworth, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Dallara-Honda. 1:06.8692, 215.346 MPH
18 Gabby Chaves, BHA with Curb-Agajanian, Dallara-Honda. 1:07.3778, 213.720 MPH
19 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Dallara-Honda. 1:07.4034, 213.639 MPH
20 Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara-Honda. 1:07.5052, 213.317 MPH
21 Stefano Coletti, KV Racing Technology, Dallara-Chevrolet. 1:07.7188, 212.644 MPH
22 Pippa Mann, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara-Honda. 1:08.3994, 210.528 MPH
23 James Jakes, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dallara-Honda. No Time, No Speed

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by 10TENTHS

Oval specialists? Other than Ed Carpenter, there's no such thing.

Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves, JP Montoya, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan have considerably more oval races under their respective belts as the other drivers in the field.
I guess that's as close as a driver can come to being an oval specialist these days in IndyCar (with the notable exception of Ed). But yes, technically, all these drivers would qualify for the allrounder tag as well.

[icemachine]

Marco may not be an oval specialist, but he certainly fares much better on them than on road/street courses

[BudLightJaguar]

So the green flag will wave around 1:30 PT? Let's hope It'll be a nice and clean start.

[BudLightJaguar]

The amount of empty seats hurts my eyes.

[Paradise City]

I'm enjoyin' this stuff. Dunno about you guys.

Shame about Newgarden and Carpenter.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

I'm enjoyin' this stuff. Dunno about you guys

I've been enjoying. No reason to complain about 'pack racing' since it's not totally made by FCY's.

[canamman]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

The amount of empty seats hurts my eyes.

Whew, isn't that the truth! Best race of the year and 5000 saw it live.
Promotions Dept needs a thrashing Monday morning.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I've missed most of it as I was in transit. I can't get a feed but live timing has Montoya leading, 196 laps of 250 gone and a caution.

[Salamus]

Here's a stream. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/besweeet86

It has been a great race. I'm assuming Rahal's team is getting fined if he isn't going to get penalized.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by canamman

Best race of the year and 5000 saw it live.

And it's not so far away from LA. June's clearly not the best slot in the schedule to race in California.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Salamus

Here's a stream. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/besweeet86

It has been a great race. I'm assuming Rahal's team is getting fined if he isn't going to get penalized.

Thanks but it doesn't work, maybe because I'm in the UK.

Any other feeds, just to get the end of the race?

[bjohnsonsmith]

What's the Red Flag for?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Finally got a feed.

Blimey! What a frightening accident and it was the air getting under Briscoe's car, that initially flipped it.

Otherwise congrats to Graham Rahal. He's been looking good all season. That should also keep Honda happyish.

[BudLightJaguar]

OOOOOH!!!! Little drama during the final lap.

E: Lots of criticism from Power and Kanaan.

[canamman]

Hate that for Briscoe. Rahal by a half a car length!
What a race. That 4 and 5 wide is just wild.

[J Jay]

First of all, it's good to see that Briscoe is okay. The onboard of his flip is not something I want to see again, a little more downward angle and the rollover hoop would have dug into the grass...

Second, congratulations to Rahal. Honda get a win, finally.

As exciting as the race was it's hard in the aftermath of that crash not to agree with Power's comments, almost every time the cars went 4/5-wide I was equally amazed and fearful. However, abusing a marshal is not cool in any situation.

[Salamus]

Most of the race was going well with 2 wide or single file racing and cars passing each other. The end was ridiculous. I don't want to see pack racing, get rid of it Indycar.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Salamus

Most of the race was going well with 2 wide or single file racing and cars passing each other. The end was ridiculous. I don't want to see pack racing, get rid of it Indycar.

I caught the very end of the race and saw the RH-R/Briscoe incident and the replay of the Sato/Power incident. It looked to me like the pack racing was a result of the restart with RH-R and Briscoe. Was the Sato/Power incident after a restart as well?

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I caught the very end of the race and saw the RH-R/Briscoe incident and the replay of the Sato/Power incident. It looked to me like the pack racing was a result of the restart with RH-R and Briscoe. Was the Sato/Power incident after a restart as well?

Yeah, the pack racing was a result of the restarts. Most of the race was good but the end was too much. The first half of the race went green and it was great.