Race Weekend Central

Techbench Tuesday: IndyCar at Long Beach in 2022

Takuma Sato at St. Petersburg

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

As Takuma Sato roars down the back straight of the Long Beach Grand Prix street circuit, the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner has just three more corners to go before completing another lap of the 1.968-mile circuit. The concrete canyon that is Seaside Way leads to a right-hander before the track curls around in a long …

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Techbench Tuesday: IndyCar at Texas Motor Speedway in 2022

Graham Rahal at Texas in 2021

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)

As Graham Rahal goes 215 mph around Texas Motor Speedway, the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda goes into turns 1 and 2 hoping that the car will stay as close to top speed as possible before going onto the backstretch and then towards turns 3 and 4 to complete a fast lap. While …

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Techbench Tuesday: IndyCar at Portland International Raceway

Will Power at Portland in 2019

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

The NTT IndyCar Series’s west coast swing to close the 2021 season starts this coming Sunday (September 12th) at Portland International Raceway, a 12-turn, 1.967 mile road course near the Columbia River. Portland’s history with IndyCar racing goes back to 1984 when the CART IndyCar World Series raced there for the first time with Al …

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Techbench Tuesday: IndyCar on the Streets of Nashville

Romain Grosjean speaking with engineer Olivier Boisson

(Photo by Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)

When the NTT IndyCar Series visits a new track for the first time, teams are usually able to test at the track in order to help their race engineers gather data to create a setup for the race weekend. However, when that venue is a street circuit, then it’s not exactly an easy proposition to …

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IndyCar Techbench Tuesday: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Graham Rahal racing at Mid-Ohio in 2020

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)

The 13-turn, 2.258 mile road course just outside Lexington, Ohio is mechanically a hybrid of two different road courses, which can provide NTT IndyCar Series engineers with a lot of challenges in trying to nail a perfect car setup. The first portion of the lap is marked by two long straightaways and slower corners, partly …

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Techbench Tuesday: Detroit’s Belle Isle

Graham Rahal at the 2019 Detroit Grand Prix

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)

The streets of Belle Isle right outside of Detroit is the host of the upcoming doubleheader race weekend for the NTT IndyCar Series and the bumps of the concrete surface are ready to greet the field just two weeks after the 105th Indianapolis 500. Belle Isle has hosted Indy car racing since 1992 with two …

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Techbench Tuesday: Sage Karam’s Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Run

Sage Karam practicing for the Indianapolis 500

(Photo by Karl Zemlin/INDYCAR)

While driving over 230 mph on the back straight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sage Karam was feverishly lowering the ride height of his car by about an eighth of an inch to try and help him qualify for the Indianapolis 500. “We saw on data that it helped accelerate the car out of the …

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