USLCI

Pointing both middle fingers into the air at officials earlier this month at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will cost Will Power $30,000 -- or the equivalent in public appearances on behalf of the Izod IndyCar Series.

Power said he'll choose to do the work, although he doesn't know how many days that will entail.

"It's probably a pretty obvious choice," he said Thursday. "Thirty thousand is a lot of money."

INDYCAR announced that the top three finishing positions of the Aug. 14 MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway were upheld during a protest hearing Aug. 23 in Indianapolis.

The hearing was conducted by a panel consisting of Jerry Gappens, Rollie Helmling and Jeff Stoops. As Senior Official and pursuant to IZOD IndyCar Series Rule 12.4, INDYCAR President of Competition and Operations Brian Barnhart elected to have a panel resolve the protests.

For the first time in 13 years the IZOD IndyCar Series raced around New Hampshire Motor Speedway putting on a great show for the estimated 30,000 fans in attendance.  

Yesterday’s MoveThatBlock.com INDY 225 was marred by weather, wrecks and an ending that will be talked about for weeks to come.

On lap 217, a late-race restart caused Danica Patrick to spin as she crossed the Granite Stripe, collecting most of the top-10 cars. The crash happened after a caution flag for moisture on the tracks surface. 

Josef Newgarden dominated the Firestone Indy Lights 100 race today at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, leading from the green flag to the checkered and extending his championship lead.

Newgarden, who pilots the No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, zipped around “The Magic Mile,” lapping the entire 12 car field, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in the series since 2004 at Phoenix. 

IZOD IndyCar Series championship points leader Dario Franchitti continued to dominate at New Hampshire Motor Speedway today, capturing the pole for Sunday’s MoveThatBlock.com INDY 225.

Franchitti, who pilots the No. 10 Nikon car, recorded an aggregated lap time of 43.1976 at an average speed of 170.843 mph.

Today at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, fans will be treated to a site never before seen in Loudon. Four series, four styles of driving, the IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the American-Canadian Tour.  All together!

For the first time in track history, these series will all take turns on “The Magic Mile” in the same day. 

INDYCAR’s most popular driver returned to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the second time, but today it was behind the wheel of an Indy car.  Her inaugural run was promising.

She was 10^th fastest during this morning’s practice session at the 1.058-mile oval, turning a lap time of 22.40 seconds at a speed of 164.669 mph.

Scott Dixon overtook Dario Franchitti on a Lap 61 restart and went on to win the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

It was the first victory of the season for the two-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion, who started from the pole and led the most laps in the 85-lap race. With the bonus points, Dixon closed to 29 points of Team Penske's Will Power for third place in the series championship standings. Power, who started fourth, finished 14th.

Franchitti leads Power by 62 points heading into the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 at the 1-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Four of the final six races are at tracks new to the series this season.

Andretti Autosport entered the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season with three entrant championships, two Indianapolis 500 victories and 36 wins since 2003. The knock, however, has been what had the four-car team led by Michael Andretti done lately.

Earning the series championship and winning the Indy 500 in ’07 with Dario Franchitti, the team collected four victories and 57 top-five finishes (of 58 collective races among seven drivers) the succeeding three seasons. In the first half of this season, Andretti Autosport already has equaled its Victory Circle appearances of 2010 and ’08.

With the IZOD IndyCar Series' successful season kickoff this past weekend at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, INDYCAR enjoys new and renewed relationships and deeper investments from several of its partners.

AirMed International, the award-winning air ambulance company, has been signed as the official air ambulance of the IZOD IndyCar Series. The fleet of ICU-equipped jet aircraft will transport injured drivers and staff to hospitals in an emergency.

Racing fever has hit New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the entire staff is gearing up for a historic and highly anticipated season of speed. Executive vice president and general manager, Jerry Gappens joined the fun Saturday, by taking calls from fans and selling tickets for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LENOX Industrial Tools 301.

Gappens and the guest services department worked throughout the weekend speaking with revved up fans about the two upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events, the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 on July 17 and the SYLVANIA 300 on Sept. 25 as well as for INDYCAR 225 on Aug. 14.     

There are multiple advantages to starting on the front row on IZOD IndyCar Series road/street courses. In the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, one was avoiding the seven-car blockade in Turn 1 of the first lap.

Dario Franchitti and pole sitter Will Power were among those who kept their cars' noses clean at the start and subsequent side-by-side restarts through 100 laps on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit by the bay, and that's the way they completed the season opener.

You can’t run the bases with the Red Sox, shoot a free-throw with the Celtics, skate the ice like a Bruin, and you definitely can’t score a touchdown with the Patriots. But, you can drive your own car into Turn 1 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just like Jeff Gordon during FANtasy Drive 2 on Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Tony Kanaan's off-season of discontent is over. The 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champion will contest the 2011 season in the No. 82 GEICO KV Racing Technology -Lotus car.

The No. 82 is in honor of the 1965 Indianapolis 500-winning Lotus driven by Jim Clark. Kanaan will get in some laps on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course March 22 in advance of the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg this weekend.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway race fans of ALL ages can rev up their race-day experience by purchasing a pre-race pit pass or garage pass for either of the track’s two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekends or the IZOD INDYCAR Series event.

Racing offers some of the best behind-the-scenes access in all of professional sports and, for the first time, “The Magic Mile” is welcoming children into the infield, pit road and garage area to witness the excitement of race day during a NASCAR or INDYCAR weekend.

It wasn't only the result, advancing eight positions to finish 16th, that impressed Conquest Racing owner Eric Bachelart during the 2010 season finale weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"I could see the potential the way he drove through the whole race," said Bachelart in announcing that Saavedra will compete in the full IZOD IndyCar Series season in the No. 34 Conquest Racing car.

Danica Patrick has been asked innumerous times and in numerous ways about her auto racing future since leaving her Scottsdale, Ariz., home to climb into a stock car early this year. Heck, it's probably played out in her dreams.

The veteran IZOD IndyCar Series driver -- much like she did a few years ago in the final year of her contract with Andretti Autosport -- acknowledged that three months into the new year she doesn't have direction.

After months of anticipation, the IZOD IndyCar Series finally revealed last week that its season finale will take place in the bright lights of Las Vegas. But what looked to be a relatively simple announcement turned into something much bigger.

The $5 million prize to any “outsider” that can defeat IndyCar’s best on Oct. 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway may strike some as a touch gimmicky, but it certainly showed off the ambition and moxie that series CEO Randy Bernard has.

The 17-event (18 races) IZOD IndyCar Series season will kick off and culminate with race broadcasts on ABC -- the March 27 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Oct. 16 IZOD INDYCAR World Championships at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In between, the network will telecast three exciting races -- the 100th anniversary running of the Indianapolis 500 plus the IZOD IndyCar Series return to The Milwaukee Mile and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Mike Conway never doubted getting behind the wheel of an IZOD IndyCar Series car again after suffering back and leg injuries in a crash late in the Indianapolis 500 last May.

“I’m on the road to getting back in the car, not think about what happened before," Conway said in a September interview with indycar.com. "You just have to focus on what you need to do.”

Before Dario Franchitti went out and won the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the IZOD IndyCar Series’ 2010 championship-deciding race, team owner Chip Ganassi asserted that Franchitti should be considered among the best of all-time.

A day later -- with a record-tying three IZOD IndyCar Series championships, two Indianapolis 500 victories and 26 Indy car career wins – Ganassi’s statement requires deeper consideration. During the season, Franchitti tied Rodger Ward for 11th on the all-time list. Next in his sights is Johnny Rutherford (27), and matching Rick Mears (29) isn’t out of the question.

Double-wide restarts on ovals and the restart area moving closer to the start/finish line were among the 2011 rules alterations announced by IZOD IndyCar Series president of competition and racing operations Brian Barnhart during the State of INDYCAR program in Indianapolis.

On-track changes incorporated in the rulebook followed input from team owners and drivers, along with communication with fans.

Martin Plowman re-adjusts his sitting position multiple times and pauses to collect his emotions while relaying details of a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The impromptu Christmas Eve cheer was decidedly tempered by the stark reality of the effects of war.

The new Dallara simulator isn’t your iracing.com or Wii console. It can’t be compared to another unit because, well, there isn’t anything quite like it.

Occupying a 40 x 40 foot, two-story room at Dallara headquarters in Parma, Italy, it contains more than 5,900 feet of fiber optic cable, has 16 monitors to visualize data, employs a Dolby Surround 5.1 audio system, and checks in at about 650 tons.