Roger Diez
It was a very good weekend for the Penske organization, sweeping both ends of the NTT IndyCar Iowa doubleheader and taking the NASCAR Cup win at Pocono.
We have another busy weekend coming up, with the Indy crowd across the border in Toronto, Formula 1 in Hungary, and NASCAR back on the big oval at Indianapolis after three years on the road course there.
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Josef Newgarden failed to add to his six Iowa victories, but his Team Penske teammates stepped up to take both wins last weekend. Scott McLaughlin took the checker Saturday evening and Will Power won the Sunday morning race. Newgarden put on the drive of the weekend Saturday, advancing from 22nd at the start to third at the finish.
Power’s win put him within 35 points of leader Alex Palou, with Pato O’Ward another 17 points back.
This weekend the series races for 85 laps through the streets of downtown Toronto on a tight 11-turn, 1.786 mile course. Only three active drivers have won there: Scott Dixon four times, Will Power twice, and defending winner Christian Lundgaard once.
All the weekend’s action will air on Peacock, with qualifying at 11:45 a.m. Saturday and the race Sunday at 10 a.m.
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With Ryan Blaney’s second win of the season at Pocono last Sunday the NASCAR Cup playoff picture became a little clearer. There are still four open playoff slots and just five races remaining on the regular season schedule.
There’s also a new regular season points leader, as Chase Elliott is now three points ahead of Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson. Both drivers fell victim to a questionable speeding penalty on the final pit stop but Elliott recovered to finish ninth while Larson was 13th. The regular season title is important because it awards 10 playoff points as well as a tidy cash sum.
This weekend both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series will be racing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval after a three-year stint on the road course in conjunction with the IndyCar series.
Given the recent retirements of previous Brickyard 400 winners, only two drivers in the field have wins on the oval. Brad Keselowski won in 2018 and Kyle Busch posted victories in 2015 and 2016. It may be Busch’s best chance to recoup what so far has been a dismal season. At 40-1 opening odds, he might be a good bet at your local sports book. The top 20 picks (in order), according to the oddsmakers, are Denny Hamlin, Larson, Blaney, Keselowski, Elliott, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick ,Martin Truex Jr., and Joey Logano.
USA airs Saturday’s Xfinity qualifying at 9:05 a.m., Cup qualifying at 10:05 a.m., and the Pennzoil 250 at 12:30 p.m. NBC will broadcast the Brickyard 400 on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Due to NBC’s Olympic coverage, NASCAR will then be dark until Aug. 11, returning with the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.
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Sunday’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix may prove to be very interesting. Upgrades to the Mercedes and McLaren cars have brought them close to Red Bull performance-wise in recent races. Indeed, Mercedes recently won in Austria with George Russell and the British Grand Prix with Hamilton. And McLaren’s Lando Norris won the Miami race in May.
Hamilton has eight wins at the Hungaroring, his second best record at one track after Silverstone’s nine. Verstappen has won the last two Hungarian rounds with Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso each winning once. The Hungaroring is a challenging 14-turn, 2.722 mile track with a double hairpin leading to the only DRS zone, the front straight.
You can watch Saturday’s qualifying at 7 a.m. on ESPN2 and Sunday’s race on ESPN at 6 a.m.