COLTON HERTA

The IndyCar championship race tightened ahead of the Grand Prix of Long Beach after a messy qualifying session put Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward in the middle of the pack.

The IndyCar Series speeds into its season finale at Sunday riding a myriad of gains that have America's top open-wheel series feeling confident about its future.

Colton Herta cruised to an easy victory at Laguna Seca on Sunday while Alex Palou moved one race closer to the IndyCar championship.

Alex Palou recovered from first-lap trouble at Portland International Raceway to win for the third time this season and reclaim the IndyCar points lead.

The IndyCar championship flipped leaders Saturday night when Alex Palou was collected in an early three-car accident that moved Pato O’Ward to the point following O’Ward’s runner-up finish to winner Josef Newgarden at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Will Power took the lead early Saturday, then watched it shrink over the final half of the race before holding on to win another Indianapolis Grand Prix.

IndyCar and Nashville scored big with the debut of the Music City Grand Prix.

Marcus Ericsson survived the perilous city streets of Nashville on Sunday and won the inaugural Music City Grand Prix.

Colton Herta stamped himself as the driver to beat in the inaugural IndyCar Music City Grand Prix.

IndyCar may have a hit on its hands if the first few days were an indicator of the enthusiasm from fans and drivers of the race.

Helio Castroneves might skip trying to scale the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge the way he climbs fences when he wins at other race tracks.

Michael Shank will use IndyCar's monthlong break to work on the long-term future of his race program.

Josef Newgarden snapped his streak of late race misfortunes to win for the first time this season, earning the first IndyCar victory of the year for Team Penske on the same weekend the storied organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first win.

IndyCar will celebrate Independence Day in the middle of Ohio.

Alex Palou sailed past Josef Newgarden with two laps remaining Sunday to win at Road America and reclaim the IndyCar points lead.

Josef Newgarden has earned the pole position for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Road America as he attempts to help Team Penske earn its first win of the season.

Pato O’Ward has become IndyCar’s first repeat winner of the season by charging through the field on a final restart to snatch the victory away from Josef Newgarden at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park.

Jimmie Johnson is struggling at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, which is just his second career street course and fourth career IndyCar race.

Helio Castroneves is trying to get back into the IndyCar Series fulltime.

Scott Dixon was again atop the leaderboard for the final practice before the Indianapolis 500.

The Indianapolis 500 will open its gates to 135,000 spectators on Sunday for the largest sports event since the start of the pandemic.

Scott Dixon was bothered all weekend with clogged ears and sinuses but didn't let it bother him when it came time to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Scott Dixon slammed the brakes on IndyCar’s current youth movement by winning his fourth Indianapolis 500 pole by a mere 0.03 seconds in qualifying.

Team Penske had an uncharacteristically slow first day of Indianapolis 500 qualifying and Will Power will have to avoid being bumped from the 33-car field when the lineup is finalized.

The three cars from Rahal Letterman Lanigan were idled or the first 30 minutes of Friday practice for the Indianapolis 500.

IndyCar has punished Rahal Letterman Lanigan for trying to stage a photo in the opening minutes of Indianapolis 500 practice.

A trio of Indianapolis 500 winners led opening day of practice and temporarily silenced the sudden youth movement.

Rinus VeeKay continued IndyCar’s youth movement Saturday by scoring his first career victory with a win on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Alex Palou and Will Power will start on the front row for the IndyCar Series' first oval race this season.

Tony Kanaan will make his IndyCar season debut this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where the series will race a doubleheader.

Colton Herta has rebounded from a first-lap crash in the IndyCar season opener to win the pole on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg.

Alex Palou scored his first career IndyCar victory in his debut race with Chip Ganassi Racing by winning the series opener at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

Pato O'Ward set a track record at Barber Motorsports Park to win the pole for the IndyCar season-opening race.

Newgarden won the season finale, using a spectacular two-car pass for the lead in a valiant effort to win a second consecutive title. Dixon has won two of the last three championships, a run interrupted last year when Newgarden won his second title. Newgarden tied Dixon with his series-best fourth win of the season but Newgarden was in too large of a hole to catch his rival. There was nothing Newgarden could do, even on a day he did everything he had to, to deny Dixon a sixth championship. O'Ward, in his first full IndyCar season, finished third in the race and third with Arrow McLaren SP in the final standings.

INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power will start from the pole Saturday at Indianapolis after posting the fastest lap in morning qualifying. It's his fifth pole this season and the 61st career pole, which is second all-time behind Mario Andretti (67). “We made a lot of changes last night," Power said, explaining he was not satisfied with Friday's car. And when Newgarden won Friday's race , with Dixon finishing ninth, the lead was trimmed to 40 points with two races remaining. “It will take more horsepower we'll use more in these conditions, where as in July it would have been easy to do a two-stop race," Power said.

INDIANAPOLIS – Josef Newgarden doesn't intend to just give up on his season title defense. With the Harvest GP win, Newgarden moved within 40 points of what once was a seemingly safe 120-point lead of five-time series champ Scott Dixon with two races remaining. Both will run the final two races this season in those cars, and both are already getting started on next season, too. He's had six straight top-10 finishes including a win from the pole at Mid-Ohio and has moved up to third in points. After starting the season with three straight wins, he's finished 10th, 10th and ninth in the last three races, putting his sixth series title back in play.

The start-and-stop uncertainty of this IndyCar season has not bothered Pato O'Ward, leader of a young fleet of drivers new to the series but capable of keeping up with the veterans. Had the pandemic not decimated the IndyCar schedule, O'Ward might have built some momentum to have already earned his first series win. O'Ward was entered in one Formula 2 race then Red Bull moved him to Japan's Super Formula category. They asked me to come to Austria like five, six days before the race," O'Ward said. Sam Schmidt's race team had been overhauled via a partnership with McLaren, and McLaren boss Zak Brown moved fast to grab O'Ward.

Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, pulls out fo the pits during a practice session for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)INDIANAPOLIS Scott Dixon, already off to a tremendous start to the IndyCar season, quickly set the pace on the first day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Dixon turned a lap of 224.047 mph (360.57 kph) around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the two-hour session for veterans. He has won the Indy 500 once in his career. The day was scheduled to conclude with a 150-minute open practice session.

Two-time and defending champ Josef Newgarden, who won the second race of the Iowa doubleheader, has yet to turn 30. Pagenaud, who like Newgarden drives for Team Penske, won the first Iowa race on Friday night. The natural ebb and flow of sports dictates there must be a wave of youngsters waiting to replace them. Not surprisingly, Ferrucci was fired by his Trident Racing team. Take the doubleheader this weekend, where Herta and VeeKay were in contention Friday night before a caution flag waved.

IndyCar Rev Group Grand Prix winner Alexander Rossi enters Victory Lane Sunday, June 23, 2019, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Road America allowed fans back in for its events starting last month. Fans this weekend will get temperature checks at gates and receive masks and hand sanitizer as they enter. The only drivers to open an IndyCar season with at least three straight victories are A.J. Drivers believe the Road America course wont be as grueling with all of its straightaways despite its 14 turns.