The Official Blog of the IZOD IndyCar Series

Yang Ou at Infineon Raceway

Yang Ou secured the iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series Premier road racing title like a true champion, leading from lights to flag in the top Strength of Field race at Infineon Raceway.  Taking his ninth win of the season, Ou crossed the line 18.7s ahead of Andre Boettcher with Aleksi Elomaa a further 23 seconds back just ahead of PJ Stergios.

Ou’s domination of the online race came as no surprise, given than fact that he claimed his 11th pole position in a dozen outings with a sizzling lap of 1:15.593, more than .3s quicker than Boettcher’s best.   In fact, only Ou and Boettcher broke into the 1:15s as Elomaa gridded third with a best lap of 1:16.715.

“The race went well,” said Ou.  “I was very conservative on the first stint, because I hadn’t done a full fuel run to check the tire wear. Even so, the car started to get sideways quite easily due to the big elevation changes in most of the turns, and when accelerating out of the hairpins as well. I started to pick up the pace a bit in the second stint knowing that it will be shorter so I won’t have to save tires as much as the first run. I crossed the finish line and it feels like one of the shortest road courses this season.  Maybe it was, or maybe it’s just because of the fact that Sonoma is a great track for the IndyCars, it is tons of fun to race here.”

Ou’s championship-winning performance netted him $500 and the first place trophy.  In concert with the fact that he is in the driver’s seat in the iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series Premier oval series, Ou also has the inside track on the overall iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series Premier championship and the $1000 and airfare, hotel and VIP tickets package for two people to the IZOD INDYCAR World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the weekend of Oct. 16.

“I’d like to thank my fellow competitors Aleksi, André, PJ, Santiago, Joao Pinho and many other skillful road course drivers for making it a fun and competitive season in the iRacing IndyCar Road Premier Series,” said Ou.  “A nd well done for their great driving!”

The second race saw Raymond Mooney come from seventh on the grid to earn the win in his first appearance in the iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series Premier road racing this season.

As a girl, using the phrase “I like to go fast” has a somewhat negative connotation. Get your mind out of the gutter, because when I say “I like to go fast” it’s really about how I drive my Ford Taurus through the streets of Indianapolis. So when the opportunity came up to jump in for a two seater ride here at the Honda Indy Toronto circuit, I of course said “Why yes, please.”

(Just HOW did the opportunity come up? I was working it to score a two seater ride for one lucky IndyCar.com blog reader…. keep reading to find out how you can be that person!)

A driver with freckles? Nope, it's not Mike Conway....

Admittedly, I was the least excited in the group. It was an experience I was excited for, but had no idea how to display emotion towards. Was I nervous? Maybe. Did I not know what to expect? YES. Since going for the ride, most people have asked “How was it? I’ve always wanted to do it but haven’t had the opportunity.”

It’s realistic. You get into the firesuit, shoes, gloves, head sock, and helmet and it’s hard not to feel a little bit like a real driver. It’s fast. Too fast even – after waiting most of the morning for my turn, the lap around the Toronto circuit flew by. The biggest challenge was trying to take everything in. One minute you’re accelerating, then breaking, then turning, then…

It took me a minute or two to realize that I should use my body to resist the force knocking me around the seat. But once I did, the ride was comfortably bumpy. It felt like being inside a video game and I grew desperate to be the one behind the wheel. Of course, if my iRacing skills are any indication, it was probably for the best that I stayed in the passenger seat.

Not quite Danica, but ready to get behind the wheel next time

Okay, okay, the moment you’ve been waiting for. One lucky fan over the age of 18 will receive their own two-seater ride at Mid-Ohio (no travel or additional opportunities provided) – simply by commenting below with your comments and feedback on what you’ve enjoyed (or not enjoyed) on our Facebook, Twitter, and Blog this season. Give us your best (and worst) but be sure to share what you hope to see more of (we might just do it!).

Have you had the Indy Racing Experience? What was your two seater ride like?

While I’m en route to a little relaxation at my parents’ lake abode to cool off for the weekend, things in Texas will just be heating up. I’ll be floating around the lake in the pontoon while final adjustments and preparations are being made on pit lane around the Texas Motor Speedway. By the time I’m back to shore, it’ll be just about time for the Firestone Twin 275s to start and my family and I will tune in just as we always have.

The television will be set to Versus and, because we will most likely be outside, our SiriusXM radio dock will be blaring the race broadcast on the deck. Home or the lake, indoors or outdoors, day or night,  if it’s race day you can be sure we’ll be listening to the race through some medium.

Everyone has their race day rituals or traditions. Whether you throw big parties, have small family get-togethers, or lounge on the couch in a t-shirt featuring your favorite driver, we love the way you tune into IndyCar. We’d love to hear more about your favorite ways to spend race day.

Brag about the way you celebrate by leaving a comment below.

• Throwing a party?
• Grilling out?
• Hanging out with your family?
• Not moving from the couch all day?
• IndyCar drinking games?

We want to know why your way is cooler than any other!

Maybe it was the countless hours put in during the month of May and the Indianapolis 500, or maybe it comes down to arriving at Texas and realizing we’re at the seventh race of the season but I’m ready for a change and am sure fans are too.

A change of what, you ask?

Our Facebook profile picture.

I love our IZOD IndyCar Series logo but, and stick with me on this one, the INDYCAR Facebook page is really a page for our fans, not us. Sure, we share information, stories, pictures, and videos, but what keeps Facebook.com/IndyCar going are great fan comments, fans answering other fan questions, and so many “likes” I’ve stopped counting at this point.

Enter the INDYCAR Facebook Fan of the Week for the June races at Texas, Milwaukee, and Iowa. Each race weekend, fans can share photos of themselves at an INDYCAR race or with their favorite INDYCAR drivers, and a quick sentence or two about why they deserve to be the Fan of the Week to other fans.

We’ll grab the photos, create a special fan photo gallery on our Facebook page, and then ask all of our Facebook fans to check out the photos and help determine the Fan of the Week on the Monday following each of the next three races.

What’s in it for you?

Your picture becomes the INDYCAR Facebook profile picture for the week following the race, identifying you as the INDYCAR Fan of the Week, and immediately spicing up our Facebook page with the real face of our page: our fans.

So get started now, head over to our Facebook page and start sharing your very best fan photos and why you think you should be our Facebook Fan of the Week!

The Indianapolis 500 is a very, very long race event for us. It’s two weeks of content. And for the new media group, it’s overseeing both indycar.com and indianapolismotorspeedway.com. Most of our race events run from Thursday-Sunday, with indycar.com being the focus. Two weeks of racing is exciting, exhausting and a challenge. I love content, good storytelling and beautiful photography. Our May provided all of that. Some highlights.

Opening weekend brought the announcement of The Greatest 33. It was an honor working on this site and it was amazing to see how many fans voted, shared with friends and revealed their own personal memories.

The Greatest 33

4,028. That’s how many photographs were uploaded. It’s how our department sees what our photographers capture. We then title, caption and tag these images for our websites, media site, Flickr and so on. That’s a lot of images and it’s tedious work. BUT – it allows us to bring some really stunning moments to you (and shows what a great group of photographers we work with). A few of my favorite below. A picture is worth a thousand words.

One of the most compelling stories of the month

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Earlier this week we rolled out 25 QR Codes around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as introduced a new version of the Verizon IndyCar Mobile Application. We’re thinking digitally, while we celebrate the Centennial running of the Indianapolis 500. History meets technology.

If you don’t have the app on your Verizon phone, check it out here (as well as for compatible devices).

If you’re at IMS for Carb day or through the weekend, you can access 25 of our QR Codes around the Pagoda, Yard of Bricks and Gasoline Alley. These codes will bring you closer to the racing action, drivers from the IZOD IndyCar Series and reveal some of the behind-the-scenes information of our Series. All you need is a Verizon phone with QR Code reading software and you’ll have instant access to exclusive videos – and even a chance to win a trip to the IndyCar World Championships in Las Vegas. Cool.

QR code Will

Both the app and QR Codes provide a closer connection to our sport and features content that highlights the diversity of IndyCar. We hope you enjoy and would love to hear what you think.

Car Town!

Alex Tagliani tweeted that the first person to win his Big Rig gets the gloves he’ll use in the 100^th anniversary Indianapolis 500.

Huh? It all makes sense if you’re playing Car Town on Facebook.

The game that features the IZOD IndyCar Series now includes actual races on 17 different tracks, including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that is playing host to the 100^th anniversary Indianapolis 500, for players to compete.

Lead your favorite driver to first place on each track to unlock the team’s Big Rig.

In the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Garage, users can select a car driven by top IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and complete the Indy 500 Challenge with the help of a pit crew they select from among their Facebook friends or by spending in-game points. Players can even race against the clock and compete against other Car Town pit crews, striving to top the Indy Pit Stop Challenge leaderboard.

Race now in Car Town. CLICK HERE

It’s an odd post title, but it’s a fitting one for a discussion on Twitter. Twitter has hit it’s stride this season with more and more teams, drivers, journalists and sponsors joining the online dialogue. The most pleasant surprise are the amount of driver’s genuinely using Twitter to reveal their personalities. A video interview in pit lane isn’t always the best way to know someone. 140 characters in a tweet on the other hand…

TK ready for Indy

Twitter is obviously on the rise. It’s a social tool that people are finally understanding and utilizing. IndyCar blogger, @pressdog wrote a four-part series earlier this year, illustrating it’s growing importance within the sport. Followers of @IndyCar have grown over 300% in just over a year. It’s become a more accepted method of communication and we use it to share race updates, official results, news stories, videos, Flickr images, blog posts and lots more.  There are now multiple voices around the INDYCAR experience. We are listening.

Yesterday, we interviewed James Hinchcliffe (video below). It got me thinking about driver’s that are web savvy. I remember watching Hinch last season and being impressed by his personal online strategy. His site, videos, and use of Twitter were exceptional. He was ahead of the game. And now, the game has caught up with him and embraced the web community. In my opinion, it’s the most important way we (and I mean ‘we’) can help grow the INDYCAR brand. We all have a voice to help grow this sport.

There have been lots of memorable Twitter moments recently. These are bringing the online world into the at-track world. They are bringing together the personalities of the sport into a new environment. They are giving our faithful, loyal fans new ways of connecting to the speed and racing action. Twitter is removing traditional walls. Some quick examples -

Tomas Scheckter’s blog post last December got some real chatter online and then on Twitter.

Most races are followed by some interesting driver banter – all before our Twitter eyes.

Today, Scott Dixon gave away a watch to one lucky fan. All of this was done through Twitter!

Tweet with drivers and you could win!

And a current contest from Ryan Briscoe: “Who wants to win a trip and be my guest at this years Indy500? Guess my qual speed to win! Go to www.ryanbriscoe.com for details”.

For fans, I can’t think of a better way to follow the sport or a favorite driver. You can tweet directly at them and there will be a lot of chatter this month of May. What are you waiting for?

So – we’ve created a full listing of IZOD IndyCar Series drivers on Twitter for you HERE.

Check them out, follow their tweets, join the conversation and as always, let us know what you think.

You can follow @IndyCar, here.

The 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500 has been touted at The Most Important Race in History. Okay, okay, marketing pitches aside – everyone is upping their game to create the very best fan experience at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month.

Enter Verizon. Specifically, Verizon with an extensive, interactive QR code experience placed at locations all around the Speedway and guiding fans through exclusive content for the Indianapolis 500. But here’s the big question that fans have got to be asking: why bother checking this out?

This blog post is all about taking a step back and sharing what a QR code is, what application you’ll need on your mobile device to access a code, and an explanation of what “lives behind” the code itself. Think about exciting videos, driver commentary, track history, crew interviews, special information and offers… just like anything incredibly special and worth seeing, it’s always more fun when you know that others don’t have the same opportunity as you to see it. You’ve made it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 100th Anniversary Race. You’ve managed to scrape together your pennies and  own a pretty decent Verizon mobile phone (Warning: will not work on Zack Morris-style cellular devices). Consider the Verizon QR Code Experience your reward this May.

What Is A QR Code? According to the top Digital Media resource Mashable, a QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

What Do I Need to Do to Access a QR Code? To access the Verizon QR Code Experience at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you’ll need a Verizon Mobile Device. You’ll also need an application on your mobile device that will read QR Codes. And I’ve been there — the hesitation, the lack of interest in seeking out a scanner, downloading it, and figuring out how to use it. But- I’ve also gone through it and can assure you that the process is painstakingly simple and only takes a few minutes. I can also share that it’s worth your while to download a QR Code application prior to heading out to the track (it can be harder to view your phone’s screen outdoors, especially when sunny and, as we all know, every day in May is a perfect 80 degrees, clear skies and sunshine). Once you have it downloaded, you open the application and, similar to taking a picture, scan the image. Once you’ve obtained a QR code reader, go ahead and try this one.

How does it work? Picture a package sent in the mail with a barcode sticker slapped on the outside of the box and scanned in at each facility so that you can track its delivery online. In theory, it’s a similar concept — scan the QR code and useful information is delivered.

Where Do I Get Started? Visit Verizon in the INDYCAR Fan Village and find out more about accessing QR code content or look for specific QR code signage around the IMS campus.

What’s In It For Me? Verizon’s calling it Scan. Watch. Win. Every code you scan is another opportunity to win great INDYCAR prizes, including a trip to the IZOD IndyCar World Championships.

So get started now by browsing through a smartphone applications marketplace and downloading a QR code reader to your mobile device. Come prepared to see more of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway than even some of the other fans around you — it’s going to be an incredibly special experience and a unique way to commemorate the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500.

Still mildly confused? Shoot us a Tweet @INDYCAR and we’ll make sure you’re good to go.

It was late on a cold winter day as I was working on livery designs for the ever popular INDYCAR.com “Design It” program that I got a phone call from a strange number. “Hello — This is Mike”, I said… “Mike, I’ve seen your designs on INDYCAR.com and wanted you to design a car for me,” said the caller. “Certainly, who’s this?” I replied. “This is Jay Penske.”

Understandably, I was shocked and honored. Here was the son of the greatest car owner in motorsports, calling me to design the car they’d race in the 2008 INDYCAR season, the popular Symantec #12 Dallara for Luczo Dragon Racing. He’d been a big fan of my designs on INDYCAR.com and gotten in touch with me. I got to work immediately!

Fast forward a few years, a few new friendships, and several years of designs for Luczo Dragon/ DeFerran Dragon Racing, to February 2011. The news had recently broken that DeFerran Dragon racing was ceasing operations. Soon after, the phone rang with another opportunity from Jay and team manager John “JC” Cummiskey. Jay, JC and a skeleton crew were working hard to put together a program to keep Dragon Racing alive and needed my help in designing liveries for sponsorship proposals. One of those designs, came to life this past weekend when INDYCAR star Paul Tracy took the reigns of the Ralph’s Supermarkets / Pepsi / Frito Lay / Rockstar Energy Drink / Berringer Vineyards Dallara at Long Beach Grand Prix for Dragon Racing.

Paul Tracy at Long Beach

Dragon Racing has always been wonderful when it comes to my creative freedom. I’m generally given a sponsor or two and am free to “go for it” to come up with an eye-catching design. This makes the design process much simpler, as there is no “box” to stay within. The design process for this particular car was quite simple once I got started. Ralph’s has such an iconic, clean, and classic logo that I wanted to make sure the paint scheme fit along with it. I also wanted to incorporate the Red/Black/White colors synonymous with the Dragon Racing logo. We also wanted to be sure to cleanly blend the logos of PT’s wonderful sponsor, Motegi Wheels into the mix.

The best way to accomplish this, was a white base. After sorting logo placements for Ralph’s, Motegi, and other partners I went to work sketching different line schemes on the model until I ended up with the design that will be raced on Sunday.

One of the benefits to working in 3D as I do is the ability to “rotate” the car at any angle needed. I was able to design this car, along with all others in the past, by sketching directly on a virtual INDYCAR, just like it were sitting in front of me. This is a benefit over working in 2D, for me, because I’m able to better visualize the final product at a multitude of viewing angles without redrawing the design multiple times at multiple angles. Until the next time, happy designing!