News

Bommarito Automotive Group 500

Madison, Illinois

August 16, 2024

After a three-week hiatus during which the world came together for the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES gets back to action this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) just outside St. Louis. With five races remaining on the 2024 calendar, the series is entering the home stretch of the season with four of those events taking place on ovals. 

The first of those is the 1.25-mile WWTR oval that is hosting INDYCAR SERIES action for the 16th time dating back to the 1997 season in which Paul Tracy gave Team Penske their first win at the circuit. In the years since, four additional Team Penske drivers have provided seven more trips to the WWTR Victory Lane with current INDYCAR SERIES oval master, Josef Newgarden, scoring four of those wins. 

Team Penske enters the St. Louis weekend in the midst of another strong oval season with each of their trio of drivers winning a circle track race. Scott McLaughlin, fresh of his first career oval victory in any series at Iowa Speedway last month, proved he was starting to figure out the discipline by scoring the third-fastest lap of the mid-day practice session. The New Zealander backed up that time by taking his second oval pole of the season with a lap of 179.972 mph in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet. Josef Newgarden, who scored his second consecutive win in the Indianapolis 500 in May, qualified in the fourth position in the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet as he looks for his fifth career win at WWTR. The 2018 INDYCAR SERIES winner at WWTR, Will Power, will also start Sunday's race from inside the top five in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Power also showed considerable speed in the early practice session with the fourth fastest lap. 

Both Newgarden and Power will move up one position at the start of the race due to a grid penalty to the second-place qualifier, the No. 60 of Felix Rosenqvist, and will start third and fourth, respectively. 

Coverage of tomorrow's Bommarito Automotive Group 500 will begin at 6:00 pm ET on the USA Network. 

Josef Newgarden

First Practice - 16th
Qualifying - 4th
Second Practice - 4th

Scott McLaughlin 

First Practice - 3rd
Qualifying - 1st
Second Practice - 13th

Will Power

First Practice - 4th
Qualifying - 5th
Second Practice - 10th

THREE FOR PT: When the former CART/PPG Series (now INDYCAR SERIES) came to World Wide Technology Raceway for the track's inaugural race on Memorial Day weekend of 1997, Paul Tracy was riding a two-race winning streak with consecutive victories at Nazareth, PA and Rio de Janeiro. With eight different leaders on the day, Tracy used a quick Penske chassis and a three pit stop strategy to win his third race in a row, taking the lead with two laps remaining to give Team Penske their 99th INDYCAR SERIES victory. 

BATTING .500 IN ST. LOUIS: The city of St. Louis is one of America's great sports cities, particularly their love of the legendary St. Louis Cardinals. Speaking in baseball terms, Josef Newgarden sports a .500 batting average at World Wide Technology Raceway with four wins in his eight career starts and 582 laps led. 
 
THEY SAID IT: "We rolled out of the truck great today. The DEX Imaging Chevy has been great. I'm very proud of the team. We had a procedure and went through it and got it done, and just makes me proud of everyone. But end of the day tomorrow is payday, and we'll make sure that we were on top of things. But proud of this whole group. And, yeah, we just want them to sleep on us. We're coming, and I want to make sure I get myself back in this championship. Starting position is huge, and ultimately, getting a pole without, you know, having an engine penalty as well as a big deal. So that's what happened last year. And we found out the hard way. You know, being stuck in the middle there is really tough, but we'll do our best for strategy, find our way forward. And yeah, hopefully we can bring home the win."
- Scott McLaughlin