Here’s a good problem to have: With three races remaining in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ 2021 season, Chip Ganassi Racing has three viable championship contenders.
Now, how to boost the individual hopes of Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson while managing the expectations of the organization? Just remember that Chip Ganassi “likes winners.”
This year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship figures to go through one of the top five drivers in the current point standings. Or, it might go through Team Penske’s Will Power.
Now, don’t misunderstand. Power heads to the final three races of the season in ninth place, 120 points in arrears of the top spot. Barring extreme circumstances, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet will not win his second season title this year. But, oh, he could have a significant impact on how the year plays out.
Something about Bill McAnally Racing drivers and Irwindale Speedway seem to jive well.
For the second time this season and fifth time in his career, defending ARCA Menards Series West champion Jesse Love earned the victory, surviving a flurry of late-race restarts — including a green-white-checkered — to do so.
Josef Newgarden earned his second victory of the season by winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway in a race that shuffled the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship deck.
Newgarden drove his No. 2 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by .5397 of a second over Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP. O’Ward didn’t enter Victory Lane, but he also was a big winner of the night by taking the championship lead by 10 points over Alex Palou, who placed 20th after being eliminated in a three-car accident early in the race.
The ARCA Menards platform is set for its busiest weekend of 2021, with three races across two series scheduled over the span of three days.
The ARCA Menards Series will complete a weekend doubleheader starting with Friday evening’s Henry Ford Health System 200 at Michigan International Speedway. The series and its competitors will then travel Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Allen Crowe 100 on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, the first of two dirt-track races on the schedule.
Meanwhile, the ARCA Menards Series West on Saturday will contest its fifth race of the season, the NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Sunrise Ford at Irwindale Speedway outside of Los Angeles. The event marks the series’ second race this season at Irwindale, where defending champion Jesse Love won last month.
