This weekend sees the next NTT IndyCar Series round taking place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 14-turn road course. Scott Dixon won here last year in his #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The race is timed to go at 2:45pm local time (6:45am Sun 16 May NZ time) on Saturday 15 May.
Here are the GMR Grand Prix Fast Facts
The GMR Grand Prix will be the 10th INDYCAR SERIES event conducted on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course. Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power are the only drivers to win on the IMS road course. Pagenaud won the GMR Grand Prix in 2014, 2016 and 2019, Power won the GMR Grand Prix in 2015, 2017 and 2018 and the second race of the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader in 2020. Dixon won the 2020 GMR Grand Prix, while Newgarden won the first race of the 2020 Harvest GP doubleheader.
Pagenaud, Power, Felix Rosenqvist and Sebastian Saavedra are the only drivers to have won the pole position in the GMR Grand Prix. Saavedra claimed the pole in 2014, Power in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020, Pagenaud in 2016 and Rosenqvist in 2019. Power and Rinus VeeKay won the NTT P1 Award in the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader last October.
Four NTT P1 Award winners have won the GMR Grand Prix from the pole: Power in 2015, 2017 and 2018 and Pagenaud in 2016. Power also won the second Harvest GP race from pole in 2020.
Nine drivers have competed in every INDYCAR SERIES race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course – Marco Andretti, Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Newgarden, Pagenaud, Power, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato. All but Andretti are entered this year.
Dixon has finished first or second in the last four GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis, including last year’s win – his first on the IMS road course. Dixon, who won at Texas on May 1 for his 51st career win, leads the point standings entering the event for the second straight year.
Rookies Romain Grosjean, Jimmie Johnson and Scott McLaughlin will race NTT INDYCAR SERIES cars on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course for the first time this weekend. Johnson is no stranger to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, though. He won the Brickyard 400 – the NASCAR Cup race previously held on the oval — four times.
Twenty-three of the drivers entered in the event have competed in INDYCAR races on the IMS road course. Eleven entered drivers have led laps in the GMR Grand Prix: Power 210, Pagenaud 68, Dixon 66, Graham Rahal 36, Newgarden 25, Ryan Hunter-Reay 18, Rosenqvist 15, James Hinchcliffe 4, Alexander Rossi 2, Marcus Ericsson 1 and Jack Harvey.
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