Motorsports: Racing’s big weekend features three classics

Remember the old ABC Sports slogan, “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat”? Last Sunday’s final qualifying for the Indy 500 brought both — thrills for rookie driver Robert Shwartzman and Prema Racing, and agony for the entire Penske organization. Schwartzman, in his first oval-racing experience, made the Fast Six and set pole time with a lap at 232.79 mph. He’s the first rookie to accomplish that feat since Teo Fabi in 1983. Takuma Sato and Pato O’Ward are alongside him in the front row with Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, and Alex Palou in row two. As for the agony part of the equation, Scott Dixon crashed heavily in practice after qualifying for the Fast 12. Then Josef Newgarden and Will Power’s cars were found to have illegal modifications to their attenuators and were disqualified. They will start at the rear of the pack and lose all qualifying points and their pit positions while Team Penske received a $100,000 fine and suspension for the strategists on the Nos. 2 and No. 12 cars. Then, on Wednesday, Team Penske announced the departure of IndyCar President Tim Cindric, IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moore from the organization.

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On a positive note, three car-destroying crashes during practice and qualifying resulted in no serious driver injuries. Had similar crashes happened 50 years ago, the drivers would have lost their lives or been severely injured. I credit Safer barriers, car design, and the aeroscreen that all three will race tomorrow.

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If you thought that NASCAR has run out of rules gimmicks, think again. This year’s All-Star race featured a promoter’s caution which could be thrown at any time from lap 100 to lap 222. And of course they had to use it. Michael Waltrip mounted the starter’s stand and after clowning around for a while finally dropped the yellow flag (literally) with 35 laps to go, throwing things into confusion. Joey Logano, who had led most of the race, elected to stay out on old tires while most of the field pitted for scuffs. Logano was a sitting duck for Christopher Bell, who passed him for the win and the $1 million prize. Logano got the $100,000 consolation prize. Kyle Larson, fresh from Indy qualifying, started at the back, led for five laps and was running in the top 10 when he hit the wall and broke a toe link. He finished 21st.

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At the Imola track in Italy, Max Verstappen snatched the lead from pole sitter Oscar Piastri and appears to be back on form. Max extended his lead to over 18 seconds but a safety car situation in the late going reduced it to 6.1 seconds at the checker. The McLarens of Lando Norris finished second and third. Is Red Bull back in the driver’s seat? We’ll find out this weekend at Monaco. Among active drivers who have won there, Lewis Hamilton has three victories, two for Mercedes and one for McLaren. Verstappen and Aston-Martin’s Fernando Alonso have two each, and Charles Leclerc won last year for Ferrari.

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This weekend, we will see three of the world’s most famous races, all in one day. Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix airs Saturday at 7 a.m. on ESPN, and ABC will broadcast the race at 6 a.m. Sunday. At 7 a.m., the Indy 500 pre-race show begins on Fox, followed by the race start at 3 p.m. There are no activities at Indy on Saturday, freeing Larson up to practice and qualify at 11:30 a.m. for the Coca-Cola 600. Saturday’s practice and qualifying and Sunday’s 3 p.m. race will air on Prime.