Andretti-Herta Autosport rookie Alexander Rossi has been nominated for the 2016 “Best Driver” ESPY award for his fuel-saving victory at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

Rossi, a California-native, was also awarded the Fastest Rookie and Rookie of the Year honors for the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The 24-year-old became only the 10th rookie ever to win the 500-mile race in its history; the first since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and the first American rookie since Louis Meyer in 1928.

“It is such a huge honor to be nominated for Best Driver at the ESPYS this year,” Rossi said. “It will be a pleasure to spend an evening with such an exceptional group of athletes who have all accomplished something pretty incredible. I very much look forward to being able to represent and share my passion for the Verizon IndyCar Series next month.”

Rossi is the second driver from the Andretti Autosport stable to be nominated for an ESPY award in the last four years. His teammate, Ryan Hunter-Reay, took home “Best Driver” honors with both his nominations in 2013 and 2014.

Petty's Garage announced that they will build 500 "King Edition" 2017 Ford Mustang GT models.

The builds also include 43 cars that will feature a special silver scheme to celebrate Richard Petty's 80th birthday in July 2017.

This is the third year that Petty's Garage and Ford have come together for the special Mustangs honoring "The King," as the 2017 builds are set to be the largest stock to date.

The 2017 King Edition Mustangs will feature 670 horsepower and a full warranty through Ford, while the Premier, 825 horsepower editions will offer a third-party powertrain warranty for three years/36,000 miles.

Petty's Garage will also introduce a King EcoBoost model next year, which includes the addition of a race spoiler and a signature center exhaust system.

All models will be available for purchase at local Ford dealerships nationwide.

Hyundai’s 2017 World Rally Car will be based on the three-door i20 it wanted to use this season. The Korean manufacturer's current car was planned to come off the three-door platform, until it was discovered the factory couldn't produce enough cars to satisfy homologation requirements, hence this season's five-door i20 WRC.

"At the time, the three-door car didn't comply, but now it should be different," Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan said. "We will carry a lot of parts over from the current car to the new car, but the regulations are quite different for 2017.

"There is still some work to do; we have new suspension pick-up points and things like that."

Hyundai has tested a three-door i20 WRC this month, but that is believed to be based on an early mule car from 2016. Nandan said the 2017 car wouldn't be seen until later in the season.

"We won't run the complete car until quite late, but we have dedicated one 2016 car to run some 2017 parts," he said. "This started in April, when we were testing coolers, intercoolers, bigger restrictors, things like that.
"Now we are working with the transmission – we have to do this rather than waiting for the new shell."

Nandan is keen to retain Hyundai's drivers for 2017. Hayden Paddon is already under contract, but Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and test driver Kevin Abbring have yet to commit.

He added, "Our line-up is not too bad, this has been proven some times. We still have to discuss a little bit, but we are quite confident to keep our drivers. They are fast and the combination is good."

Nandan admitted the chances of running four cars—as it did on the last two rounds of the world championship—next season were slim.

"The difference between two and three cars is not so big; four cars is the biggest difference because of the spare parts you need as well," he explained. "When we started in 2014 we put three cars on some events, then last year, when you have a car which has been running for one year, you have a pool of parts and you can run three cars. But to put four cars, really it's a big amount for next season."

The IHRA Drag Racing Series is heading north of the border this weekend, with all four Pro classes making the trip to Grand Bend Motorplex in Grand Bend, Ontario, for the IHRA Mopar Canadian Nationals Fueled by Sunoco.

AMSOIL Nitro Funny Cars, Pro Stock, Nitro Motorcycles and Pro Mod will be joined by Outlaw Sleds as well as four Top Fuel cars, one driven by former IHRA champ Bruce Litton, who also competes in the IHRA AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car class, and Hot Streak II, a twin jet-powered truck driven by Hayden Proffitt, will be there for its third-straight performance with the IHRA.

The Motorplex is located on 407 acres that contains the quarter-mile Grand Bend Dragway, the Grand Bend Raceway, which is a road course for sports cars and motorcycles; Grand Bend Motocross, for dirt track motorcycles, and Grand Bend International Speedway, a quarter-mile paved oval for stock cars, midgets and Legends cars, hosting its 20th anniversary reunion this weekend.

The Dragway itself is 60 feet wide, and has a 300-foot concrete launch pad. It's well equipped for night racing, with 68 big 1,000-watt metal halide fixtures every 100 feet. Communication is no problem with a 3,200-watt sound system with 48 speakers for the 700 pit sites, and 38 speakers for the grandstands.

The track is located about 40 miles east of Port Huron, Michigan.

Summit Pro-Am and ET qualifying starts Friday, June 24, at 2 p.m., with the first round of Pro qualifying that night at 8 p.m.

Saturday, Summit Pro-Am qualifying starts at 9 a.m., with eliminations following qualifying. Round two of Pro qualifying starts at 3 p.m., with round three at 5 p.m. Pro eliminations start at 8 p.m.

Sunday, Summit Pro-Am and ET racing starts at 9 a.m., with Pro eliminations resuming at 1 p.m., with Pro finals at 3 p.m. Following the Mopar Canadian Nationals, the IHRA completes its Canadian swing with the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals at Edmonton, Alberta, July 15-17.

Formula E is planning a virtual shootout between drivers and fans in Las Vegas, and could make such eSports events eligible for championship points in the future.

The electric single-seater championship has embraced gaming in its second season, introducing bespoke live 'Race-Off' events, virtual races between drivers and one fan at FE races and a console-based fan eSports championship.

Series CEO Alejandro Agag wants to take that further in 2016/17 by running the marquee Vegas event as part of the January 5-8 Consumer Electronics Show, and other eSports events in between the large gaps in the season three calendar.

It will feature a large financial jackpot, but Agag also called it an "experiment" for points-paying virtual races in the future.

"Depending on how it goes I could envisage that some of these virtual races could give points for a championship in the future, but not now," he told Reuters.

"We think eSports is a huge opportunity and we want to be the first ones fully immersed in that.
"This will be the first virtual race with 20 professional drivers of a racing championship on a big stage and with a very large prize fund."

Agag said "people want to win a million in Vegas" but would only confirm the prize amount would be "significantly plus of six figures".

Autosport understands the full field of FE drivers could be obliged to take part.

The chance for five gamers to qualify to join them will be launched later this year.

The track will only be disclosed to players on the morning of the event.

Agag said it would be "fun" if a gamer beat the FE drivers to the prize.

"It's going to be like the real Formula E," he added.

"You come for the first time to a city and race in a city, you never practice before.

"Gamers are normally better at games than drivers. On the other hand, drivers are better than gamers at quickly getting the feel of a race track.

"It's going to be an interesting competition."

Current FE championship leader Lucas di Grassi backed the series' push with eSports.

He told Autosport: "I think it's great because the future of motorsport is more and more about interaction between the virtual world and the real world.

"A lot of people race online that perhaps haven't raced cars on real tracks because of the financial difficulty of starting in motorsport.

"To give a fan the chance to come and race the real drivers is something really, really special."

Toyota has yet to identify the technical problem that handed a last-gasp victory to Porsche in last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Initial investigations at the track did not reveal why the #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid suddenly slowed with five minutes of the race to go when Kazuki Nakajima was at the wheel.

A spokesman for the Toyota Motorsport team said, "We suffered a sudden loss of power and we are ‎still investigating the precise root cause for an issue that we have never experienced previously. A full update will be issued in due course."

The #5 car, which Nakajima shared with Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi, was leading by more than a minute when it hit problems on the penultimate lap of the race. Nakajima stopped on the start-finish line and recycled through the car's electronic systems before completing one final slow lap. The Toyota was not classified because the lap took more than the six-minute maximum specified in the rules.

The technical problem for Toyota allowed Porsche to take its second consecutive victory at Le Mans with the 919 Hybrid shared by Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas.

The #6 Toyota finished second in the hands of Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi.

Motovicity Distribution announces the debut of the Speed Ring Motor Sports Festival Powered by HKS, a unique, industry-based event that will be open to the general public. The event will take place at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, on August 21, 2016.

The weekend action will be highlighted by a time attack race comprised of enthusiasts and shops, as well as a GTR-only class allowing participants to compete against Nob Taniguchi, who will pilot the HKS GT 1000+ Nissan GT-R. In addition to the time attack, the event will also feature a car show, vendor midway, industry insiders and much more.

The Speed Ring is offering one of the largest payouts of any time attack event to date.

“Bragging rights aren’t the only thing at stake here. With over $10,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competition is sure to be fierce,” said Brian Lounsberry, VP of Sales and Marketing at Motovicity Distribution. In addition to class prizes, “The customer who defeats Nob in the HKS GT1000+ and lays down the fastest overall time in the Unlimited R35 GT-R Class will walk away with a $20,000 bonus!”

Motovicity is excited for the debut of the Speed Ring Powered by HKS.

“As a wholesale distributor for both the street performance and racing markets, our dream of an exclusive event that offers an opportunity for us to see the parts we offer in action is about to become a reality! This event will allow our customers and other racers a unique venue to prove just how bad-ass their builds are,” said Lounsberry. “We want to make sure this is the best event you participate in all year, which is why we’ve partnered with Formula Drift and other industry icons to make this an event to remember.”

Tickets for this special event are on sale now. Vendor and display space is also available with all the event information being found at www.thespeedring.com.

Turn 14 Distribution, a performance automotive parts distributor, continues to expand its line card with the addition of Racecomp Engineering to its assortment.

“When it comes to Subaru, Scion FR-S, and Mitsubishi EVO performance, Racecomp Engineering has an excellent reputation within the community of manufacturing products that perform on the street and at the track. We’re proud to offer their products to our customers,” said Kyle Shelley, Turn 14 Distribution’s Director of Sales.

“By concentrating their production efforts on three Subaru models—the Legacy, Impreza, and BRZ/FR-S twins—along with the Mitsubishi EVO, Raceland is able to engineer suspension and brake systems for enthusiasts which provide excellent performance.”

Racecomp Engineering, founded in 2003, uses intense research and development processes to focus on providing superior performance. The company’s components are proven on competition vehicles such as Speed World Challenge GT race cars along with daily-driven performance vehicles.

RCE designs components with three goals in mind: maximizing grip, increasing control, and decreasing lap times. With these goals at the forefront of its ongoing product improvement efforts, the company derives their success from sound suspension engineering theories implemented accordingly with their real-world fine-tuning both on the street and at the track to create components which will perform and provide the best possible suspension and braking solution for each individual driver.

DIRTcar Racing officials have disqualified five competitors following failed post-race inspections at the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway.

Tire samples collected from the No. B5 driven by Brandon Sheppard, the No. 22 driven by Gregg Satterlee, the No. 20 driven by Jimmy Owens, the No. 33X driven by Ricky Thornton and No. 0 driven by Scott Bloomquist and tested by an independent laboratory did not meet established benchmarks in a chemical analysis.

A total of 32 samples were taken throughout the weekend, June 9–11, from participants.

All five competitors were found to be in violation of rule 15.11-G and were fined in accordance with rule 11.1.

Rule 15.11-G. states that chemical alterations, vulcanizing, tire softening, defacing and/or altering the face of the tire lettering and/or tire stamping will not be permitted. Chemicals or tire softening is not permitted at any time. Tires may be inspected at any time. Any violation with any tire presented for competition may result in immediate disqualification from the events and/or other penalties including but not limited to; loss of money, fine, loss of points and/or suspension.

All five have been disqualified from the event, including the loss of all purse money and championship points earned during the event, fined $1,000 and penalized 1,000 DIRTcar Late Model points for the 2016 season. The total penalty, including loss of money, fine and the cost of the tire analysis was $19,630 for Sheppard, $4,655 for Satterlee, $7,630 for Owens, $10,930 for Thornton and $6,105 for Bloomquist.

Each has been placed under a three-month suspension from all DIRTcar sanctioned events, which includes World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series competition, beginning June 11, 2016 and concluding Sept. 11, 2016 and will be under probation following the conclusion of the suspension for the remainder of the 2016 season.

Scott Dixon isn't exactly sure how fast Indy cars will qualify at Watkins Glen this Labor Day weekend, but he's sure the track record is going to get obliterated.

"I don't remember what the pole was back in 2010, like 1:29.00 or something, and we were already running the 24s today," Dixon said following Monday's tire and team test at the legendary 3.3-mile road course in upstate New York. "It's friggin' fast. I mean really, really fast and it's definitely going to be high grip.

"They did a helluva job repaving it and it's so smooth and so consistent. It rained today and drained so well it got dry really quick. It's impressive, man."

"The grip level is out of control—it's like a video game," Hinchcliffe said. "My in-car video doesn't do justice to what it's like because there are so many quick corners. It's wild."

Ryan Briscoe set the one-lap mark of 1m28.132s in 2009 and all five of the drivers testing Monday were well under that time. James Hinchcliffe (Honda) and Simon Pagenaud (Chevy) were tire testing for Firestone while Alexander Rossi (Andretti), Helio Castroneves (Penske) and Dixon (Ganassi) took a car testing day. There's an open test set for August 11th.

A three-time winner at The Glen, Dixon is excited about running Road America this weekend and The Glen on Sept. 2-4.

"I'm hearing good things about the ticket sales at Elkhart Lake," said the four-time Verizon IndyCar champion who just returned from his podium finish in his debut at Le Mans. "It's just great to be going back to two of the greatest road courses in North America. It's where we belong."

Several teams from the Verizon IndyCar series took to the track at Watkins Glen International for a five-hour Firestone tire test on Monday.

It was announced in May that IndyCar would return to The Glen Sept. 1-4 to replace the scrubbed street race in Boston.