Live from Trackside - Pocono INDYCAR 400

Sunday, July 7

8:30 p.m.

What a day! It was really cool to be a part of the Ganassi podium sweep and finish second with so many Novo Nordisk employees in attendance! Definitely a historic day... Team Target's 100th win, Honda's 200th win, and Scott's 30th win. Congrats to him and Dario for the well-deserved result today! Both Thursday at the test as well as yesterday, we really focused on our race car. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team, the whole Chip Ganassi Racing crew as evidenced by 1-2-3, was focusing on race day, knowing that’s when it mattered. So throughout today, the guys made it better on each pit stop and the car just got quicker and quicker. A lot of credit to Honda--they gave us the fuel mileage and speed today. Thanks to the Chip Ganassi Racing teams for their hard work this weekend. Let's do it again in Toronto!

Great pit stops by the No. 83 crew!

Post-race interview with ABC/ESPN.

Post-race press conference with teammate Dario.

8:10 a.m.

Good morning... It's race day! I had a relaxing evening last night, just grilled out and enjoyed time with friends at the motorcoach before an early bedtime. I'm headed over to the IndyCar autograph session then a meet and greet with the Novo Nordisk group before team pre-race meetings. With Novo Nordisk's main office located in New Jersey, this is somewhat of a "home race" for them... A lot of support (and orange shirts) here today! Can't thank them enough for coming out and seeing me race. 

Be sure to tune in to the Pocono INDYCAR 400 at noon Eastern on ABC! 

Saturday, July 6

3:10 p.m.

The car was pretty good today in morning practice. We spent a lot of time working on the race car and getting enough miles in so we could mileage-out the engine and put a fresh one in for warm-up tonight and the race tomorrow. Overall, I think we’re reasonably happy with our qualifying effort. The car slid a little bit in Turn 3 on my first timed-lap, so I think that cost us a little speed heading into the second lap. We’ll see where we end up in the starting line-up and have a good 400-mile race tomorrow.

First practice session... ready to go!

Evening practice... hot stops for the No. 83 team.

8:30 a.m.

Good morning! Hope you all had a great Independence Day. It's been a good couple of days here at Pocono so far. We were pretty pleased with the test on Thursday. We ran a lot of laps, finished in the top half of the speed chart but still have a bit of work to do.

Yesterday we took some downtime before heading to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders baseball game for a media advance. It was pretty cool to watch them warm up and then throw the first pitch. I also met some new IndyCar fans... Even a family that came out here from Ohio for the race weekend!

Hanging with the RailRider's mascot!

I'm looking forward to getting back on track this morning for the start of the actual race weekend. It's such a fun (and yes, tricky) track... We're just about flat out the whole way. It'll be a great race for the fans on Sunday for sure!

Here's a quick rundown of the race weekend schedule (all times Eastern). Timing for all sessions is available at http://racecontrol.indycar.com.

Saturday, July 6

10-11 a.m. Practice

1:15-2:45 p.m. Qualifying

4:15 p.m. Appearance at Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel (in the INDYCAR Fan Village)

5:30-6 p.m. Practice

Sunday, July 7

8:30-9:30 a.m. IndyCar autograph session (in the INDYCAR Fan Village)

12 p.m. Pocono INDYCAR 400 on ABC

Wednesday, July 3
10:30 a.m.
Hello from Pennsylvania! We arrived this morning on the team charter and are heading to the track now. We have an open test here tomorrow before the race weekend officially begins on Saturday. If you're in the area for the 4th of July, be sure to come out and watch! It's free, and you can bring your own picnic (as long as you bring enough goodies for all of us...)! Check out all of the details here.

I'm really excited to race at Pocono. Everyone says it will be a great challenge for the IndyCars. I think the speeds will be close to Indianapolis which is always a lot of fun. It's great to be going back to another superspeedway. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team has been building some momentum through the middle of the summer, having just hit the halfway point of the season. We're really starting to find our feet and regain some of the early success we've had this season with the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car. It was really nice to having a test day to work with the Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates last week at Sebring and I think we've found some things that will help us as we move toward Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Sonoma.

Today I have a few media phone interviews then a full day of engineering meetings. Off to work!