Message Points: Bommarito Automotive Group 500s

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Madison, IL

Race 1: 3:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, August 29

Race 2: 3:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, August 30

Race Broadcast on NBC Sports Network, SiriusXM and INDYCAR Radio

Practice, Qualifying on NBC Sports Gold

MANUFACTURER COMPETITION

  • On the strength of five race wins from seven races, including last weekend’s Indianapolis 500 won by Takuma Sato, Honda has a 78-point lead in the 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship, with 593 points to 515 for Chevrolet.
  • Sato’s victory at Indianapolis was the 250th for Honda in Indy car competition since 1994, and the 13th win by the manufacturer at the “500” – a record unmatched by any other OEM in the same period.
  • Honda’s other victories this season have been scored by championship points leader Scott Dixon, winner the first three races (Texas Motor Speedway, the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July and the opening race in the doubleheader weekend at Road America). Dixon now has 49 career Indy car victories as the veteran Chip Ganassi Racing driver seeks his sixth Indy car drivers’ championship.
  • Dixon’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist won the second Road America in August to score his first Indy car victory and extend.
  • Dixon currently holds a 84-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, with 335 points to 251 for Josef Newgarden in second. 
  • Other Honda drivers in the top-10 include Graham Rahal, fourth with 214 points after his third-place result in the “500”; Sato, sixth with 207; Colton Herta, seventh with 189; Santino Ferrucci eighth with 181 points following a fourth-place Indy finish; and Rosenqvist in 10th with 157 points.
  • The 2020 season marks the ninth season of manufacturer competition in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, following six years of Honda serving as single engine supplier from 2006-11.
  • Eleven wins from 17 races in 2018 brought Honda the company’s seventh IndyCar Manufacturers’ Championship, highlighted by a 1-2 finish in the Drivers’ Championship for Honda-powered Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.  Another eight victories for Honda highlighted the company’s second consecutive manufacturers’ title, and eighth overall, in 2019. 

HONDA AT WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY

  • Last weekend’s Honda-powered Indianapolis 500 winner, Takuma Sato, is also the defending winner at WWT.  Sato recovered from contact on the opening lap to take the victory in last year’s 248-lap race on the 1.25-mile WWT oval.  Alex Zanardi, driving a Reynard-Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, recorded Honda’s first victory in St. Louis in 1998.
  • This weekend’s Bommarito Automotive Group doubleheader race weekend will mark the 11th and 12th Indy car races to be held in the St. Louis area, and will be the fourth year at the repaved and updated World Wide Technology Raceway.  The track also hosted a seven-season run of Indy car events, under both Championship Auto Racing Team and Indy Racing League sanction, from 1997-2003 at what was then known as Gateway International Raceway.

WHERE TO WATCH

  • Television coverage from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on the NBC Gold App begins with the opening practice Friday at 4:30 p.m. EDT, and continues through all practice and qualifying sessions of the race weekend.
  • Live race coverage of the WWT Raceway doubleheader can be viewed on the NBC Sports Network, starting at 3 p.m. EDT both Saturday and Sunday.  Additional coverage can be found on the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM, with live timing and scoring information available at INDYCAR.com.
  • Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.