Honda Racing NTT INDYCAR SERIES preview for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500

Bommarito Automotive Group 500

World Wide Technology Raceway, Granite City, IL
3:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, August 27
NBC and NBC Peacock
IndyCar Radio Network and SiriusXM

Manufacturer Competition

After winning six of the eight most recent 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES events, Honda continues to lead the Manufacturers’ Championship standings, with nine victories and 10 poles in 14 races this season.

Honda comes to St. Louis with a 38-point advantage (1,204-1,166) over rival Chevrolet. Honda is seeking its fifth NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship in the last six years.

Honda drivers currently are ranked first, second and sixth in the INDYCAR Drivers’ Championship. With four wins this season, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou holds a 101-point lead over his teammate and six-time INDYCAR champion Scott Dixon (539-438). Marcus Ericsson, winner at St. Petersburg this year and 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner is sixth in his Chip Ganassi Honda with 377 points.

Palou’s four wins this season include the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May; and a three-in-a-row streak that started at the Grand Prix of Detroit, then continued through Road America and the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Presented by the Accord Hybrid.

Other Honda-powered winners this season include Dixon at the Gallagher Grand Prix earlier this month; Kyle Kirkwood at Nashville and at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach; Ericsson, at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg; and Christian Lundgaard at the Honda Indy Toronto.

Honda at World Wide Technology Raceway

This weekend’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 will mark the 15^th Indy car race to be held in the St. Louis area, and the eighth on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval. The 260-lap event is the fifth and final oval race of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

Located just east of downtown St. Louis, the facility 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.

World Wide Technology Raceway has been the scene of several significant Honda Racing INDYCAR milestones since it returned to the series schedule in 2017.

In 2018, a second-place finish for Alexander Rossi and third for Scott Dixon was enough for Honda to clinch the 2018 INDYCAR Manufacturers’ Championship, the first of five consecutive manufacturers’ titles for the company.

One year later, Takuma Sato won a thrilling night race, besting Ed Carpenter in a tense closing-lap battle. Honda went on to win a second consecutive Manufacturers’ Championship that season.

Dixon scored his 50^th career win in 2020 at World Wide Technology Raceway, in the opening race of a double-header weekend. He went on to claim his sixth NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship at the end of the 2020 season; with Honda recording a third consecutive Manufacturers’ title. Two weeks ago, Dixon recorded his 54^th career victory and milestone 319^th consecutive INDYCAR race start at the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and extending his record streak of victories to 19 consecutive seasons.

In the previous Honda CART era, Alex Zanardi recorded Honda’s first victory in St. Louis in 1998, driving a Reynard-Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Where to Watch

Television coverage of Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT on NBC. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).