ROAD AMERICA WEEKEND PREVIEW
What: Verizon IndyCar Series Kohler Grand Prix, plus Pirelli World Challenge, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, Global MX-5 Cup.
When: Thursday through Sunday. The 55-lap Kohler Grand Prix is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. Sunday
Where: Road America, a 4-mile road course in Elkhart Lake. Tickets: Available at the gate, $30 Thursday, $40 Friday, $70 Saturday, $80 Sunday, $170 weekend.
TV: NBCSN, 11:30 a.m., and qualifying at 4 p.m. Saturday. Also, all IndyCar practices and qualifying will be streamed live on racecontrol.indycar.com, as will Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000 practices, qualifying sessions and races.
Schedule highlights: Thursday, testing and practice for World Challenge, MX-5, Pro Mazda and USF2000. Friday, practice in all divisions (IndyCar at 10:45 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.), plus races for USF2000, MX-5 and Pro Mazda. Saturday, practice and qualifying, including IndyCar qualifying at 3 p.m., as well as races for MX-5, Indy Lights, USF200, Pro Mazda and World Challenge. Sunday, Kohler Grand Prix at 12:10 p.m., preceded by Indy Lights, with World Challenge both before and after. (Find a complete schedule at jsonline.com/sports/motor-sports.)
Last year: Will Power led 46 of 50 laps from the pole, was never passed on the track and had enough in reserve to survive his biggest challenge of the day from Tony Kanaan on the final lap.
Season to date: Power and Graham Rahal lead with two victories apiece in the first nine races. Power won an action-packed but wreck-filled Texas race two weeks ago, and Rahal swept the Detroit doubleheader before that. It is Scott Dixon, though, who leads the standings despite being winless and getting wiped out spectacularly at Indianapolis and Texas. The four-time series champion has finished sixth or better in the other seven races. Reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud sits 13 points behind with one win, on the Phoenix oval. Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato is third in points. Sebastien Bourdais, winner of the season opener and a winner at Road America in the old Champ Car Series, is out pelvic and hip fractures suffered in a crash during Indy qualifying.