The latest chapter in the now five-year saga of the failed 2016 Grand Prix of Boston IndyCar race closed this week for the event’s Chief Financial Officer.

The former CFO of the Grand Prix of Boston IndyCar race, John F. Casey, 57, pleaded guilty in Massachusetts on Thursday to 23 counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, four counts of money laundering and three counts of filing false tax returns.

Sentencing is scheduled for for Feb. 15, 2022. Casey was indicted in September 2020. Some of the charges were in connection with money paid to Casey for work on the IndyCar race originally scheduled for the streets of Boston over Labor Day weekend in 2016.

The Boston IndyCar event was cancelled in April of that year—just five months before the scheduled race day—for what organizers said was a litany of issues including unhappy local residents and poor ticket sales. Residents complained about traffic and business disruptions on streets affected by the race. Organizers gave up the fight and eventually filed for bankruptcy in July of 2016.

Turns out the Boston Grand Prix was not Casey’s only problem.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts posted the ruling to its website in a release on Thursday. According to the Justice Department, Casey, who became CFO of the Boston IndyCar event in January of 2015, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Boston in connection with multiple schemes to defraud equipment and small business financing companies as well as the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Internal Revenue Service.

According to DOJ, the Boston Grand Prix organization made payments to or on behalf of Casey totaling approximately $308,292 in 2015 and $601,073 in 2016 which Casey failed to include in the gross income he claimed on his personal tax returns for those years.

Casey also owned an ice rink in Peabody, Massachusetts, from October 2013 until he sold it in June 2016. Between October 2014 and October 2016, Casey obtained more than $743,000 in funds from equipment financing companies, purportedly for the purchase of equipment for the ice rink. Casey, however, no longer owned the rink for four months during that period.

Casey’s trail of questionable business deals didn’t end there. Between March 2020 and at least May 2021, the DOJ says Casey orchestrated a scheme to fraudulently obtain Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Paycheck Protection Program loans. And in January 2021, while awaiting trial for the financing fraud scheme, Casey submitted an application for a $70,000 pandemic-related relief grant to the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation containing false information about the operating expenses of a company that was not in business in 2019 or 2020.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, approximately $676,552 in COVID-19 relief funds were deposited into bank accounts controlled by Casey.

The DOJ says that Casey used the vast majority of the funds for personal expenses, including a three-carat diamond ring, a six-month membership to Match.com, private school tuition, residential rent payments, living expenses, payments on personal credit card accounts, restaurant meals, car payments and luxury hotel stays.

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It’s not exactly the seven-year itch, but Team Penske and Simon Pagenaud have divorced.

The 2016 IndyCar champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner announced Monday that he has a new suitor, joining Meyer Shank Racing for the 2022 season and beyond.

Pagenaud reunites with former Penske teammate and this year’s Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves. Both drivers will run full-time schedules, a first for MSR. The Pataskala, Ohio-based team has five years under its belt in IndyCar, with Jack Harvey running part-time campaigns in 2017, 2018 and 2019, before the team went full-time with Harvey in 2020 and 2021.

Next season marks a new chapter as I join @MeyerShankRac in 2022 to race full time @IndyCar. I am excited and look forward to providing value to Team MSR where I know we can contend at the highest level. Add in @h3lio & we’ve really got something special. https://t.co/VkuXqvy0Z8 pic.twitter.com/NecTplqL6h

Castroneves joined the team for six races this year after his former ride with Team Penske in the IMSA series went away after Penske pulled out of IMSA racing following the 2020 season.

The 37-year-old Pagenaud replaces the 28-year-old Harvey, who reportedly turned down a contract offer to remain at MSR. Harvey is heavily rumored to join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which is set to expand from two to three cars in 2022.

Rumors about Harvey going to RLL include the possibility he’ll replace two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato, who is the oldest full-time driver on the IndyCar circuit at 44 years old (other rumors have Sato moving to Dale Coyne Racing for 2022). Or, if Sato stays with RLL, Harvey reportedly will jump into the expanded third car.

But one day after the conclusion of the 2021 IndyCar season, Pagenaud was the big news Monday, news that wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Reunited.@SimonPagenaud joins @MeyerShankRac, with @h3lio Castroneves as his teammate again. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/L05wtT49NC

The writing on the wall actually began near the end of last season when Team Penske called up Scott McLaughlin from the Australian minors, so to speak. McLaughlin was a huge success in Australian Supercars, winning three consecutive championships from 2018 through 2020, driving for a team that was partly owned by Roger Penske.

McLaughlin drove one race for Team Penske, the 2020 season-ending race at St. Petersburg, before being elevated to a full-time ride this season. He made 16 starts, with a season-best finish of second in the first of two races in a weekend doubleheader at Texas. All told, he had that one podium, two top-five and five top-10 finishes.

Pagenaud, on the other hand, struggled in 2020. He failed to win a race for the first time since 2018, had just two podium finishes, and finished eighth for the second consecutive season. His worst season before that was 11^thplace in his first year with Team Penske in 2015.

Pagenaud first came to Indy car racing with the now defunct Champ Car World Series in 2007. His next three years were spent racing full-time in the IMSA Series before returning to IndyCar in 2011 for three races with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He moved to Schmidt-Hamilton Racing, which eventually morphed to Schmidt Peterson Racing, and which is now today, Arrow McLaren SP, in 2012 and remained there until he was lured away by Roger Penske.

Pagenaud came to Team Penske in 2015 and initially struggled but would eventually become one of the series’ top drivers, illustrated the most by his championship win, as well as his Indy 500 triumph.

All told, Pagenaud comes to MSR with a resume that includes 15 wins (including 11 with Team Penske), 37 podiums and 14 poles.

Even though he’s close to being past his prime, the Frenchman still has a lot of gas left in his tank, so to speak. Moving to MSR will likely allow him to have a less stressful situation than Team Penske. Even though that organization embodied the Three Musketeers’ philosophy of “one for all and all for one,” knowing you had three other drivers that you were competing against in addition to the 20-plus other drivers from other organizations on track could sometimes be a hard pill to swallow.

A perfect example: in the last several races, Pagenaud had contact with now-former teammate Will Power at least three times, and at least once with McLaughlin. I can’t recall contact between the man nicknamed “Pags” and Josef Newgarden, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened as well.

Pagenaud joining Castroneves, who will become the oldest full-time driver on the circuit when the 2022 season begins, will give MSR not only a very seasoned, veteran all-star lineup that features the most Indy 500 wins (5) of any active drivers on any current team, but it also will go against what has become the new “in” thing in the sport the last couple of years: going with a youth movement.

That is best illustrated by Sunday’s championship win by Alex Palou, who not only became the first Spaniard to win the IndyCar title, he also became the seventh-youngest driver to become an IndyCar champ. Palou is only 24 years old.

And with other young starsPato O’Ward, Colton Herta, Harvey and McLaughlin, MSR has decided to go in the opposite direction and stick with, well, let’s face it, a couple of old guys. But in the long run, until guys like O’Ward, Herta, McLaughlin, Harvey and others get even better, there’s still a lot left to be said about old guys still being very viable and very strong on the circuit.

It’s not known how long Castroneves and Pagenaud will remain together with MSR. It could be one year, it could be three, it could be five, who knows. Castroneves is in such great physical and mental shape that he probably could go until he’s 50 and still be very competitive—providing, of course, that MSR gives him cars capable of winning, like they did at Indianapolis.

Pagenaud, meanwhile, reportedly had other offers for his post-Penske future, including racing on the IMSA circuit. But at the same time, Pagenaud still has a lot – let’s make that A LOT (with emphasis)—still to accomplish in the IndyCar world.

Pagenaud very easily could win at least one more Indy 500 and if MSR really takes off in 2022 and beyond, I certainly could see him challenge for yet another championship.

The team announced Monday that Pagenaud will drive the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda, while Castroneves will pilot the No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda.

When Castroneves won his fourth Indy 500 this past May, tying him with Al Unser, A.J. Foyt and Rick Mears for most career wins in the Greatest Spectacle In Racing, it was the first time he did so not being part of the Penske stable. He won not just because MSR gave him a great and contending car, but more so because of his experience and knowledge of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But Castroneves—although he likely will never say it publicly—wouldn’t surprise if he felt he extracted some sort of revenge from Team Penske because top officials in the organization believed it was time to move on to other drivers (a.k.a. “younger drivers”) and let Castroneves ride off into the sunset.

Yet, Castroneves didn’t want to ride off into the sunset. He may be 46, but he still drives with the excitement and eagerness of a 26-year-old. Like Pagenaud, he still has things he wants to accomplish in IndyCar before he hangs up his helmet for good. No. 1 on that list is to win his fifth Indy 500, and with the way he won it this year, he has a great chance at earning No. 5 and leaving a legacy mark that likely would never be equaled going forward, not even by the group of young guns that are starting to dominate the sport.

I think Pagenaud and Castroneves are going to surprise a lot of people. I also think that they will not only show some of the young guns how it’s done, but maybe lead some other teams – particularly the mid-level teams—that you don’t forget older drivers who still have ability and talent, rather than discarding them like a pair of old shoes.

“This is such an exciting time in my career,” Pagenaud said in a media release. “MSR has proven it is a high-quality organization when they won the Indianapolis 500 and pairing Helio and me together will help our team in 2022 and beyond. I’m really looking forward to this new challenge.”

And maybe teaching those young guns—or young ‘uns, as I like to call them—and Team Penske for thinking maybe he just can’t do it any more.

While he’s now divorced from Team Penske, Pagenaud’s new marriage is in the honeymoon stage—and that could prove to be the most exciting time for him and Castroneves, while also being one of the most difficult times for other teams that will try to stop them.

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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And then there were only three.

Just three drivers now remain eligible to win the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series championship following Sunday’s penultimate race of the season, the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at central California’s Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Although non-championship contender Colton Herta dominated the race to earn his second win of the season, the bigger picture was how the championship battle played out. Points leader Alex Palou maintained his edge, finishing second, while Pato O’Ward finished fifth and Josef Newgarden finished seventh.

They are the only drivers still remaining in the hunt for the title, with the championship-deciding and season-ending race next Sunday in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, on the temporary street course near downtown Long Beach, California.

Palou leads O’Ward by 35 points, while Newgarden is a distant 48 points back.

Defending series champion winner Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson were eliminated at Laguna Seca.

It was a great run for the 21-year-old Herta, who started from the pole to earn his second career win at Laguna Seca, matching the two wins his father won at the same track during his own racing career. The younger Herta won in his first-ever career race at Laguna two years ago.

“I enjoy racing here so much,” Herta told NBC Sports. “It’s an amazing track for me and my family. This track has been so good for my family.

“There was pressure from Alex behind me. I’m just happy to have done it. This is so awesome. It’s my favorite track in America.”

While Palou was hoping to win, he didn’t lose any ground in the championship battle.

“We didn’t have it today for the win but we did the most we could,” Palou told NBC. “I couldn’t push (Herta) anymore. I was trying, but he was tough. It was Herta’s day and Andretti’s (Andretti Autosport) day today. But yeah, I’m happy (with his runner-up finish).”

O’Ward looked like he’d end up with a podium finish, but drifted back slightly late in the race to finish fifth, behind Herta, Palou, Romain Grosjean and Graham Rahal.

“All weekend we didn’t have it,” a dejected Grosjean said. “I truly feel like we absolutely used every ounce of energy and pace that this car had. We pulled off a near miracle by qualifying by starting in the first three rows.

“In the race, that was as much as I had. I’m disappointed but I’m happy: happy that we maximized what we had, but obviously disappointed that the guy we’re trying to catch outscored us again. All we can do at Long Beach is win and then let everything else fall.

“I’ve got faith in myself. I know I’m pretty handy around the street course, so let’s see what we can pull off next week.”

Newgarden is 48 points back. While he’s still mathematically eligible, he’d have to win at Long Beach and both Palou and O’Ward would have to falter. In fact, when interviewed by NBC, Newgarden all but conceded the championship to the two guys ahead of him.

“It’s just hard to do much more than what we did today, starting 17th,” Newgarden told NBC. “We can’t start back there, we know that. It’s just a punch to the gut yesterday, two weekends in a row. Not sure what’s caused that.

“Now we go to Long Beach and at least try to get second in this championship.”

Next to Herta’s win, arguably the other big star of the day in terms of performance was third-place finisher Grosjean, who had a spectacular late-race run, coming from 13^th place to earn his third podium finish in his rookie season in the IndyCar Series. Grosjean is rumored to be joining Andretti Autosport next season, replacing either Ryan Hunter-Reay or James Hinchcliffe.

“It was a great day, amazing,” Grosjean told NBC Sports. “To be P3 today is a pretty good day. Laguna Seca I love you, that’s all I can say.”

One other finish of note was the ninth-place finish for Oliver Askew, appearing in the second of a consecutive three-race stint for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which potentially may be an audition for next season, as RLL is expected to increase from a two- to three-car operation.

IT’S ALL OVER IN 2021 FOR DIXON AND ERICSSON

Dixon came into Sunday’s race 49 points behind Palou, still hoping to have a chance to tie A.J. Foyt for the most championships in IndyCar history – seven. While Dixon struggled with handling for much of the first half of the race, the final setback that essentially ended Dixon’s title hopes came on Lap 41.

Takuma Sato spun coming out of the corkscrew and started rolling backward on the track, rather than holding his brakes to stop the car. Dixon was trailing and as he crested the hill, he suddenly saw Sato, leaving him with virtually nowhere to go. Dixon made contact with the right rear of Sato’s Honda, but was able to continue on, for what it’s worth, finishing a dismal 13th.

Sato, meanwhile, returned to the garage for repairs and essentially hobbled around the track for the remainder of the race, finishing last in the 27-driver field, ending up 12 laps off the lead lap.

Dixon leaves Laguna Seca 78 points behind Palou, meaning that even if he wins at Long Beach, he’ll still have to wait until next season now for yet another bid to win his seventh championship.

As for Ericsson, he came into Sunday’s race in a must-win situation, 75 points behind points leader Alex Palou. But with his sixth-place finish at Laguna Seca, Ericsson drops out of contention, 87 points behind Palou, thus ending his title hopes.

“Today, with the degradation of the tires on this track, it was just tough for us to keep the pace,” Ericsson said. “Still, P6 was a good result, but I had hoped for a little more.”

LOTS OF EARLY ACTION BEFORE THE GREEN FLAG

Laguna Seca is one of the more challenging tracks on the IndyCar circuit, as several drivers quickly found out early on Sunday.

• The earliest incident actually happened roughly two hours before the race even began when Juncos Racing’s Callum Ilott ran off the track and into a tire fence during pre-race warmups. His team managed to make repairs, but Ilott finished 22nd.

It was Ilott’s second career start in the IndyCar Series, having finishing 25^th in his debut last week at Portland.

• Then, shortly after the green flag fell, Alexander Rossi was running second on Lap 2 when he made contact on Turn 5 with Herta, his Andretti Autosport teammate. Herta was able to continue on, but Rossi went off-track.

Rossi was able to get the car restarted, but his Honda had little to nothing for the rest of the field, ultimately finishing 25^th, two laps behind the winning Herta.

• Then on Lap 10, even though he’s no longer in contention for the championship, Will Power’s hopes for a good day quickly evaporated with an engine issue. Repairs were made but he returned to the track two laps down, ultimately finishing 26th.

Last but not least, Felix Rosenqvist suffered two spins in the first half of the race. He finished 19^th, one lap down.

JIMMIE JOHNSON EARNS A CAREER-BEST

Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, a rookie in IndyCar this season, gave himself a belated birthday present Sunday. Two days after turning 46 years old, Johnson finished a career-best 17th at Laguna Seca.

“It was a lot of fun,” Johnson told NBC.

He was involved in a rather exciting incident with six laps to go. As Grosjean was closing in on the two race leaders, Herta and Palou, he made contact with Johnson while attempting to pass. Johnson tried to hold his line, Grosjean bounced off and went sailing through the air with just two tires on-track, but came away no worse for the wear and continued on.

Johnson, meanwhile, lost a few seconds after going off-track but was able to reel his car back in.

“I thought our day was over,” Johnson told NBC. “I couldn’t believe (Grosjean) threw it in there that late. Luckily, we both saved it. I was worried about a penalty, but thankfully I didn’t get it and wound up with a career-best finish.”

Johnson is racing only permanent road courses and temporary street courses this season. His last race for 2021 will be next Sunday’s season finale at Long Beach. Johnson considers Long Beach his home track, having grown up in suburban San Diego, roughly 100 miles away.

Earlier in the day, IndyCar officials revealed the 2022 season schedule, which will feature 17 races. Johnson has not announced whether he’ll compete in the schedule next year, or whether he’ll once again compete only in just road and street course races.

He is expected to make the decision shortly after next month’s big off-season test for all teams at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Follow Autoweek correspondent Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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What a difference a year makes for Callum Ilott.

One year ago, Ilott was battling Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda for the Formula 2 championship and was right smack in the middle of the silly season rumor mill for a possible ride in Formula 1.

This year, Ilott is not racing for a championship and is instead serving as the second reserve driver for Alfa Romeo in Formula 1 and a Ferrari test driver.

Ilott will soon have one more line for his resume’. The 22-year-old Brit will be making his NTT IndyCar Series for Juncos Hollinger Racing in the Grand Prix of Portland on September 12. Ilott will drive the team’s first IndyCar Series entry of the 2021 season.

Ilott will drive the No. 77 Chevrolet.

“I am pleased and excited to be announcing I will be racing with Juncos Hollinger Racing at Portland,” said Ilott. “This will be my first time in the NTT IndyCar Series and running in the United States, which will be a bit of a change from running on the European side. I am looking forward to working with the team during this first phase of their development and proud to be a part of this opportunity to build into their future embarkment.

“I would like to thank the Ferrari Driver Academy for allowing me to take this opportunity and for Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger for bringing me on board the team.”

Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger announced their partnership to form Juncos Hollinger Racing in early August. The team committed to running the final three events of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season and hopes to race full-time in the IndyCar Series in 2022.

The team’s most recent IndyCar race was the 2019 Indianapolis 500, where driver Kyle Kaiser famously knocked out McLaren’s Fernando Alonso for the final qualifying position.

“We are very excited to welcome Callum Ilott to the Juncos Hollinger Racing family,” said Juncos. “Callum brings a lot of experience and incredible talent to the team. We are confident that he will transition well into the NTT IndyCar Series when we get on track for our final test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course tomorrow before making our official debut together at Portland next week.”

Ilott most recently competed in the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing third with Iron Lynx in the LMGTE-Am class. Earlier this year the young Briton was singed by Ferrari’s F1 team as their test driver and was named a reserve driver for the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN F1 team.

In 2020, Ilott finished second to Schumacher in the F2 championship, where he posted three wins, six podium finishes and five poles.

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For a man who earned all but one of his 83 NASCAR Cup wins on an oval, Jimmie Johnson says he “is definitely a step closer” to adding ovals to his IndyCar plate next season.

Although it may be just on one oval, the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway—and in the biggest oval race in the world, the Indianapolis 500.

“I think that there are more conversations to be had with family, team and sponsors, at least another test session ahead of me before I can really make a decision, but driving the car yesterday only piqued my interest,” Johnson said on a Tuesday morning media teleconference.

Johnson took part in his first full oval test Monday at Texas Motor Speedway, with over six hours behind the wheel. He anticipates he’ll move closer to a decision on competing in next season’s Indy 500 after a combination tire test and rookie orientation at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October.

(Video courtesy Texas Motor Speedway):

But there’s also a possibility that he may focus solely on Indy and skips other ovals at Texas—which comes before Indy on next year’s schedule—as well as Iowa and Gateway.

“Right now it’s really the pathway to Indy,” Johnson said of what his focus is on. “There’s still so many hurdles between now and one event that to look at the others is tough at this point. I will need to face that decision and that opportunity in the somewhat near future, and we’ll just see how this next test session goes and really how everything aligns.”

He also admitted he’s concerned at how both his car—and he—will react in traffic on an oval for the first time during the upcoming test at IMS (Monday’s test only involved his car).

“I’ve wondered about that quite a bit,” Johnson said. “I know how the Cup cars act in traffic. (He has) a little bit of experience at some faster speeds on the road courses with an IndyCar in traffic. But that’s a great question and one that I’m not sure I have an answer for because I’m questioning that myself right now.”

Regardless of what—if any—ovals he races on next season, Johnson would still run all road and street course events, as he has this season. The current IndyCar schedule has three races remaining, all of which Johnson will participate in: Portland (Sept. 12), Laguna Seca (Sept. 19) and the season finale at Long Beach (Sept. 26).

Johnson admittedly has had a rough go of it in his rookie IndyCar season. Thus far, the driver of the Chip Ganassi Racing-owned No. 48 Carvana American Legion Honda has competed in nine of 13 races with a best finish of 19th in the season-opener at Barber Motorsports Park and again in the most recent race, the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Johnson, who turns 46 on Sept. 17, had initially planned on competing for two years in IndyCar before evaluating if he would continue on past 2022. As he closes in on the end of his first season—albeit a part-time effort—Johnson said Tuesday that he’d like to continue racing past the 2022 season.

“I’m happy to go on the record and say I’ll run as many years in the NTT IndyCar Series that Chip (team owner Chip Ganassi) will have me and I can find sponsorship,” Johnson said. “Every rep I get in the car, I’m only going to be better. If I were to come back in ’23, I think those expectations would rise up again, and my performance would be better yet. My intent is to stick around as long as I possibly can.”

As for Monday’s test, it began at 6 a.m. CT and continued for several hours before Johnson, who shaved off his longtime beard before heading to Texas, had to head to Phoenix for a corporate appearance.

“The day went really well, I really enjoyed it,” Johnson said. “The first few outings was definitely quite different with the speed around the racetrack, the feel of the race car and how nimble and lightweight the car is.

“But as I worked through my second set of tires and on, the car started to feel much more like home and certainly the track and being on an oval felt like home. By the end of the test session itself, I felt very comfortable and in a very familiar place, which was nice.”

In the incident-free overall run, Johnson’s top one-lap speed was over 214 mph, which would have qualified him fourth if he had competed in the 2020 IndyCar race at TMS.

“We were really conservative with our approach and just working into things. Running some laps, get out of the car, look at data, let it soak in, go again.”

But what he remembers from driving on an oval in his NASCAR days was significantly different in an Indy car.

“What I thought it would be like driving on an oval is a little different in an Indy car than I had coming into it,” Johnson said. “In the Cup car in some respects, although you’re going slower, you’re on that ragged edge.

“I need to go experience that at Indy. “

“I’ve had one test, so it’s probably unfair to even make this statement, but my perception was I need to drive it like a NASCAR and just hang on, hold your breath every single lap, and directionally that’s not how you go fast in Indy cars.

“I need to go experience that at Indy. I remember watching qualifying all these different years and just holding my breath for these guys. I need to go experience that and see what that’s like for myself before I can make that decision to run in the race.”

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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Hard-Luck Harry already had 10 runner-up finishes on his NASCAR resume by the time his Skoal Bandit team arrived at Martinsville Speedway late in April 1982. A fan favorite for years as a weekly track star, 42-year-old Harry Gant was unanimously considered better than his zero-for-107 Cup record might suggest.

Far, far better, in fact.

Some of those 10 disappointing losses were heartbreaking; others were humiliating routs. His first second-place finish was by a split-second in April 1980 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Later that season, he was second at Dover and Rockingham. He was second seven more times in 1981, including consecutive weekends at Michigan and Daytona Beach.

But at least he wasn’t losing to racing’s lightweights. Those three second-place finishes in 1980, for example, were to Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, and Cale Yarborough. The next year he lost twice each to Yarborough, Waltrip, and Bobby Allison, and once to Benny Parsons. Several were by a car length, and several others were under caution. All were to past or future champions who made it to the Hall of Fame.

If Gant were frustrated, he kept it inside. “He didn’t let it show,” veteran crew chief Travis Carter recently told Autoweek. “He was performing better than at any time in his career. I think he’d get a little upset now and then, but I kept reminding him, ‘Let me tell you about this business: Run well long enough, and you’re going to win. You have to have good speed and be competitive before you can win. Once in a while you see people win a one-off and you wonder what’s going on. We run good every week and can’t win, but they win. Well, that happens.’

“Harry managed it well. He didn’t feel pressured to win. (Team co-owner) Hal Needham was thrilled to death with the way we were running. We were getting great press coverage and good coverage on TV. We just had a lot of little issues — a flat tire at the wrong time, stuff like that.”

Nothing went insurmountably wrong at Martinsville. Lapped twice and a non-factor much of the day, Gant made up the deficits and simply ran down the leaders under green. “I was crying when I took the checkered,” he admitted that afternoon. “Can you believe that? After 1,300 races (in many series and with untold victories), I was crying because this one is so special. This is the best feeling I’ve ever had in racing.”

Most in the crowd estimated at 30,000 were thrilled for Gant, Carter, and Needham. As one series watcher scribbled that night:

“Along pit road, the hardened fraternity of mechanics and owners cheered him. Regardless of the past or the future, this was a special moment in stock-car racing, an emotional moment when a hard-working, well-behaved, clean-driving popular gentleman finally got what he so richly deserved. If Gant had any detractors in the crowd, they were wisely keeping quiet.

“Virtually everyone in the place stood to salute him. Even fans of NASCAR’s long-established stars — Petty, the Allisons, Waltrip, Baker, Parsons, Earnhardt, etc. — set aside their one-man loyalty for the moment and joined Gant’s legion of fans. They waved their caps, jackets, beer cans, and programs as he took a teary victory lap.”

It had been a long time coming.

Gant’s career had begun with countless late-night street racing in western North Carolina. He went legit in 1963, racing a Hobby Class car at Hickory Speedway. He advanced to the faster and more sophisticated Late Models, then briefly raced in NASCAR’s Grand National East series. He made the first of his 474 Cup starts in October 1973 at Charlotte for owner Junie Donlavey.

He spent the next few years getting occasional Cup rides while concentrating primarily on major Late Model Sportsman shows in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. He won hundreds of weekly short-track races — as usual, stats are somewhat sketchy — and several track championships.

In 1979, at the relatively advanced age of 39, Gant went full-time Cup racing, first for Kenny Childers, later for Jack Beebe. He spent two-plus seasons with their mediocre teams before signing on for 1982-1988 with movie stuntman Needham and Hollywood star Burt Reynolds.

With Carter atop the pit box, the team won 10 poles and nine races in seven years together. Gant spent the last six years of his career (1989-1994) with brothers Richard and Leo Jackson, winning seven more poles and nine more races. At age 54, after the 1994 season, Gant retired, content with his career record that included eight top-10 points seasons.

His zero-for-107 losing streak ended on a bright Sunday afternoon at Martinsville, a picturesque, half-mile, low-banked bullring in southern Virginia. He qualified third behind Terry Labonte and Parsons and led three times for 167 laps, including the final 144. He won by more than a lap over Butch Lindley, a popular and well-respected friendly rival from their Late Model Sportsman barnstorming days.

Ironically, Gant may have benefitted from contact with Lindley at lap 318 of 500. They were running 2-3 behind Waltrip when they got together in Turn 2. Lindley looped from contact, and Gant suffered major right-front and front-end damage. Both continued, but the front-end damage created openings for more fresh air to Gant’s front brakes. That proved to be a huge advantage during the rest of the race on a hot day at the accelerate-and-brake, accelerate-and-brake track.

“Butch and Harry were running good,” Carter said 39 years later. “When they got tangled, Harry’s front end got beat up. He thought the way to run good at Martinsville was to keep the brakes cool. (After the incident) he had air flowing everywhere over the front end and onto the brakes. He was thrilled to death with that. He thought that was how he could win.”

Perhaps surprisingly, there wasn’t a huge post-race celebration. “We didn’t have great elation of winning,” Carter said. “It was more like a load off our shoulders. Harry probably had a big grin, but he was kind of even-keeled. He didn’t whoop and holler. (Winning) was what people expected of us. We’d done our job, and it was time to go home and get ready to go (to Talladega). You know … that cycle that never ends.”

But wait … there’s more

• Gant collected nicknames like others collected groupies. He was called Hard-Luck Harry for those 10 runner-up finishes, The Bandit for his longtime affiliation with Skoal, Handsome Harry in recognition of his youthful good looks into his 60s, and Mr. September for his consecutive victories at Darlington, Richmond, Dover, and Martinsville in September 1991.

• At 52 years and 219 days, he was the oldest Cup winner (a 400-miler at Michigan in August 1992). At 52 years and 142 days, he was NASCAR’s oldest 500-mile winner (Dover in May 1992). And at 42 years and 105 days, he was the oldest driver at the time of his first Cup victory. He’s 81 now, and those records remain.

• Gant was a well-regarded and commercially successful builder/contractor until selling his business in 1979 to go full-time Cup racing. He also once owned a popular steakhouse in his hometown of Taylorsville, North Carolina. He once said, “I’m a good race-car driver, but I’m a great carpenter.”

• Two other notable drivers were in his 1979 Rookie of the Year class: future multitime champions and NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte. Gant is in the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

• Gant and Waltrip tied for the 1985 IROC championship, with Gant declared the winner based on the “best finish” tiebreak in the Michigan finale, a photo-finish victory over Labonte.

• The second of Gant’s 18 career victories came at Charlotte in the fall 1982, six months after winning Martinsville. Between those victories he was a top-10 finisher in seven of 17 starts.

• His affiliation with Needham and Reynolds led to some small roles in “Stroker Ace” and “Days of Thunder.” He had one line (“Better not let the boss hear you say that”) in “Cannonball Run II.” Despite an impressive cast — Reynolds, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Dom DeLuise, Shirley MacLaine, Sid Caesar, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, and Jim Nabors — the film was generally rated among the worst of the 1980s.

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Kevin Magnussen, fresh from his first victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series, will make his NTT IndyCar Series debut this weekend in the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.

Magnussen will replace injured Felix Rosenqvist for Arrow McLaren SP. Rosenqvist was injured in a scary head-on crash with the wall during the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix race on Belle Isle on June 13. Though Rosenqvist was not said to be seriously injured, he was not cleared to drive this weekend.

For Magnussen, it will be a homecoming of sorts, as he drove 19 races for McLaren in Formula 1 in 2014. Magnussen will team with Pato O’Ward this weekend and have the opportunity to race against his former Haas F1 Team Formula 1 teammate and current Dale Coyne Racing driver Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean and Magnussen were teammates at Haas from 2017 through 2020.

Magnussen won at Belle Isle in a Cadillac DPi for Chip Ganassi Racing. He plans to return to the IMSA team for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, June 24-27 at Watkins Glen.

The REV Group Grand Prix at Road America is June 20 and will be broadcast beginning at 12:30 p.m. on NBCSN.

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Marcus Ericsson had not won a race, as he put it, “since he was a kid.”

That all changed on Belle Isle on Saturday.

Ericsson, who failed to reach so much as a podium in 97 Formula 1 races from 2014-18, finally broke through in the NTT IndyCar Series, wining the first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader weekend on Belle Isle in Detroit.

To find Ericsson’s last race win, one has to go back to his days in GP2 nearly a decade ago. His win Saturday for Chip Ganassi Racing came in his 37th IndyCar start.

“I think Chip always says he likes winners,” the 30-year-old Ericsson said. “I came here haven’t won a race in eight years. I think when he realized that, he was like, Oh, you haven’t won in that long? We need to change that.

“I think he’s pretty happy that I won this race today. He wants drivers that can win. Today we had opportunities to do it, and I did. We as a team did it and delivered. I think that was a huge effort. I think us racing drivers, we always live with that pressure to try and win races and finish up front.”

Not everyone, however, thought that Ericsson deserved the race win on Belle Isle. Count Will Power in that camp. Maybe even third place Pato O’Ward.

Power led 37 laps of the 70-lap main event but saw his chances for victory derailed in the strangest of fashions. He led comfortably with less than six laps remaining when former F1 driver Romain Grosjean crashed. IndyCar officials called for a red flag.

All the cars were called into the pits for the nearly eight-minute red-flag period. When it was time for the re-fire, Power’s car failed to restart. He claimed it was due to overheating of the car’s engine control unit (ECU) and blamed IndyCar for both the red flag itself and for the delay in allowing his Team Penske crew to bring cooling fans into the car during the stoppage. Power, the first one in line in the pits, was forced to wait until all the cars were in the pits before he could received cool air and water into the cockpit.

“Obviously, you don’t want to see someone have a problem like that, especially he was leading the race,” Ericsson said. “I was really fired up to try and get to him on that last restart because I’ve been saying that this year I want that first IndyCar win. That’s highest on my list. You never want to see anyone have a problem, but I’ll take (it).

“We’ve had some bad luck, I’ve had some bad luck the last couple years when we’ve been looking good. Today was our day, it was my day. That’s racing sometimes. It’s obviously bad for Will, but it was our luck. Just had to finish the job.”

Ericsson led the field pulled out of the pits ahead of the idle Power. He went on to lead at the restart and hold of runner-up Rinus VeeKay and third-place Pato O’Ward to become IndyCar’s seventh different winner in seven races. Ericsson joins Alex Palou, Colton Herta, Scott Dixon, O’Ward, Veekay and Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves as race winners in 2021’s crazy season.

Ericsson also continued a hot streak for former F1 drivers trying to make his mark on Belle Isle this weekend. Kevin Magnussen, who drove last year for the Haas F1 Team, won his first first pole in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and first race with new Chip Ganassi teammate Renger van der Zande on Saturday.

“I feel bad for Will,” Ericsson said. He did a great job out there, yeah. That’s how it goes.”

Added O’Ward, “I understand they want to end on green. I bet you if I was Will, I’d be telling you no. I feel for him, man. I think he would have walked away with it if it didn’t go red. It really sucks.”

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The split between the upstart Indy Racing League (IRL) and the established Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) that began in 1996 and remained a deep chasm until reunification in 2008 nearly destroyed Indy car racing in the United States.

In the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, CART racing was the most popular auto racing series in the country. But Indianapolis Motor Speedway president/CEO Tony George wanted CART to go in a different direction, one that downplayed foreign drivers in favor of more American-born racing talent, as well as decreasing the number of road/street course races in favor of more oval tracks like IMS, the most famous race track in the world and host of the biggest race in the world, the Indianapolis 500.

CART officials and team owners balked at George’s insistence, ultimately leading to their ousting of him from the organization’s board of directors. That move led George to create the IRL and, coupled with his edict that only eight spots would be open for CART teams to qualify for the 1996 Indy 500, forced a CART boycott of teams competing in the 500 for several years.

The contentious battle between the two warring series led to NASCAR rising to prominence and eventually to become the most popular motorsports series in the U.S.

No one was more involved in negotiations with the IRL than the man who was president of CART at the time, Andrew Craig. He had only been on the job about a week when in 1994, and while CART was racing halfway around the world at Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, that George revealed his initial plans for the IRL and how it would impact and change the Indianapolis 500, beginning with the 1996 season.

Craig, along with numerous key owners in CART including Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, Pat Patrick and others, tried for more than a year to sway—or at the very least, compromise —with George. But George wouldn’t budge. He felt his way was the best way for open-wheel racing in the U.S. and that if CART didn’t like it, it was either his way or the highway.

As history went on to be written, George’s vision turned into a nightmare for open-wheel racing in the U.S., all but destroying it. The reunification of the two series in 2008 came late, but it was better late than never. Still, Indy car racing continues to be a shadow of its former pre-IRL self, remaining a distant second to NASCAR in terms of popularity and TV ratings—albeit IndyCar’s numbers have started to increase the last several years, and offer the promise of continued growth now that Penske has assumed control of IMS and the NTT IndyCar Series.

“A lot, obviously, has changed, but in many ways, nothing has changed,” Craig told Autoweek. “Motor racing continues to be strong, is under new leadership, which I think is very positive. At the same time, the racing remains with the very same high quality it was 25 years ago. So, from an operational point and new organizational and ownership point, things have changed dramatically from that time, but the consistent component from my time to the present day is the racing and the drivers and the teams remain in the very highest standards.”

George failed in a bid to buy CART in 1991. “It was turned down quite decisively,” Craig said. “I think that’s when the idea of the IRL was born. I think also my appointment wasn’t well-received, because I think Tony wanted his man in there, which wasn’t going to happen.

“The actual announcement of the IRL was something completely beyond my control. But by the end of 1994, my first year, I did indeed have several talks with Tony and by that stage, it was very clear that the idea of his series had not been well-received.

“The last thing the tracks wanted was to become part of a series with the Indy 500 because they knew exactly what would happen, they would become satellites built around and everything would be built around this one event each year, the Indy 500.

“That’s why 14 of the race tracks signed long-term contracts with us. They didn’t want that. They still had very bad memories, many of them, of when the United States Auto Club ran the series (and which led to the split between USAC and the creation of CART in 1979). … They certainly didn’t want to go back to that.”

George’s insistence that the series be made up of almost entirely American-born drivers also did not sit well with CART’s team owners and sponsors.

“The Indianapolis 500 is steeped in tradition and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Craig said. “It’s a fabulous, traditional American event. There’s no question about that. As for the oval reason (George’s desire to make it an all-oval series), while very important, the reality was other forms of racing came along and certainly had a valid place in the series.

“And I think one of the things our fans really liked about IndyCar was this combination, it was ovals, road courses, street races, and you needed a really well-rounded driver to be successful in all those different environments. I thought at the time that actually a mixture was good. I think there were a couple oval factions that maybe (George) wasn’t getting the best advice sometimes.

“As far as American drivers, I think it was a valid point there, certainly having American talent in an American series was very, very important. There were more drivers coming into the series from abroad. However, I’d have to say this, domestic drivers worked really hard to have the finances necessary to help them develop their careers and that’s fundamentally part of the model, basically, the drivers brings sponsors with them.

“But this idea of rich foreign drivers were stealing American drives, I think that was misstated. This was the world’s biggest economy here. What it was was dedicated, committed drivers going out and finding sponsors and helping teams to be economically viable. It wasn’t they were stealing rides, it’s just they were good at raising money. That’s the honest truth. With that said, of course, we would have liked to and wanted to have more American talent in the series.”

Throughout the interview with Craig, who remains a consultant to a number of companies and organizations both in and out of sports today, as well as governmental entities, while he could have pointed fingers or assessed blame, rather he was both fair and transparent in his thoughts about the split.

But it’s also noteworthy that now, even 25 years later, a number of individuals who were in the middle of both sides of the row, including Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, A.J. Foyt and Tony George, all turned down requests to speak to Autoweek about the split.

This weekend will not only mark the 25th anniversary of the Indy 500 being run without any CART drivers, it will also mark the inaugural running of the U.S. 500, which was billed as an alternative to the Indy 500, run on the same day but 230 miles northeast at Michigan International Speedway.

“Once (IMS) announced the 25/8 rule, (not racing in the 500) was the only thing we could do,” Craig said, referring to the IRL mandating 25 guaranteed spots to cars in its series, leaving only eight “open” positions for other teams such as those from CART. But all CART team owners remained united and none would cross over back to the Indy 500 until 2001.

“They held together, they didn’t really want to go,” Craig said of CART teams going to Indy. “But then, having made that decision, we had sponsors that were disappointed. If not (run) at Indianapolis, then what?

“(Sponsors) asked teams to find something else that they could do on that weekend, and that’s where the idea that we had to race on that weekend came from. We had to provide a viable alternative.

“When the whole idea (of the U.S. 500) started to emerge. There were a lot of fans who were saying that this is the right thing to do, so we had to find a venue. Roger Penske agreed that he would make MIS available and we would self-promote the event. It was a real struggle, quite understandably. There was no one who wanted to run a broadcast against the Indy 500. It was starting to look like a complete disaster. We had reached December 1995 and we still didn’t have a broadcaster. I talked with everybody out there.

“And then, just before the holiday break, I had a call from ESPN. Although they were extremely reluctant at the beginning, they stepped up. And that was a terrific, terrific gesture on their part because, frankly, I don’t think we could have run the U.S. 500 without their help, I don’t think we could have gone ahead. They really saved the day by stepping up.

“We had a top prize of $1 million dollars, we reinstated the Vanderbilt Cup … and that frankly changed the narrative.”

Once the U.S. 500 and Indy 500 took their respective checkered flags (Buddy Lazier, won at Indianapolis, and Jimmy Vasser won the U.S. 500 in Michigan), there was a brief period where many on both sides took a step back and a deep breath, with some hoping what happened would be a one-off situation and that a reunification might be on the table.

Wrong. Tony George stuck to his guns, while Craig and CART team owners and race promoters stuck to theirs. Adios to reunification.

“I think at that point, the parties were probably as far apart as at any time,” Craig said. “There was no movement on either side. Basically, we were viable, we were making money, we were able to run the series, of course a lot of pressure from fans on teams and tracks. That was probably the moment when the parties were farthest apart.”

The two sides would remain far apart for more than a decade until reuniting prior to the 2008 season, although some CART teams did cross the picket line, so to speak, to compete in the Indy 500 as early as 2001 when IRL loosened up restrictions—not to mention bowed to pressure from fans and sponsors who demanded to see the best drivers in the world in the biggest and best race in the world once again.

One of the most difficult questions posed to Craig was if CART owners had either convinced George to not go forward with the IRL, or at the very least agreed to some middle ground or compromised on more American drivers or more oval tracks in the series, would open-wheel racing have continued to grow as it had been doing in the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s before the split.

“That’s a valid question,” Craig said. “Forget about me in the circle for a moment and it was obviously very damaging, there’s no question about that. But I think at the time I arrived at CART, there was real potential there. We did grow that series dramatically under the most difficult circumstances.

“If we had all been on the same side, I think it would have progressed nicely. We were starting to grow our international TV coverage and (1993 CART champ and former F1 star Nigel) Mansell of course was a big help in getting that going, we managed to have more overseas races, we managed to command higher sanctioning fees, which frankly were not where they should have been.

“I think it was a very, very viable series and certainly if it had all stayed together, of course, we would have grown and become much, much stronger.”

Even though he stepped aside as CART president/CEO in 2000, Craig, who still splits time living in both the U.S. and Switzerland, remains a fan of IndyCar racing. He attended the 2019 Indy 500 and may attend the upcoming doubleheader weekend next month at Belle Isle in Detroit. He remains bullish on IndyCar getting stronger and bigger in the future.

“I think there is no reason at all why IndyCar cannot continue to grow and prosper.”

“I think there is no reason at all why IndyCar cannot continue to grow and prosper,” Craig said. “I think it’s very healthy. I also think you’re going to see a lot more crossover from Formula 1 to IndyCar. There are a significant number of drivers who are really good race-car drivers who’ve come from Formula 1 to IndyCar and have been impressed with the level of competition, the level of engineering and the level of series.

“I think that as time goes by, it might be driving it the other way, too, as Jacques Villeneuve did (going from CART to F1). I think IndyCar is very well positioned to be seen in the future as certainly top global motor racing.”

Follow Autoweek correspondent Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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After a year of holding the race in August, at least the Indianapolis 500 is back where it belongs on the calendar for 2021.

And while there are limitations in the number of fans who will be allowed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500, there is no shortage of action on TV.

Here’s were to find practice sessions, qualifying, the race and more on TV:

FRIDAY, MAY 14

SATURDAY, MAY 15

TUESDAY, MAY 18

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19

THURSDAY, MAY 20

FRIDAY, MAY 21

SATURDAY, MAY 22

SUNDAY, MAY 23

FRIDAY, MAY 28

SUNDAY, MAY 30

All Times ET

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