#IndyCar

The 97th Indianapolis 500 is storming the motorsport field by storm this weekend with the festivities kicking off Sunday, May 26 at 9:30 am EST with the 500 Festival Princesses Lap.

IndyCar has released the cause of Dan Wheldon’s death as a non-survivable injury when his head hit a post in the fencing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The two-time Indianapolis winner was killed in a 15-car accident at the October 16th race when his car was launched into the catch fence.

In the wake of the tragic crash that caused Dan Wheldon’s unfortunate passing, the IndyCar Series has decided to remove the Las Vegas race from its 2012 schedule. 2011 was the first year Las Vegas Speedway’s oval was used for open-wheel racing since 2005, and a massive 15-car accident was the result, involving the death of Dan Wheldon (above).

With 2012 just around the corner now, Chevrolet is hyping up its return to IndyCar where they haven’t been racing for six years. Their return also means the development of a new engine for the racing series, where they hope to take what they learn on the track and apply it to their passenger vehicles.

Their upcoming IndyCar campaign will be powered by a brand new, twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 powerplant that runs on renewable E85 ethanol fuel. The excitement and buzz surrounding the program couldn’t be more optimistic, as Chevrolet hopes to transfer a lot of that technology to the street in their upcoming production models.

And if their proven success with their ALMS Corvettes is any indication of what’s to come in production tech-transfer, most of us will be wishing Chevy didn’t take a six year hiatus from IndyCar.

Check out a video after the break showing off what Chevy has in store for the 2012 IndyCar season.

Legendary racing outfit Newman/Haas is closing its doors after nearly 30 years in business, after the team failed to find sponsorship for the coming season.

Dan Wheldon was one of the driving forces behind the new-for-2012 Indy Car chassis, completing countless laps in pre-season testing.

Finishing runner up two years in a row, Dan Wheldon topped the podium at the Indy 500 earlier this year. Wheldon’s life ended tragically today during the final race of the 2011 IndyCar season.

In NASCAR they always talk about “The Big One”. But it was this weekend’s series finale of the IndyCar Series that saw a catastrophic crash totaling 15 cars. Included in the mess was Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon who suffered what could be serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital.

Other drivers involved in the pile-up that saw several vehicles take flight at 200-mph include James Jakes, Wade Cunningham, Paul Tracy, Vitor Meira, JR Hildebrand, Townsend Bell, Jay Howard, Tomas Scheckter, Charlie Kimball, EJ Viso, Alex Lloyd, Pippa Mann, Will Power and Buddy Rice.

***UPDATE: Dan Wheldon has died. Click here for full story ***

Watch the video after the jump:

Multi-talented driver Tanner Foust is looking for a new challenge in 2012, hoping to get himself behind the wheel of an Indy Car towards the end of this year. With a busy schedule of rally racing this year, Foust put aside the sport of drifting (where he is a two-time champion) this year and it looks like drifting will be without Foust for at least another year.

The interview with Foust was conducted at this past weekend’s X-Games 17 courtesy of MotorWorldHype and Foust looks determined to get an Indy Car ride for 2012. He did state that he would like to return to drifting down the road, saying that he misses the sport and the driving, but it’s a very good chance it won’t happen for 2012.

Check out the interview after the break.

[Source: Youtube via Wrecked Magazine]

Lotus has announced that it will join the big boys in 2012, racing against both Honda and Chevy in the Indy Car series.

Chevrolet is set to return to Indy Car Racing in 2012, breaking Honda‘s monopoly on engine supply for the American racing series. Chevrolet is expected to partner with well known engine contractor Ilmor to produce a twin-turbo V6 engine, as the Indy Car series moves away from V8s and towards smaller four and six cylinder engines.

Along with its announced plans for Formula One next season, British sports car maker Lotus is also looking at expanding its racing efforts to include IndyCar, GT and Le Mans racing. Newly appointed company CEO Dany Bahar made the announcement to employees, stating that Lotus is studying expanding its racing efforts under a new corporate outlook.