INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — The American Le Mans Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course over the weekend was bittersweet for de Ferran Motorsports. On Friday, former Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time IndyCar champion Gil de Ferran announced his retirement from the sports car series. He will finish out the season as co-driver of the No. 66 XM Radio Acura and then mainly concentrate on taking de Ferran Motorsports (the team he formed in 2008) to the next level.
However, on Saturday de Ferran Motorsports continued their dominance of the 2009 season by collecting their fourth consecutive win in the LMP1 class. At this race last year, fueler Keith "Jonesie" Jones suffered serious burns during a routine refueling. Jonesie's recovery has been a long road, but he is now back at work on the de Ferran Motorsports team full-time once again.
The de Ferran Motorsports team will continue onto Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., this weekend looking to pick up a fifth consecutive victory.
The Firestone Indy Lights and IndyCar Series competed at the 2.4-mile, 15-turn facility on Sunday. The Andretti Green/AFS Racing No. 26 ARPRO entry collected a podium finish in third in the Mid-Ohio 100 for the Indy Lights series. The No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers teammate finished 18th.
Later in the day, the No. 27 Formula Dream entry led the Andretti Green Racing teams to the finish line in the Honda Indy 200 in fifth place; his No. 26 Meijer teammate finished right behind him in sixth, while the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven entry rounded out the top-10.
The Indy Racing League has a weekend off before heading west to the beautiful wine country of northern California and Infineon Raceway for the two series respective races.
The ALMS and IRL series weren't the only ones running on road courses over the weekend. The NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series were in Watkins Glen, N.Y. for their events at Watkins Glen International.
Justin Allgaier drove his No. 12 Verizon Wireless Penske Racing-owned Dodge to a top-20 finish in his first Nationwide Series road coarse race on Saturday. Allgaier was also the highest-finishing rookie of the race. Ringers' supporter Brendan Gaughan finished 22nd.
The 2.45-mile road course was quiet on Sunday, as for the second weekend in a row Mother Nature rained on the parade and postponed the event until Monday. Once the Heluva Good! at the Glen concluded, Penske Racing's Kurt Busch and his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge landed in the top-10 in the seventh position; his Penske teammates David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr., finished 26th and 36th, respectively.
Both series continue onto the Michigan International Speedway this weekend.
That's the minute for this week! The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series returns to action this weekend for the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn.
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