Saturday morning update from Mid-Ohio

A determined Will Power at Mid-Ohio Friday will be back with Penske in 2016

A few tidbits of additional information I picked up Friday at Mid-Ohio:

Will Power is one of the Penske drivers that is still in the hunt for the championship this season. He is determined to win that trophy. "I am going to put my head down and get the absolute most out of every weekend. The last 3 races are very strong tracks for me. I am determined to win this weekend at Mid-Ohio."

I asked how he felt with double points for Sonoma. "I am not a fan of double points races, but it gives me more of a shot, gives me a chance. You would need an 80 point lead going into the last race to wrap up the championship. The double points leaves the door open for other people. The other people is me."

Will indicated that he is signed for next year with Penske Racing and we have updated our 2016 IndyCar Silly Season page with this information.

We talked with Helio Castroneves and he is also thinking about winning the 2015 championship for Roger Penske. "I am not going to give up. Obviously we know we are close between 2nd and 5th. We are going to fight for the reachable. But at the end of the day, we have to think as a team. With the team that we have, We don't want to miss an opportunity to give up a chance to win a championship. I am going to fight until the end. We want the team to end up 1, 2, 3 in the points with Simon 4th. With me 1st and Juan Pablo 2nd."

When I asked him about his ride for next year, he said he was focused on the end of this season and winning the championship. He is still so competitive that he will most likely be back in the number 3 car.

I had a conversion with Italian driver Luca Filippi after the 2nd practice session. He caused 2 red flags during the session and I asked if the aero kit was the issue. He stated "No, I was testing the limits of the car. I pushed too hard to see where I could improve the car's performance and got off track. The team will change the mapping and I will be better." He likes driving for the CFH team and feels comfortable with the team.

When I asked him if he felt his owner Ed Carpenter should stop racing, Luca replied "No, Ed should stay driving. Ed's lack of preseason testing did not help his driving with the new aero kit this season." As for himself, given the opportunity to drive full time for the team, Luca would accept that task. He hopes to be back with CFH racing next season.

Luca also has worked for Sky at the F1 races over that past 10 years and has done tire testing for Pirelli. Will Buxton who is a pit announcer for the F1 races is a good friend of Luca. Will worked as a pit announcer for the qualifying show for the Indy 500 and the Milwaukee race in 2013.

Hideous

Awesome

I talked with Ryan Briscoe, who has been driving the #5 Schmidt Peterson entry for the injured James Hinchcliffe. Ryan has nothing firmed up for next season.

With Derrick Walker leaving IndyCar his project for a 2018 car appears dead. There is not enough revenue coming into the series to pay for an all new car in 2018. In the CART days teams had the money to buy new cars every year. The team owners were all whining over paying for body kits, imagine another new car in 2018? Despite the fact that the Dallara is hideous looking, IndyCar is likely to keep the existing car for another 10 years if the team owners had their way," says AR1.com President Mark Cipolloni.

He also tells me his sources say the buyout offer coming for IndyCar will include two new cars for every team – exciting cars that will draw new fans to the series. Cars that take your breath away like in the CART days when IndyCar had as many fans and more sponsorship dollars in the paddock than NASCAR.

"In those days when a CART IndyCar came past it made you stand back from the fence," said Cipolloni. "Now the IndyCars are so quiet the chipmunks in the trees will fall asleep. A new fan seeing an IndyCar race for the first time will be so unimpressed it's likely they will never return."

Can these drivers all fit in a Honda Fit?

They pile in

And they are off

When all 6 feet, 3Â½ inches of Andretti Autosport driver Justin Wilson arrived at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, cramming into a race-modified Honda Fit with fellow Verizon IndyCar Series competitors wasn’t exactly what he had in mind for a birthday celebration.

Wilson, who turned 37 on the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio weekend’s practice day, and 10 others squirmed their way into Honda Performance Development’s SEMA automotive specialty products trade show display car, outfitted to compete in the upcoming Pirelli World Challenge TCB class race in August.

“We all got pretty cozy in there," Wilson said. “I’m glad I had my seat and not where Jack Hawksworth was sitting because he was basically underneath me and I was on his head. I was on top, sat on the wall hoop, so he was underneath the wall hoop and he had a pretty tight squeeze in there. (I hope Wilson did not pass wind at that moment)

“I just wanted to get somewhere where no one could sit on top of me, that was my strategy."

Honda, involved in Indy car racing since 1994, is title sponsor of the 90-lap race on the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as well as events earlier this season at Barber Motorsports Park and the streets of Toronto.

“Honda does a lot for the whole series. They’re very passionate about their racing and it’s great to be at their home race," Wilson said. “They’re the title sponsor here and they’re always trying to do things and bring employees out and stuff like that, so it’s always fun." Lucille Dust reporting live from Mid-Ohio for AutoRacing1.com