Shank team ready for Brickyard Grand Prix

Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian is eager to return through the gates of Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week as the team and drivers John Pew and Ozz Negri prepare for the Brickyard Grand Prix on Friday.

The IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship event is held as part of the big Kroger Super Weekend which also features the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

While each NASCAR Series will run the oval, Indianapolis fans will get to see IMSA take on the recently redesigned ‘roval’ circuit,  which is a 2.435-mile circuit that uses a section of the oval as well as the infield road course.

All four TUDOR Championship classes will reunite back on track together for the event which will set up a combined class grid of 49 cars around the 14-turn circuit that also plays host to IndyCars and MotoGP as the Speedway continues to evolve from its once-a-year event origins.  

Pew and Negri look to get the No. 60 Ford Ecoboost powered Riley quickly up to speed on the Indianapolis road course which has been updated since the squad’s last visit to the track. While much of the course remains the same, there is now a new chicane in the final corner as well as some small changes to the infield which many predict will produce an even closer and more exciting race.

The team is fresh off of a hard-fought race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in which Pew and Negri drove to a fifth place finish. The duo will target one of the most cherished podiums on the calendar and look to improve upon their season-best finish of fourth at Detroit.

It is always special to go to Indianapolis, and having the Brickyard GP as part of this inaugural IMSA season adds a lot.

Michael Shank

“It is always special to go to Indianapolis, and having the Brickyard GP as part of this inaugural IMSA season adds a lot,” said team owner Mike Shank. “We are looking forward to this new layout and the fans should have a great view with the new mounds that they’ve built up around the track. This is a great way for us to showcase IMSA and really with two races (Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge + TUDOR Championship) in one day it’s a great day for the fans. We are still chipping away at this EcoBoost package and feel like we are improving every time out so we just want to build on a solid day at Mosport with a strong run on Friday night.”

It will be a quick two-day event for the Ohio-based team with two practice sessions on Thursday ahead of qualifying which will take place at 5:05 PM ET and will be streamed LIVE on IMSA.com. The 2.75-hour Brickyard Grand Prix is set to go green at 5:45 PM ET Friday evening with FOX Sports 1 carrying live coverage starting at 5:30 PM ET.

MSR