MOTORSPORT: Penske splashes bucks for bigger bang

As he nears his 83rd birthday on Thursday, Roger Penske's impact on motor racing just keeps getting bigger.

Only weeks after completing his takeover of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Penske announced at the weekend that he's increasing the prizemoney for this year's Indianapolis 500 in late May to $US15 million ($A22.3m) after it has sat around $US13 million for 10 years.

Turbochargers will be turned up 45hp for the 33 cars in America's major open-wheeler race that 'The Captain' has won 18 times as a team owner as he breathes fresh life into the 104th running of the classic already billed 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing'.

Penske is putting emphasis on the fan experience at the superspeedway known as The Brickyard, also tweaking the qualifying format for the Indy 500.

Winner of more than 500 races in many categories over half a century, including last year's controversial Bathurst 1000, Penske's focus today has been in Florida, where he had two drivers in the top 10 starters of the biggest race for American stock cars, the Daytona 500.

Joey Logano, already a winner of 'The Great American Race' for Penske five years ago, was the top Ford Mustang qualifier this time behind a pair of new Chevrolet Camaros in the hands of Ricky Stenhouse Junior, driving for Marcos Ambrose's former team JTG Daugherty, and Alex Bowman for Hendrick Motorsports.

Penske's other stock car star Brad Keselowski started ninth in the rain-delayed race, for which US president Donald Trump arrived aboard the Air Force One jet before doing a lap of the 2.5-mile (4km) banked oval in his limousine labelled 'The Beast'.

"There is no greater thrill than to join you at the world centre of racing for the 62nd Daytona 500 ... so exciting," Trump said before giving the famous command to the 40 drivers in the race: "Gentlemen, start your engines."

Incidentally, prizemoney for the Daytona 500 – which this century has overtaken the Indy 500 as America's biggest race – is $US23.6 million (more than A$35m).

Penske gave his dual Supercar champion and Bathurst victor Scott McLaughlin a taste of an oval track at the high-banked Texas Motor Speedway after his test of an Indycar at the Circuit of the Americas, also in Texas, in which the New Zealander incredibly was third fastest.

One of four IndyCar rookies at the oval test, McLaughlin touched 222mph (357.3kmh) at TMS, where the first two turns are banked at 20 degrees and the last two at 24 degrees, and clocked laps at an average of 214mph (344.4kmh).

"That's the fastest I've ever gone," said McLaughlin, describing the experience of 150 laps at the 1.5-mile (2.4km) TMS, as "unreal".

"The last week testing IndyCars has been like a dream.
Adapting to the car has been a major adjustment for me. The sensation of speed in these cars is just incredible.

"Thanks especially to Roger Penske for putting his faith in me.

"Now I head back to start my Supercars title defence in Adelaide [this week]. Bring it on!"

McLaughlin will return to America for his IndyCar race debut on the road course at Indianapolis on May 9 – two weeks before the Indy 500.

Another New Zealander, Mitch Evans, a protege of Mark Webber, has taken the lead in the Formula E electric open-wheeler global series after winning the fourth race of the season in Mexico City.

Driving for Jaguar, Evans has 47 points to the 46 of BMW i Andretti's British driver Alex Sims, with Portugal's Antonio Felix da Costa on 39 after finishing runner-up to the Kiwi on the weekend.

Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi, the most successful driver in the six years of Formula E, notched his first points this season with third place for Nissan e.dams.

This season's early leader for Mercedes-Benz, Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, crashed out of fifth place and, with 38 points, has dropped to fourth, while German Andre Lotterer, who started on pole position for Porsche and alongside Evans, also was in the wars in the race.

BMW i Andretti leads the teams championship with 71 points to Jaguar's 57, Mercedes-Benz's 56, DS Techeetah (fielding da Costa and reigning champion, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne) 55 and Nissan 43.

Porsche, despite a second place by Lotterer at the opening event in Saudi Arabia, is only ninth of the 12 teams in its debut season with 21 points.

The next races are at Marrakesh in Morocco on February 29 and then Rome on April 4 following the cancellation of the Chinese race at Sanya. China's Formula 1 Grand Prix in Shanghai has been postponed because of the coronavirus, with talk of a revival of a San Marino GP at Imola in Italy.

Toyota filled three of the top four places at the second round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Sweden, with its Welsh recruit Elfyn Evans the victor and 19-year-old Finn Kalle Rovanpera becoming the youngest driver on a WRC podium.

Rovanpera relegated the Japanese manufacturer's highest-profile recruit, French six-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, to fourth.

Estonian Ott Tanak, who won the world title with Toyota last year, was runner-up to Evans in his second outing for Hyundai after his almighty crash on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.

Tanak's i20 was 12.7 seconds adrift of Evans' Yaris after he had not been confident of being fit for Sweden.

Rovanpera was another 7.5 seconds back and 3.4 seconds ahead of Ogier after starting the long solitary last stage on the final day behind the French superstar.

Hyundai's winner of The Monte, Belgian Thierry Neuville, was only sixth in Sweden, although little more than half a minute from Evans in a rally run in unseasonal weather, with much less snow and ice than usual and then rain making the final stage particularly tricky.

Finn Esapekka Lappi finished ahead of Neuville in the first of the M-Sport Ford Fiestas.

Evans and Neuville are now tied on 42 points, with Ogier on 37, Rovanpera 30, Lappi 24 and Tanak 20, with the first gravel rally of the WRC year in Mexico in mid-March.

Toyota leads the manufacturer standings with 73 points to Hyundai's 63 and M-Sport Ford's 40.