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Can Fernando Alonso win Indy? Here's why and why maybe not

SPEEDWAY, IN – The month of May has been a joy ride for Fernando Alonso at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two-time Formula 1 champion came to Indy having never turned left in a race car without also turning right. But he acquired such a feel for Indy's 2 1/2 -mile rectangle during a month of practice and qualifying that he's considered a strong contender to win the 101st Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, rookie or not. "You're not trying to bring somebody on who has very little experience driving very high-performance cars," said 2003 Indy 500 winner Gil deFerran, who this month has helped Alonso learn the nuances that make the speedway such a tough place to conquer. "I suppose it would be a little bit different if you were dealing with a younger, much less experienced person." Driving a McLaren Honda from the potent Andretti Autosport team, Alonso was consistently near the top of the speed charts in practice, he qualified fifth fastest at 231.300 mph, and he handled runs in heavy traffic like a driver who'd done it many times before. But those were the prelims. The race is another creature. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks. I was making some moves, taking some different lines. I am extremely happy." Other drivers say the speedway looks different on race day when the crowd, expected to top 300,000, fills the grandstands and makes an already narrow track seem even tighter. The three-wide rolling start is something Alonso has never experienced, and he will see the green flag from the middle of the second row between Takuma Sato and J.R. Hildebrand. And the space he'll be given by his competitors in the first 180 laps may disappear In the last 20 when it's every driver for themselves. Can a rookie like Alonso win this race? Absolutely, as Andretti driver Alexander Rossi showed last year when his team used a fuel-mileage strategy to win in his first taste of Indy. We're talking about Fernando Alonso here, who easily could show his rookie stripes to the rest of the field most of the day. His best lap in Friday's final practice, 226.608, was fifth fastest in the field and, more important, he said the car felt comfortable in heavy traffic. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks," Alonso said. "I was making some moves, taking some different lines.

Opel CEO talks new EV, will likely be fresh face for Chevy, too

The rumored demise of the Opel Ampera has been confirmed, but there's good news, too. Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann has been busy Tweeting information about the brand's next plug-in vehicle, admitting that the Ampera is on the way out but that plug-in vehicles are here to stay. His Tweets, in full, read: After the eventual run-out of the current generation Ampera, we'll introduce a successor product in the electric vehicle segment. Our next electric vehicle will be part of our massive product offensive – with 27 new vehicles in the 2014-2018 time frame. We see eMobility as important part of the mobility of tomorrow and we will continue to drive down costs & deliver affordability. As we learned earlier this week, the Ampera will not be refreshed when the current Chevy Volt is updated, most likely because of slow sales. Opel sold just 332 Amperas in the first five months of 2014. For now, General Motors is still building Amperas in Michigan for export to Europe. So, what might this new EV mean for the General Motors plug-in fleet? Official spokespeople are being quiet, but we think it's safe to say the new EV Neumann is talking about is not simply a rebadged Chevy Spark EV. This is the first official word about an entirely new EV, and we expect it will come to both the Chevrolet and Opel brands.

Travis Kvapil tells Twitter his Sprint Cup car was stolen

There's a bizarre story coming out of Atlanta today, as NASCAR racer Travis Kvapil is reporting that his Sprint Cup Car was stolen from a lot at the Drury Inn in Morrow, GA. Kvapil announced the theft, which included the black pickup that was hauling the trailer and the #44 Chevrolet SS Sprint Cup Car – shown above, with driver JJ Yeley at the wheel – on Twitter. According to Kvapil, the car wasn't going to be ready for the Thursday test session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, although forecasts of snow forced the team to dispatch their main trailer and tools to the track ahead of the car, which left for Atlanta later yesterday. According to ESPN, police in Morrow have video of the "incident," which happened at 5:34 AM Friday, with police investigating it as as criminal in nature. "Sometimes what happens when thieves see trailers, they might just assume there's something in the trailer they can go off and sell," Sgt. Larry Oglesby, of the Morrow PD, told USA Today. "Sometimes when things like this occur, they will drop off the items in a parking lot somewhere – like a Walmart parking lot – once they realize what they have." "All we know is it was a silver jeep," team owner John Cohen told USA Today. "One guy got out and they pulled off together." Earlier, Cohen told ESPN that the theft will force the team out of this weekend's race at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kvapil, meanwhile, has taken to Twitter to appeal to his followers to be on the lookout for the truck, trailer and race car. Here's hoping it turns up all together. Check out the driver's tweets, below. Wow. Anyone near Atlanta find my stolen Cup car let me know! Unreal - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 I bet when whoever has it, opens the trailer and is going to be like 'oh snap' - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Ok, to clarify. @Teamxtreme44 transporter is @amsupdates. The guys stayed and worked on the car Thursday at the shop in NC. They drove.... - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 down last night in a Ford dually and enclosed trailer with racecar inside. That was stolen out of hotel parking lot this am in Morrow, GA - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Black Ford dually, white enclosed tag behind trailer. New Jersey plates - Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) February 27, 2015 Dang.... I'm wishing we had LoJack or something on it!