Power holds off Newgarden and Rossi to win Pocono 500
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| Power takes the checkered for back-to-back Pocono wins |
Will Power won his 2nd straight Pocono 500 by holding off Penske Chevy teammate Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi's Andretti Honda in a nose-to-tail finish. Power broke the draft of Newgarden by diving low on the straights and breaking the draft of those following every lap. Simon Pagenaud and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top-5.
It was the 3rd win of the year for Power and 32nd of his career and he moved into 9th on the all-time win list ahead of Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti.
"Once I got my lap back, I was like, 'All right, it's game on,' I can definitely get back up there," said Power, who has four top-five finishes in the last five races. "I was thinking like top-5 (finish), but when I was pumping out like 217 (mph) laps, I'm like, 'OK, we're going to make some serious hay here.'
"The guys did a fantastic job in the pits having to do all that and still able to go ahead and win the race."
Newgarden took consolation that his points lead expanded slightly with the second-place finish.
"It was a good day for points," said Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Team Penske Chevrolet. "Tough when you have an opportunity to potentially win a race at the end of it, but I don't think we had enough for Will, to be honest with you.
"I'm happy for Team Penske. It's a 1-2 at the end of the day, so keeping it in the family. When one car wins, we kind of all win."
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Rossi led 44 laps and finished third in the No. 98 Andretti Autosport/Curb Honda to earn his second podium finish in the past three races.
"A lot went right for us today," said Rossi. "I think the Military-to-Motorsports car was strong and got right to the front from the beginning. It was our race to control from a fuel standpoint, and our NAPA Know How crew did a good job in the pits all day."
"The difficult thing was, our fuel trim knob came off two-thirds of the way through," continued Rossi. "So, we were stuck in the mix and it certainly wasn't optimum. It made restarts challenging, and also definitely at the end when the two guys in front of me were pushing quite hard and I didn't have full power."
Before an estimated crowd of 25,000 enjoying the Chamber of Commerce weather, Tony Kanaan took the lead at the start and led the first 11 laps but Alexander Rossi was on the charge from his 6th starting position and by lap 12 Rossi passed Kanaan in Turn 3. But Rossi was not able to pull away as Kanaan and Power stuck right with Rossi.
At lap 20 the top-5 were Rossi, Kanaan, Power, Kimball and Dixon.
Lap 23 Esteban Gutierrez slid up in Turn 3 on exit and his butt bumper hit the outside wall and broke it. The debris brought out the first caution. All the leaders pitted and Rossi came out first.
When the crew came back out Dixon and Power got the slingshot on Rossi and Rossi got shuffled back to 5th.
Rossi settled down and began to pick off one car at a time until he closed up on and then repassed Dixon for the lead on lap 54 as Dixon, burning more fuel leading, peeled off to pit.
After all the stops Dixon was back in front with Rossi right behind him and biding his time. Everyone settled down with Dixon, Hinchcliffe and Rossi saving fuel at the front as lap times dropped by almost a second.
Power made an unscheduled stop on lap 66 to change a broken front wing and lost a lap. He then had to hope for a lucky caution to get the wave around to unlap himself.
On the next round of pitstops Dixon again had to stop early because he was burning more fuel, but after all the stops Dixon was back out in front with a 4.4 second lead over Rossi after a very fast pitstop by the Ganassi crew.
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| Rossi led 44 laps and appeared to have the fastest car but a fuel mixture knob fell off in his cockpit and he was not able to get full power from his Honda at the end when he needed it |
But Rossi wasn't going to let Dixon get away and lap-by-lap he closed the gap on Dixon and on lap 98 Rossi put the #98 back out front as the race approached lap 100 and the halfway mark.
On lap 100 Hunter-Reay passed Rossi for the lead. An amazing run from the back after his big crash in qualifying Saturday.
On lap 104 Rossi blew past Hunter-Reay and retook the lead.
Saavedra found the Turn 1 wall on lap 116 bringing out the 2nd caution of the race that shuffled the order putting Hunter-Reay back in front.
The race went back green on lap 123 and immediately the Ganassi cars blew past Hunter-Reay for the lead, but within two laps the third caution flew as Hinchcliffe and Hildebrand got together in Turn 1 – both crashing hard into the outside wall but escaping injury.
The race went back green on lap 133 and Rahal surged to the front with Kanaan 2nd. Kanaan and Rahal swapped the lead a couple of times as drivers began to feel each other out as they race toward the 3/4 mark of the race. The lead swapped places many times resulting in a new record number of lead changes for this event before even the 3/4-mark.
Another round of pitstop saw Power out in front on lap 161 ahead of Kanaan, Dixon and Rossi.
"I had a fast car and was able to pump out some 217 mph laps when the others pitted and that gave me over a 4-second lead after the next to last pitstop. I knew we were fast but I was surprised that we had opened up that much of a lead at that point," said Power.
On lap 175 Power was still leading over Dixon and Rossi as Power saw his lead slowly eaten away by Rossi and Dixon from 4.4 seconds after the previous stop to 3.3 seconds.
The leaders all made their final pit stops between lap 170 and 180.
With 10 laps to go Power was back out in front ahead of Newgarden and Rossi who were inching closer to Power as the top-3 were almost nose to tail.
With 8 laps to go Newgarden and Rossi caught Power and the race was on to the finish as the fans were on their feet.
But Power had enough to hold both off for the win. Afterward we found out that Rossi did not have full power in his Honda because one of the knobs in his car fell off.
Newgarden (494) stretched his point lead over Dixon (476) and Castroneves with three races to go.
The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action on Saturday, Aug. 26 with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Valvoline at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. It marks the return of Indy car racing to the St. Louis region for the first time since 2003. Live race coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.
QUOTES
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet): "The DXC Technology was a rocket ship at the end. This is such a long race, and all of the changes to the car seem to come together at the end. It's a little bit of a shame that we lost the train earlier in the race. I think that was costly for us. I was racing (Scott) Dixon and we lost touch with the pack. It might have been interesting had that not happened. But that's how it goes sometimes. The championship battle is still very close with just three races to go."
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was a good day for points. Tough when you have an opportunity to potentially win a race at the end of it, but I don't think we had enough for Will (Power) to be honest with you. I did everything I could to try and get by him. I just felt like he was a touch quicker than us. That was difficult for me to overcome. I'm happy for him. I'm happy for Team Penske. It's a one-two at the end of the day, so keeping it in the family. When one car wins, we kind of all win. That's the way we view it. And certainly for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits Chevy, it's a points extension day, so we can't be disappointed in it."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "All things considered. It was a great weekend. I can't thank the Hitachi Chevrolet crew enough for all of the hard work after the crash in qualifying. They did an awesome job at getting the car together for the race. We started from the back, so our work was cut out for us. Our progress kind of stalled a little, but then the changes to the car all clicked and we were able to finish seventh. The championship didn't get jumbled up too much, so we head to Gateway (Motorsports Park) next week for another round."
CONOR DALY (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "That was the first 500-mile race I finished on the lead lap, so that's good. I think we had a really good shot at it when we got the track position (P9), but then we got the drive through (penalty), which is a shame because I didn't see the yellow light on my dash. But it's one of those things. It's pretty much the worst luck you could have in that position, but we tried to deal with it. I thought our car was fairly competitive, but I just really struggled in Turn 3 – it was difficult for me all day long. Once we lost track position, it was difficult to stay up, but I think we made a good step forward today."
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "We were two-wide racing there shortly after the re-start and I was on the inside there. The guys in front of us started racing and I guess JR (Hildebrand) got a bit of push when everybody was side-by-side and put a bunch of wheel in it, it pitched him loose and I was just there. If I had been a bit back, he probably would have spun down in front of me. I might have gotten into him either way, (so) you don't really know. It's unfortunate and at the end of the day we really shouldn't have been back there. We should have been running up front like we were. I made a mistake in pit lane and put us in that position so I'm gutted for the SPM boys. They deserve better than that. We're going to regroup and try to do well at Gateway."
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 7 Lucas Oil Honda): "Very disappointing situation to be honest. We were struggling since yesterday with a loose car, which unfortunately got marginally looser as we went into the race. The whole No. 7 team did an amazing job getting the balance back to me, and we had a very strong second stint, which we really capitalized on. We were moving very strongly through the field looking for a nice top 10 there, then had a situation with Munoz, contact that put me into the apron. We might have bent a shock, which basically ended our day. Our mission was to bring it home, but unfortunately this couldn't happen. We were losing water pressure, and so there were a lot of issues that were happening, and it just ended up not our way. Looking forward to what's to come next weekend. Not our weekend for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports organization, but we just need to continue working and building something stronger for what's to come."
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 NTT Data Honda): "We had a great NTT Honda today despite missing the chance to make final adjustments in practice yesterday. We reverted back to an earlier setup and the car was fast early today. We decided to get out front and lead and I was happy with the car in the first half of the race. We made some adjustments after that and settled into the top five. In the last 25 or so laps we were contending, but just couldn't get back to the front."
TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Data Honda): "We needed a little bit there at the end that we just didn't have. Regardless, we fought pretty hard all day long and it was a really exciting race. That battle with Graham (Rahal) was the highlight of my race – exchanging positions back and forth for the lead. We found out after the race that we had a broken front wing that we didn't know about. We don't know how it happened or when it happened. We were so strong at the beginning of the race and I couldn't understand why we were falling back, but now we know why. Regardless, it was a great battle. I'm pretty sure my kids at home got a kick out of that. I think this place is becoming my Indianapolis, but I hope it doesn't take me 12 years to win here like it did there. The No. 10 NTT Data Honda was awesome. Unfortunately, those are the kinds of things that happen. This is INDYCAR, everyone is just so competitive. Sometimes you have a car to win, but you have a little bit of a hiccup and finish fifth."
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "What a crazy day for us. I mean, we had a really strong car. The Verizon Chevrolet was getting back to the front, and then suddenly, boom, the wing broke. Lucky I didn't hit the wall. We went a lap down, and then I was thinking to be smart and anything can happen. You get your lap back and get through the field, and that's exactly what we did. So very, very good day. Once I got my lap back, I was like, all right, it's game on. I can definitely get back up there. I was thinking like top 5, but when I was pumping out like 217 laps, I'm like, okay, we're going to make some serious hay here. The crew guys did a fantastic job in the pits having to do all that and still able to go ahead and win the race."
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "It was a fun race. It's been a long time to have a fun race, I think the last one was at Texas. The car was really good. We've made a good program at the speedways so I'm really happy. I think we just missed a little bit of speed, but I think setup wise, the car was great. The guys did a great job on the pit stops. The No. 12 and the No. 2 car did a different strategy, and I think that cost us P8, but on track the car was quite strong fighting with the Penskes and Andrettis. In the last stint we were missing just a little bit of speed, but I'm happy to bring the car home 10th. We were fighting the whole race and it was fun to make some good passes. So we'll continue to try to do that." (About the broken wing): "I got hit in the rear under the first yellow and it broke my rear bumper, so it had to be replaced. So I went all the way to the back and had to come back through. Very few people passed me on track today so I was happy about that."
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Bobby Rahal Automotive Group Honda): "I think we had a really good race car today. We were a little too draggy on a downforce level to win today and just fell back. We were just never able to get the wing out during the pit stops to pick up a little speed. Unfortunately, as people saw on the one stop right before we lost a little bit of time, we came in and then came out in the middle of a group and got freight-trained. After that, it was all about trying to recover. Everybody did a great job on the No. 15 team today. We'll go back and review strategy to see where we could have been better. Our team has worked awfully hard and we had a car that was capable of running in the top three certainly. I don't know that I had even (Alexander) Rossi's pace. He would have struggled to get by us, but I think he was a little bit quicker and the same with a couple of other guys. When we were up with TK (Tony Kanaan), if that train could have just kept working, swapping lap-to-lap-to-lap, I would have been perfectly cool with that, but sometimes that's not the way these things go. I think we were a little too slow. Other guys could draft up on us with ease. We're just going to have to work harder to be better and finish as high as we can in the championship. We will go out there and continue to push hard to end the season strong."
ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ (No. 18 UNIFIN Honda): "I was having a really good race up to that point (when I brushed the wall). I came into the corner, and by the time I was in the middle of the corner, I had massive understeer and I just couldn't save it. Fortunately, I did my best to reduce the impact, but at that moment I was a passenger. It's quite fun, I have to say. It was really good racing out there and we were really doing well, we had good pace. We were fighting with the other cars. I was trying to find the rhythm, the timing, but unfortunately it didn't end well. It's all part of gaining experience."
ED JONES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): "It was a difficult race. The approach we took with the set up made it really hard to make any progress unless the cars in front made mistakes. So, it was challenging. We still had a decent race, but we were pretty unlucky with the timing of the yellows. We were looking all right in the end and then I made a mistake on the last pit stop and that cost us. That said, it was quite fun out there at some points. Some guys were quite aggressive and there were a few crazy moves, so I was adjusting to that. It's just frustrating because I feel that we should have had a decent result."
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "We just couldn't get it figured out this weekend. I crashed yesterday in practice, but we thought we made some gains in practice last night. We've had some OK runs here previously, but Turn 3 is where we struggled all weekend. We were pretty good in Turn 1, but for as much better as we were in (Turn) 1, we were equally bad in (Turn) 3. We just never really could get it figured out. We tried a lot of things that had worked here before and even tried some new things, but it just turned into one of those races. We weren't in the window today."
JR HILDEBRAND (No. 21 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "Heading down into Turn 1, it was two-wide for a couple of rows deep. I was on the outside, James (Hinchcliffe) was making a pass on the inside, and when the guys in front of us spread out and went two-wide I started getting a big push on the outside and fed wheel-in, and it just hooked up. I went down and James was there. I'm annoyed for both of us. It was close racing there, we were getting towards the end of the race and it's just a bummer certainly for the Fuzzy's Vodka team, but also for these guys (Hinchcliffe's team)."
TAKUMA SATO (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): "It was a tough race. Up through qualifying, it was a fantastic weekend. The No. 26 boys and the Expedite Home Loans car worked extremely well – outstanding job to the crew. It was a great feeling to put the car on the pole here in Pocono. I always look forward to this race; it's always an exciting race. Today we struggled a lot. It's a shame we finished in 13th from where we started, but that's racing. We need to understand what happened and hopefully we have a strong race next weekend."
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): "It was a tough day, it felt like we had a lot going against us. We caught a yellow (flag) at a bad time, and then cut a tire and went to the back a few times. It was an unfortunate day, but we kept fighting and were able to lead some laps. It's a bit of a bummer not to finish higher in my home race, but the UFD boys did a great job with the car and in the pits. Onward to Gateway for one last oval of the season."
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "I've been through 500 miles plenty of times, but I'm just beat after this one. It was a great run though, we started with a lot of downforce since we started at the back of the field. Because we didn't have a final practice or warmup after qualifying, it took a while to get the balance of the car right. We started really slicing our way through it and I thought 'Hey, we really have something here.' We were leading at halfway. I thought it was going to be a good end to the race, but we just didn't get enough downforce out of (the car). I was getting big runs on guys, but just couldn't complete it. But I'm really happy to just get back in the car today and put the effort forward. We put on a good showing for DHL and for the fans out here, and that's important. It was a test today; it was a mental test, no doubt, and a physical one as well. I was really glad to roll back into pit lane after the race and see the crew here with smiles on their faces."
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Honda): "I'm really disappointed. I think the car had more in it than our results show. We had a mistake on that first pit stop, but we recovered well from that, then got caught up in other people's mess. That's what happens when you run back there. At the end of the day, though, we didn't have the car to keep moving forward. We were just kind of hanging out – the balance wasn't there. It was really disappointing and frustrating, especially having so many friends from Novo Nordisk here today. Qualifying third, running that first stint in fourth, a great restart in the middle of the race… all of it makes this result that much harder to swallow."
ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Andretti Autosport/Curb Honda): "The fuel mixture knob came off about two-thirds of the way through, so we didn't have full power there at the end. We know these Honda engines have something for the competition. The Military to Motorsports car was great all day. The NAPA Know How crew was stellar all day. It's a really good result, but when you come so close to a win, it's sometimes difficult to swallow. Looking back to where we were at Pocono last year, when we had a strong car and didn't finish, to come back to be on the podium is a testament to Andretti Autosport and the entire team and the work that they've done all year."
Results
| Pos | No | Name | Laps | Diff | Gap | Led | ST | Engine |
| 1 | 12 | Will Power | 200 | 0.0000s | 0.0000s | 34 | 5 | Chevy |
| 2 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 200 | 0.5268 | 0.5268 | 4 | 14 | Chevy |
| 3 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 200 | 0.7112 | 0.1844 | 44 | 6 | Honda |
| 4 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 200 | 0.8770 | 0.1658 | 0 | 2 | Chevy |
| 5 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 200 | 2.9056 | 2.0286 | 32 | 4 | Honda |
| 6 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 200 | 3.3544 | 0.4488 | 51 | 9 | Honda |
| 7 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 200 | 3.7273 | 0.3729 | 0 | 20 | Chevy |
| 8 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 200 | 4.0833 | 0.3560 | 12 | 21 | Honda |
| 9 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 200 | 4.6884 | 0.6051 | 9 | 7 | Honda |
| 10 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 200 | 6.9330 | 2.2446 | 18 | Chevy | |
| 11 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 200 | 9.4607 | 2.5277 | 9 | 16 | Honda |
| 12 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 200 | 10.4503 | 0.9896 | 0 | 22 | Chevy |
| 13 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 200 | 11.2388 | 0.7885 | 0 | 1 | Honda |
| 14 | 4 | Conor Daly | 200 | 19.8050 | 8.5662 | 0 | 17 | Chevy |
| 15 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 200 | 20.6790 | 0.8740 | 0 | 8 | Chevy |
| 16 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 200 | 24.4523 | 3.7733 | 0 | 3 | Honda |
| 17 | 19 | Ed Jones | 200 | 25.0689 | 0.6166 | 0 | 11 | Honda |
| 18 | 8 | Max Chilton | 129 | 3 LAPS | 3 LAPS | 0 | 10 | Honda |
| 19 | 21 | JR Hildebrand | 124 | 5.2094 | 0.3705 | 2 | 19 | Chevy |
| 20 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 124 | 5.3121 | 0.1027 | 3 | 12 | Honda |
| 21 | 7 | Sebastian Saavedra | 114 | 37.0400 | 2.0288 | 0 | 15 | Honda |
| 22 | 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | 23 | 43.4004 | 20.4257 | 0 | 13 | Honda |
Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 183.737 mph
Time of Race: 2:43:16.6005
Margin of victory: 0.5268 of a second
Cautions: 3 for 17 laps
Lead changes: 42 among 10 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Kanaan 1-11
Rossi 12-27
Kanaan 28-29
Dixon 30-53
Rossi 54-55
Power 56
Hildebrand 57-58
Dixon 59
Rossi 60-65
Dixon 66-81
Rossi 82-83
Hinchcliffe 84
Rossi 85
Hinchcliffe 86-87
Dixon 88-97
Rossi 98-99
Hunter-Reay 100-103
Rossi 104-114
Newgarden 115-117
Hunter-Reay 118-122
Rahal 123
Kanaan 124-133
Rahal 134
Kanaan 135
Rahal 136
Kanaan 137
Rahal 138
Kanaan 139
Rahal 140
Kanaan 141
Rahal 142
Kanaan 143
Rahal 144
Kanaan 145-146
Rahal 147
Kanaan 148-149
Rahal 150
Hunter-Reay 151-153
Power 154-176
Rossi 177-180
Newgarden 181
Andretti 182-190
Power 191-200
Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Newgarden 494, Dixon 476, Castroneves 472, Pagenaud 468, Power 452, Rahal 418, Sato 399, Rossi 394, Kanaan 351 and Hinchcliffe 327.