Power wins crashfest in Texas

Will Power

Scott R. LePage/LAT for Chevy Racing

Pack racing returned to the Verizon IndyCar Series Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, where Will Power survived a massive battle of attrition to win the Rainguard Water Sealers 600.

Power, of Team Penske, won under caution following a yellow flag on Lap 243 of the schedule 248 for a four-car wreck initiated by reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato. That crash eliminated Sato, Scott Dixon, Max Chilton and Conor Daly.

“Oh my God, what a race," Power said after taking the checkered flag for his second win at TMS and 31st of his career. Power led a race-high 180 laps to move from eighth to third on the track’s all-time laps-led table with 432. The native of Australia only trails Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. in that category.

“It was very intense," said Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. “I’m so stoked to win in my second home. I don’t care about the rest. My wife (Liz) is from Texas and you don’t understand how good that feels."

"Over the moon to win here," Power said. "My second home and my wife is from here, so we spend a lot of time down here, so just an amazing feeling."

The frenetic Verizon IndyCar Series race featured 23 lead changes among seven drivers, though Power led a race-high 180 of the 248 laps. He won under the last of nine caution periods after four cars – including Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon battling for second place right behind Power – were involved in a crash in Turn 1 on Lap 244.

Power's win is the ninth at Texas Motor Speedway for Team Penske and the legendary team's record 191st victory in Indy car history.

"It was a matter of getting to the front," said Power, who started ninth in the 22-car field. "We talked about that in our pre-race strategy meeting, that track position is going to be everything because I know whoever would have the lead and (stay on) the bottom of the track would be very difficult to pass."

Kanaan, of Chip Ganassi Racing, finished second followed by reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud of Team Penske, defending event champion Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Gabby Chaves of Harding Racing, Marco Andretti of Andretti Autosport and Conor Daly of A.J. Foyt Racing.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The race was the first for the series on TMS’ repaved and re-profiled 1.5-mile oval. In addition to the fresh pavement, Turns 1 and 2 had their banking reduced from 24 to 20 degrees and the bottom widened from 60 to 80-feet. Turns 3 and 4 remain banked at 24 degrees.

The race was red-flagged on Lap 154 for 30 minutes, 42 seconds following a nine-car wreck principally involved James Hinchcliffe and Kanaan.

“I guess I don’t have many friends out there," said Kanaan, driver of the No. 10 NTT Data Honda. “It was pack racing…tough night, very intense from first lap to last lap. I’m glad it’s over. I’m going to apologize to Hinch, if he’ll see me. It was definitely an honest mistake. I had to pay for that in the pits, the longest 20-seconds (penalty) in my life."

Kanaan finished second despite being levied a 20-second stop-and-hold penalty after being involved in the largest incident of the race. On Lap 152, Kanaan, Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin went three wide into Turn 3. The cars of Kanaan and Hinchcliffe touched, ricocheting Hinchcliffe into Aleshin and triggering a mishap involving nine cars. No one was injured.

"There was a bump going into Turn 3 there and I guess I moved up, and I really have to apologize to Hinch," Kanaan said. "I don't do those kind of things. I race people clean and I want people to race me clean. It was definitely an honest mistake.

"Got a penalty, paid a penalty and we finished second, so I guess it is what it is."

For the final 90 laps of the race, INDYCAR mandated competition cautions after every 30 green-flag laps so teams could change tires to account for abnormal tire wear on some entries, due in part to the newly repaved track surface.

A statement from INDYCAR, read, in part: "This action has been taken out of an abundance of caution as race conditions presented different conditions than seen in earlier tests."

What started as an exciting race with both Dale Coyne Racing cars running in the top six, ended in disaster and heartbreak when both Tristan Vautier and Ed Jones were taken out of contention in the same multi-car incident on Lap 153.

Both DCR drivers were having an excellent race with Vautier fighting for the lead and rookie Jones making his way up as high as sixth at one point from his 19th place on the starting grid.

Jones battles Kanaan

While Jones was gaining positions, and climbing into the top 10 in the first part of the race, Vautier led about a dozen laps while fighting with Ganassi and Penske drivers.

Things were still looking up for the Dale Coyne team at the halfway mark of the race as they were fighting for the win, with Vautier sitting fourth and Jones seventh.

Following a restart on Lap 148, things would soon take a turn for the worse. A handful of laps after the restart, Tony Kanaan got into the side of James Hinchcliffe who then lost control of his car. Unfortunately for Vautier, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught collected by Hinchcliffe which then sent him into the wall.

In the meantime, in trying to avoid the incident, Jones slowed down to avoid the cars in front of him, but in doing so was rammed from behind causing race ending damage to the #19 Boy Scouts of America car. Both drivers were uninjured in the incident.

Dixon retained the Verizon IndyCar Series championship lead despite finishing ninth after being collected by the spinning Sato on Lap 244. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver sits atop the standings after nine of 17 races with 326 points. Simon Pagenaud, who finished third in the race, is second with 313 points, Sato is third at 312, Helio Castroneves fourth with 305 and Power fifth at 286.

The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America on June 25. The race airs live at 12:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.

QUOTES

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10 HOW INTENSE WAS THAT RACING AT THE END?
“It was very intense. I could see (Scott) Dixon was able to pass me at the start/finish line. So, I was starting to think about what I was going to do there at the end. Phenomenal job by the guys in the pits. I am so stoked, so happy for Verizon. Shows you how good that Chevy engine is, man, it was super-fast tonight.

“I’m so stoked to win in my second home, where my wife (Liz) is from, Texas. All the family is here, it just feels awesome."

IS THAT THE SIGNIFICANCE WINNING FOR LIZ AND HERE FAMILY? YOU GUYS HAD A FAMILY REUNION ON THURSDAY:
“We were just talking about it and her cousin said ‘man you haven’t won for me here yet’. And like, he has come year after year and I really didn’t think that it would be this weekend, but oh man, you don’t understand how good that feels."

IT’S BEEN SUCH AN UP AND DOWN YEAR FOR YOU GUYS. NOW WITH THIS WIN YOU ARE ONLY 40 POINTS OUT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT CONSIDERING HOW THE YEAR STARTED?
“Yeah, I know. I mean, I’m so stoked for the win, I don’t really care about the rest. I just wanted to win here in Texas and I did it."

ROAD AMERICA IS NEXT, SO THAT IS A GOOD SIGN:
“Yeah, man, we are coming. We are coming."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet, 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion): "It was very much pack racing, so we were trying to get away from the pack, which we did for quite a while. It was a way also to save some fuel and stay behind (Will Power). I was trying to protect him so that we could just go as fast as we could, and it worked out really well. At the end there, I was hoping we were going to go a little longer because I had a really good car. It was a lot of fun. It got a little crazy at the end. I tell you, it is just incredible how close we can race against each other. Good fun, good night, awesome working with Will. That is Team Penske, we all work together, you guys don't believe us, but we do and we showed it tonight."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was definitely a bad decision. It seemed OK…we just got loose. It's hard to tell if that's what it was or not, probably going third lane was not a right idea. I was just trying to get some space with (Scott) Dixon, I didn't know exactly where he was going to go. I probably could have backed out of it sooner and realized it's not going to be good up there. It's just my fault. I feel bad for the guys on the No. 2 car. With everything we have been doing, hum by Verizon on the vehicle with us, we've had fast cars and it's always a shame when you make a mistake for your guys. I put that on me, just trying to race hard, and the third lane wasn't there, so we didn't have it tonight."

CONOR DALY (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "That was crazy. I think the biggest thing tonight is that I learned a lot. That was the first time ever on an oval that I raced side-by-side or that close to anyone. (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) we're never like that and last year I didn't make it through much of the race. It was a huge level of experience gain. We made progress on the car all the way through and on the last stint, I thought we were really in contention for a top five. We were right in the fight which was really fun. I've never experienced any racing like that in my life. Really enjoyed it. It was crazy to spin at the end, but we kept going, so overall just a nice day for us to make it through and survive. I think my guys did a great job – tonight was a lot of work in the pits – we were adjusting the car every stop so I have to thank them for all their work."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "We had a run on (Tony Kanaan) and he had plenty of room on the left, but he just came to the right. If you look at the replay, he comes all the way from the white line to the middle of the racetrack, just pinched me into Mikhail (Aleshin). Either his spotter didn't tell him we were three wide or what, but I couldn't go anywhere, I was sandwiched in the middle. I was not expecting him to do that; Tony has more experience in this kind of pack racing than anybody. I went wheel-to-wheel with him last year for the win and nine times out of 10 would do that all day long, but for whatever reason, he wasn't playing very nice today and wrecked a lot of good equipment. It turned into way more of a pack race than we've had here in a long time, which unfortunately, leads to situations like this. A lot of good cars taken out, but I'm glad everybody's OK. We had such a good car. We had that penalty after I looped it in pit lane, but then we raced our way back to the lead lap; we were side-by-side with Will (Power) and we had the car in the top five. The Arrow Electronics car was just incredible and that last pit stop from the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports guys was just great, it's just a super frustrating way to end a day that was going as well as that in this fashion. I just feel bad for the Arrow Electronics boys because we had two good cars that got taken out today."

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Honda): "Well, the thing is I was much faster than the guys on the lower line. I thought we were all going to stay together up there, but I think James (Hinchcliffe) touched (Tony) Kanaan – I don't know the reason for that – then we basically all crashed. I thought we could make it three lanes up there. I didn't understand what was going on, because I gave space to them, but something was going on with James and Kanaan. In the end, you know, what we have is two great cars that ended up in the wall and that's just dumb. It's stupid and I'm very disappointed in regards to the shape of the team this weekend. We could have been in the top spot today."

MAX CHILTON (No. 8 Gallagher Honda): "That was a wild ride in Texas. I was hanging on for 200 laps, then the car started to come to me. Luckily half the field was taken out and it was easy to get into the mix because of attrition. With 20 (laps) to go we were competitive. Unfortunately with the incident, I collected (Scott) Dixon in the aftermath of that accident and that ended it for the Gallagher car."

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Data Honda): "It was a tough night, just very intense from the first to the last lap. I'm going to apologize to (James Hinchcliffe) for what happened – I just got up a little too high. We paid the price for my mistake. We got a penalty, paid the penalty, and we were able to finish second. I'm proud of the team for sticking with me and fighting our way back up front. It was just an intense race. A lot of things happened and you had to avoid a lot of things to finish. I'm not going to lie, I'm glad it's over."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, 2017 Rainguard Water Sealers 600 winner): "It was very intense. I could see (Scott) Dixon was able to pass me at the start/finish line. So, I was starting to think about what I was going to do there at the end. Phenomenal job by the guys in the pits. I am so stoked, so happy for Verizon. Shows you how good that Chevy engine is, man, it was super fast tonight. I'm so stoked to win in my second home, where my wife (Liz) is from, Texas. All the family is here, it just feels awesome."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "I'm proud of my team. From yesterday's mistake, we wanted to go to the front and we were coming. We were in the top 10 most of the time and looking pretty good. On ovals, you have everyone in a pack and when there's a crash in front of you, there's nothing you can do. I couldn't avoid crashing. It's racing, it's ovals. This is my first crash on an oval, so I guess there's always a first time. I was proud of my team, we were running pretty good and staying with the leaders. It's a shame."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Mi-Jack / Bobby Rahal Automotive Honda, 2016 Rainguard Water Sealers 600 winner): "It was a crazy night with a lot of guys taking a lot of chances. After Indy and after this race, drivers need to have to take a deep breath and realize that this is dangerous stuff. I'm glad that our car doesn't have a ding on it. We weren't the prettiest thing out here tonight, but the Mi-Jack boys worked very hard and I'm pleased with the end result. We raised a lot of money for Turns for Troops and our United Rentals initiative. I would have liked to have won it, and I actually felt like I had the car to do it, but I struggled with track position all night and I got lucky to not get involved in all those crashes. I'm obviously disappointed in myself to stall on that last stop, but I'm probably lucky because I cleared the incident right after that. We got lucky to miss and avoid those crashes because all of them were right in front of me. I'm looking forward to Road America, which should be a good one for us. Coming off three top fives in a row, hopefully we can go have another good points race with a good result."

TRISTAN VAUTIER (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I think I showed everything I could tonight. I gave it my all and I raced really hard. I'm happy we maximized everything, it's just a shame to be taken out by something out of our control, and the team really did not need another crash because of all of the crash damage they already had. I tried my best to avoid that and race well. Sometimes you can't do anything about it."

ED JONES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): "The guys were trying to run three wide, I think Tony (Kanaan) didn't leave them enough room. So they crashed, I backed off and hit the brakes, and then I got collected from behind and there's nothing I could do about that. It put me in the wall and game over. Super frustrating to the team, two extremely fast cars, came from 19th and I think we had a chance to win that one. That's what hurts most." (About how frustrating is it that their cars were so fast and yet got collected in the incident) "I feel bad for Dale (Coyne, team owner). Dale's put so much work into this team. We've been so quick this year, but we've had a lot of incidents – this is my first incident. It's painful, but he keeps coming back and coming back stronger every time."

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "It was a wild night. We overcame a lot of adversity. First the spin – I was hoping for a spin and win! – and then got caught up in that big one. But there's no quit in Ed Carpenter Racing. As many cars as were crashed out, we figured we'd patch it back up and salvage some points. You collect points all year long and you never know what a night like tonight might do at the end of the year for the entrant championship standings for both the No. 20 and the No. 21. I'm proud of the Fuzzy's Vodka guys putting in the extra work. The easiest thing to do would have been packing up and heading home. I'm thankful for the drive of this team, getting back out there and finishing with both cars. There was a lot of tore up stuff tonight, but all things considered we got out of it alright for crashing twice. But it was really unfortunate, I think we could have raced with those guys at the end. We just had too many things happen, but that's the way it goes."

JR HILDEBRAND (No. 21 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "Huge credit to the team for recognizing that there was an opportunity to fix the car, get back out, and pick up some positions. The Fuzzy's Vodka crew killed it. With no setup pad, the car that I rolled back out there with could have competed for a top-five finish today with no problem. I'm really proud of the guys. It is a big confidence boost for everyone, the day goes totally sideways and we're able to end on a positive note which always feels good. Ed (Carpenter) and I were both able to take advantage of the team doing awesome work. Hopefully this kind of gets us on a bit of momentum heading into the rest of the year, we have a lot of racing left to do. It is a bummer not to get a much better finish that we easily could have gotten today, regardless of the carnage, but it makes us all feel good about what we can do from here on out."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): "It's disappointing. We had a very good car the second half of the race. It was an unfortunate situation – I had a car in front of me and a car to my right, I got two tires in the grass, bottomed out and there was nowhere for me to go from that. We just ran out of track. All the cars were battling for position and constantly moving. It was an exciting race for sure, and I am disappointed it ended the way it did."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda): "It was absolute mayhem – a crapshoot whether you got through it. The good Lord was looking after us probably about 50 times tonight. It was pretty crazy. It was a survival type day, we had a one-lane car so I couldn't really pass cars. We were fast, but every time I go the run and popped out for the pass, we just lost grip. It was like one-and-a-half lanes out there, the second lane just never came in."

It was a weekend to forget for Ryan Hunter-Reay and the Andretti team. 3 of the 4 Andretti cars had no sponsor – which happens when TV ratings are minuscule on NBCSN

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "I don't know what I need to do here to get things right, but we had a good car early on then came in and made a downforce adjustment and then I completely missed the compensation on the front wing and then I went straight to the back. We spent the rest of the night trying to claw back, just missing the whole downforce front grip equation. We started getting going there, then this deal happened. There were guys making too many moves out there late into the corner. I will save my opinion for after I look at it. I came down, there were cars spinning and sparks everywhere. I went for the apron, I kind of high-sided a bit, and I was just a passenger from there. There was no where to go. You can't jump all over the brakes from these cars once you are doing 220mph into the corner, there's not a whole lot of places to go."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Honda): "I'm obviously gutted for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys. We had such a good day yesterday winning the pole and we had a lot of momentum heading into today's race. The No. 83 Tresiba Honda was really fast and I believe we had a good chance to win tonight, which makes it even more frustrating that a mechanical failure ended our day. The guys did everything they could to get the 83 back out on track, but it just wasn't in the cards for us. This one really hurts. I'm glad we have a weekend to regroup and get our heads back in the game for Road America."

GABBY CHAVES (No. 88 Harding Group Chevrolet): "We did what we had to do. We kept our nose clean. We had a solid car. I think before the accidents, we were inside the top 12. We had great Chevy power until the end, and just made the passes when we had to. Just really proud of the team effort."

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Andretti Autosport/Curb Honda): "Our car started off struggling a little bit but then as the high-line started coming in we were getting better. It's unfortunate because our car was getting good and the track was coming in and I think it was going to turn out to be a decent night. I went to pass Tony (Kanaan) on the inside of (Turn) 3 and we were three wide… and there are two lanes here but there aren't three."

Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Diff	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points
1	12	Will Power	248	0.0000	0.0000	180	9	Chevy	286
2	10	Tony Kanaan	248	0.1978	0.1978	1	4	Honda	264
3	1	Simon Pagenaud	248	0.3740	0.1762	0	12	Chevy	313
4	15	Graham Rahal	248	0.8112	0.4372	0	11	Honda	283
5	88	Gabby Chaves	248	1.8984	1.0872	0	20	Chevy	83
6	27	Marco Andretti	248	4.1632	2.2648	0	15	Honda	210
7	4	Conor Daly	247	1 LAPS	79.7257	0	21	Chevy	140
8	8	Max Chilton	245	1 LAPS	24.5720	8	6	Honda	229
9	9	Scott Dixon	243	0.0483	0.0483	12	2	Honda	326
10	26	Takuma Sato	243	0.0880	0.0397	0	8	Honda	312
11	20	Ed Carpenter	224	23 LAPS	19 LAPS	0	14	Chevy	124
12	21	JR Hildebrand	215	33 LAPS	9 LAPS	0	18	Chevy	191
13	2	Josef Newgarden	201	3.1860	0.4092	6	17	Chevy	277
14	5	James Hinchcliffe	151	0.2822	0.0704	0	16	Honda	232
15	7	Mikhail Aleshin	151	0.4999	0.2171	0	7	Honda	192
16	18	Tristan Vautier	151	0.8496	0.0093	15	5	Honda	15
17	19	Ed Jones	151	0.9030	0.0534	0	19	Honda	228
18	14	Carlos Munoz	151	1.5724	0.4661	0	22	Chevy	180
19	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	151	1.7715	0.0080	0	13	Honda	194
20	3	Helio Castroneves	90	0.5900	0.4877	0	10	Chevy	305
21	83	Charlie Kimball	41	0.8312	0.5684	26	1	Honda	143
22	98	Alexander Rossi	36	0.9577	0.0229		3	Honda	254

Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 140.491 mph
Time of Race: 2:32:31.0118
Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 9 for 66 laps
Lead changes: 23 among 7 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Kimball 1-15
Vautier 16
Kimball 17-22
Vautier 23
Kimball 24-28
Vautier 29-40
Newgarden 41-46
Power 47-57
Vautier 58
Power 59-111
Kanaan 112
Power 113-140
Chilton 141-148
Power 149-192
Dixon 193-197
Power 198-231
Dixon 232-234
Power 235-236
Dixon 237
Power 238
Dixon 239-240
Power 241
Dixon 242
Power 243-248

Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Dixon 326, Pagenaud 313, Sato 312, Castroneves 305, Power 286, Rahal 283, Newgarden 277, Kanaan 264, Rossi 254, Hinchcliffe 232.