The day began with the confirmation of the loss of Jack Hawksworth, who after his crash in practice declared to be fine, but then the doctors have not let him race.
At the start, Will Power has become the leader ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya.. Both Penske have led the race for a handful of laps until in lap 30 started the pit stops, shortly after Takuma Sato has had to retire due to mechanical failure. The positions have changed very little in boxes, but things were tight and Kanaan had recovered several positions and has advanced to the lead, leaving Power second and Montoya in the third position.
The race continued without the presence of the pace car, with Kanaan and Penske cars in the top positions while behind at a considerable distance came Aleshin and Muñoz, who could not keep up early. In this group were also Carpenter, Dixon and Pagenaud, the 5 close to eachother. Ryan Hunter-Reay has had mechanical problems and lost a lot of laps trying to solve the, but wasstill in the race.
Little to highlight in the middle of the race, no overtaking in the first positions, and a few behind. Carlos Huertas has had to retire with electrical problems while being in the last position. And then we arrived at the fourth stop, with Kanaan being the first to refuel that made him lose position with Power, which stopped later, but soon the Brazilian has overtaken the Australian, while Montoya remained some more time on track, but in the stop he has failed to recover positions and has been watching his teammate bothering Kanaan for the lead, but still without total pressure. Instead, Castroneves seemed to lose ground to save gas and Aleshin group approached dangerously.
So we come to the penultimate pit stop, Kanaan has stopped very soon and Power and Montoya took the chance to pull and overtake after passing through box, but just in the back next car Rahal has hit a whip out of the curve 2, so the National Guard car has gone to the wall, causing the first caution period of the race. Here, Tony Kanaan has decided to stop when pit lane opened, trying a different strategy, but dropped to tenth.
The relaunch has been the most exciting part of the race, but Power has closed very abruptly to Montoya, earning a penalty which has complicated his race, race n which things were very well for Juan Pablo, while Castroneves seemed to be happy watching Power unnecessarily complicating his world championshi in this race where points count double. Tony Kanaan has continued with his strategy to conserve gasoline, and has come leader with 3 laps to go when everyone had made their last stop, but finally had to go through box to refuel, so the strategy went wrong this time for the Brazilian. After that Juan Pablo Montoya had the race in his pocket, followed by Helio Castroneves, who immerses himself in the fight for the championship tied on points with Power, and Carlos Muñoz. Finally, Power unable to move from the tenth position.
Results:
Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Time | |
1 | 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya | COL | Team Penske | 200 Laps |
2 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | BRA | Team Penske | + 2,340 |
3 | 34 | Carlos Muñoz | COL | Andretti Autosport – HVM Racing | + 2,965 |
4 | 8 | Ryan Briscoe | AUS | NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing | + 3,843 |
5 | 9 | Scott Dixon | AUS | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | + 4,693 |
6 | 77 | Simon Pagenaud | FRA | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | + 6,010 |
7 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | RUS | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | + 8,365 |
8 | 67 | Josef Newgarden | USA | Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing | + 8,950 |
9 | 25 | Marco Andretti | USA | Andretti Autosport | + 9,447 |
10 | 12 | Will Power | AUS | Team Penske | + 17,230 |
11 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | BRA | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | + 22,070 |
12 | 27 | James Hinchcliffe | CAN | Andretti Autosport | + 1 Lap |
13 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | USA | Ed Carpenter Racing | + 1 Lap |
14 | 19 | Justin Wilson | GBR | Dale Coyne Racing | + 1 Lap |
15 | 17 | Sebastien Saavedra | COL | KV AFS Racing | + 1 Lap |
16 | 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | FRA | KVSH Racing | + 1 Lap |
17 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | USA | Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing | + 2 Laps |
18 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | USA | Andretti Autosport | + 19 Laps |
19 | 15 | Graham Rahal | USA | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | + 43 Laps |
DNF | 18 | Carlos Huertas | COL | Dale Coyne Racing | + Electrical |
DNF | 14 | Takuma Sato | JAP | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | + Mechanical |
DNF | 98 | Jack Hawksworth | GBR | BHA / BBM with Curb-Agajanian | + DNS |