by Kalle Tyynelä
Simon Pagenaud continued his dominant run in the Verizon IndyCar Series as the Team Penske driver won the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The race saw the rookie Conor Daly of Dale Coyne Racing sensationally leading for 14 laps thanks to a caution period, yet nobody had the pace to challenge Pagenaud.
Simon Pagenaud continued his dominant run in the Verizon IndyCar Series as the Team Penske driver won the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The race saw the rookie Conor Daly of Dale Coyne Racing sensationally leading for 14 laps thanks to a caution period, yet nobody had the pace to challenge Pagenaud.
Polesitter Simon Pagenaud retained the lead at the start while James Hinchcliffe who started third overtook Charlie Kimball for second place. The start saw the first caution of the race coming out. Tony Kanaan who started fifth steered left to avoid his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon. Kanaan crashed into Sebastien Bourdais who started eighth and pushed him into the wall. Kanaan couldn’t continue the race whereas Bourdais was able to return to pits for a repair that cost him 18 laps.
Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden were moved to the back of the field due to qualifying with an underweight car. The two pitted under caution to top up the fuel. As the race restarted on lap 5, Pagenaud, Hinchcliffe, and Kimball retained their top-three positions whereas Juan Pablo Montoya overtook Jack Hawksworth for fourth place. On lap 6 while defending his 10th place against Alexander Rossi, Will Power went wide onto grass at the Turn 7 and spun.
Scott Dixon climbed into fourth place on lap 14 as he overtook Jack Hawksworth. The second place changed hands on lap 16 as Charlie Kimball overtook James Hinchcliffe on the back straight.
The race leader Simon Pagenaud pitted on lap 22. Pitting a lap later, Charlie Kimball was able to exit the pits just ahead of Pagenaud, yet Pagenaud claimed the position back just half a lap later. Juan Pablo Montoya was given a drive-through penalty during the first round of pit stops for an improper pit exit. Graham Rahal’s stop for fuel under caution paid off during the first round of scheduled stops when he was the last to pit and he climbed up to eighth place. Josef Newgarden, despite his stop under caution, pitted early and couldn’t make a similar leap forward.
The second caution of the race came out on lap 37 when Sebastien Bourdais had had to stop his KVSH Chevrolet on the side of the track. The top 15 that hadn’t pitted made their second stops under caution. In the race off pit road, James Hinchcliffe beat the previous race leader Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Kimball to rejoin the track in third place. Having pitted from seventh place before the caution allowed Helio Castroneves to take the lead during the caution while Conor Daly took the second place also by having pitted before the caution.
The race restarted on lap 46. At the restart, the rookie driver Daly overtook Castroneves to claim the lead while Pagenaud and Kimball passed Hinchcliffe. Graham Rahal restarted in eighth place but progressed into sixth place within a lap. A lap later, Hinchcliffe passed Kimball for fourth place and on the following lap Kimball was passed also by Rahal.
Daly pitted from lead on lap 60, giving the lead to Castroneves. Castroneves made his last stop two laps later and managed to join the track ahead of Daly. Pagenaud stayed out one more lap and he joined the track ahead of Castroneves, to take the lead on the following lap as Montoya and Rossi pitted.
As Pagenaud was cruising in the lead ahead of his Team Penske teammate Castroneves, Hinchcliffe was putting pressure on Daly in third place, eventually passing him with 13 laps to go. Daly lost two more positions with seven laps to go as Rahal passed him for fourth place and Kimball for fifth. Meanwhile Hinchcliffe was catching the second-placed Castroneves.
But nobody could stop Simon Pagenaud at the Indianapolis road course. The championship-leading Frenchman achieved his third victory in a row by 4.4 seconds to his Penske teammate Helio Castroneves who managed to stay second by 0.6 seconds to James Hinchcliffe. Graham Rahal progressed from 24th at the start into fourth in the finish, 0.3 seconds ahead of Charlie Kimball. After sensationally leading the race, Conor Daly fell from the podium contention after the final stops but managed to keep the defending series champion Scott Dixon behind on the closing laps to finish sixth, 0.7 seconds ahead of Dixon.