Josef Newgarden won his first victory in the IndyCar Series, and the first of the new CFH Racing team. Graham Rahal finished second in an incredible Honda, while Dixon completed the podium thanks to his ability to preserve tires and fuel.
The race began with Castroneves and Power holding the top spots, unlike Pagenaud, coming down to fourth to be overtaken by Newgarden. At the back Montoya had problems to overcome drivers from the fifteenth place. Newgarden before finishing the first lap was getting to beat Will Power for second place already.
Newgarden could not catch Castroneves which achieved a 1 second gap. After 5 laps the top10 was: Castroneves, Newgarden, Power, Pagenaud, Bourdais, Dixon, Rahal, Filippi, Kanaan and Hinchcliffe.
The positions and fights continued, we could only see some off track like Carlos Muñoz (Andretti Autosport) or Fransesco Dracone (Dale Coyne Racing). Hinchcliffe (Schmid Peterson Motorsportt) exceeded Kanaan for ninth place, while behind Sage Karam (Chip Ganassi Racing) made an important plug to his pursuers in the middle of the grid. This made the winner of this race in the past two years, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport), stop on lap 12 to take the free track. Then Gabby Chaves (Bryan Herta Autosport) did the same, suffering problems with his stop. Karam could no longer keep the car on lap 14 and was surpassed by everyone.
The Honda generally preserved the soft tires better than the Chevrolets, this was evident in the advancement of Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan) on Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing). Then the other drivers started to stop. But while they stopped, Power (Team Penske) getting back on track after the pit stop collided with Takuma Sato (AJ Foyt Enterprises), this caused the first caution of the race on lap 20 because of the detached parts. Castroneves (Team Penske) and Josef Newgarden (CFH Racing) took advantage of the situation to stop in boxes. The driver of the car # 67 managed to overtake the other in the pit lane because of some problems Castroneves had on a tire.
Under pace car situation, Pagenaud (Team Penske) and the other drivers who did not had stopped yet, did it on lap 22. The positions changed radically once the race has been resumed, Newgarden leading, followed by: Castroneves, Rahal, Hinchcliffe and Power; highlights to Hunter-Reay and his comeback from last place to seventh.
At the back of the green flag, Rahal got rid of Hinchcliffe for third place, while Marco Andretti did the same with Hunter-Reay for seventh place, Tony Kanaan also exceeded the 2012 champion. Meanwhile, Power received a penalty due to his touch with Sato.
On lap 34, it appeared the second caution of the race when Coletti tried to overtake Jakes, but could not and impacted, causing Jakes stop the car and lose a lap. The situation turned to advantage for Newgarden, Castroneves and many more drivers who stopped in box. This time it was the CFH Racing driver who suffered a problem in the pit stop and came behind Castroneves.
Before returning to the green flag, Rahal led followed by Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, Bourdais and Pagenaud in a race with a lot of strategic variability.
Already with the green flag, Montoya and Kimball touched and Pagenaud lost a position overtaken by Filippi. On lap 45, Kanaan and Pagenaud made his second pit stop. Two laps later, Rahal, a lap later did Hinchcliffe, the Canadian managed to overtake Rahal losing time with Dracone, but Rahal did not give in and managed to overtake James Hinchcliffe outside of Turn 4.
On lap 50, Newgarden got back into the lead followed by Castroneves, Dixon, Hunter-Reay and Andretti. Newgarden could escape of Castroneves being attacked by Dixon. The 3 times champion of the category w- the Brazilian in Turn 3 on Lap 57. Behind, Rodolfo Gonzalez was an important other drivers outside the top ten lock.
Castroneves was the first to do the last pit stop on lap 62. Newgarden reacted the next lap and got out ahead of the Penske driver. Dixon did not take more than one lap to stop too. The car No. 9 left behind Newgarden. Rahal lead the race for 6 laps before stopping for the last time and come out in the sixth. The RLL, succeeded after a few laps to beat Will Power for fifth place.
Rahal was on a roll, getting to pass Hunter-Reay and launched the attack to the polesitter, Hélio Castroneves went for third place, with 10 laps to go. Rahal ate both drivers on the outside of Turn 4.
Rahal was concentrated to cut the gap with Dixon with only 7 laps. The ODR was fast every lap like in classification, another example of the proper maintenance of tires for Honda. A lack of 2 laps, Rahal was getting in the wake of Dixon who kept pass. Rahal finally managed to overcome him in Turn 7.
Finally, Newgarden gets his first win in the IndyCar Rahal finished second followed by Dixon and Power that has soared despite the ups and downs in this race.
In the championship, Juan Pablo Montoya is still in the lead with 3 points ahead of Castroneves. Dixon is third at 13 points and Newgarden climbs to fourth 17 points from the Colombian. Power is fifth with 24 points.
