Will Power/No.1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet won the Verizon IndyCar Series road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon. Winning the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis puts him just that much closer to his goal of winning the Indianapolis 500 race. “I’ve got more focus on the 500 than I’ve ever had. I’ve won a championship now. It’s kind of pushed that aside, and now the main focus to me is the 500.”
Power led four times for 65 laps in the 82-lap race, which had but one caution for two laps during a Turn One pileup on the first lap. No one was injured, but cars were hurt a bit.
A very confident Graham Rahal/No.15 Stake n’ Shake Honda came in a strong second place, just 1.5023 seconds behind. He led three times for nine laps.
Third placed Juan Pablo Montoya/No.2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet didn’t lead, but stayed up front much of the time.
Fourth and fifth were Sebastien Bourdais/No.11 Team Mistic E-Cigs-KVSH Racing Chevrolet and Charlie Kimball, who overcame his kerfuffle in Turn One driving the No.83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
Sixth through tenth were Helio Castroneves/No.2 Verizon Team Penske Racing Chevrolet, Tony Kanaan/No.10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Rookie Stefano Coletti/No.4 KV Racing Technology Chevrolet, Takuma Sato/No.14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda, and Scott Dixon/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet – who also survived Turn One.
Seventeen cars finished on the lead lap, and all but two of the 25 starters finished the race.
The two mechanical retirements were Justin Wilson/No.25 Andretti Autosport Honda, and Simon Pagenaud/No.22 DeVilbiss Team Penske Chevrolet.
Pagenaud was the only Penske car to retire. He had an electronic problem. The lines were burnt. He was disappointed, saying “I just haven’t had much luck this year so far. When you don’t win, it is not fun. We were second behind Will at the start. We had the pace to keep up with him. It just didn’t go our way today. So, it is what it is.”
Wilson suffered through the Turn One incident – breaking off the endplate. He struggled through but ultimately retired on Lap 68. He is an Indy-only driver this month, running the two races for Andretti. He was the fastest Andretti qualifier, starting eighteenth. “It’s a frustrating way to end the race, but that’s racing so we’ll focus on the ‘500’ now and look ahead.”
James Hinchcliffe/No.5 Arrow/Team Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Racing Honda turned the fastest time of 123.911 mph/1:10.8604 on Lap 68. The race ran 1:42.42.0940. The average speed was 116.842 mph.
