Pagenaud stays hot, wins Angie’s List GP of Indy

Simon Pagenaud stays hot

Simon Pagenaud continued his domination of the IndyCar series today in the 2016 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, finishing over 4 seconds ahead of team mate Helio Castroneves and 5 seconds ahead of third place James Hinchcliffe. With the victory Pagenaud’s point lead is such that he could sit out the Indy 500 and still maintain the points lead. Heck, Scott Dixon could win the next 2 races, and Pagenaud finish dead last for those races, and still be in the lead. Damn, Pagenaud now has twice as many points as third-place Tony Kanaan. Did we mention that he has a huge points lead? Three wins in a row will do that.

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The race might sound like it was boring. I mean, who didn’t have Pagenaud in the office pool? Certainly, it was incredibly cold in the stands and a boring race would just add to the misery. But getting to the predictable result the race really was fairly interesting.

Once again, the first turn of the first lap proved to be a problem. Last year Scott Dixon ended up on the losing end of a first-turn shunt, but this year he was the guy who drove away from the mess he caused. Windshield, bug, bug, windshield. In the accident Dixon pushed Tony Kanaan into Sebastien Bourdais, who himself was pushed into the turn 1 (turn 4 oval) wall. Bourdais would later return in something of a test session before he car gave out, and ended up 24th. Kanaan was done early and was credited 25th. Dixon would finish 7th.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The field was re-racked, and the ensuing green flag racing saw Pagenaud take off for the next 22 laps, until he gave up the lead for a pit stop. Charlie Kimball lead a couple of laps before pitting. Graham Rahal – who had pitted after the initial caution – lead a couple of laps before Pagenaud reasserted himself for another 19 laps.

Both Kimball and Rahal ran strong all day. Rahal, whose car started in the back row after failing post-qualification inspection (it was less that 2 pounds underweight) drove his way to a 4th place finish, not from pit strategy but from pure driving effort (in spite of a bad cold). Charlie Kimball also capped a strong weekend, finishing 5th after starting second.

Pagenaud sprays the champagne

Also putting on an early exhibition was Ryan Hunter-Reay. Andretti Autosport had their collective backsides handed to them during qualification, with none of the team moving to the second round. However, Hunter-Reay moved from 15th to 5th within a few laps, and finished 9th. Team mate Alexander Rossi seemed to figure out IndyCar during the course of the race, running faster as the race moved on, and even setting fastest lap of the race. He finished 10th after starting 12th. Calos Munoz ran in the top 10 for much of the day before ending up 12th, and Marco Andretti finished 15th.

By far the local fan favorite part of the race came next. Sebastien Bourdais and JR Hildebrand both stalled on the track on lap 38, causing a full-course caution. Conor Daly and Helio Castroneves had pitted only a couple of laps prior, and when the race resumed on lap 44, Daly quickly grabbed the lead. Conor of course is the son of Derek Daly, was born and raised locally, and is an Indy area fixture. Conor ended up leading 14 laps before his car started to fade, and he finished 6th after starting 22nd. Helio lead 7 laps, and while not in contention for a win at the end, finished second after starting 13th.

At lap 60, the last round of pit stops started, and Conor relinquished what had been a 3+ second lead. And when the dust settled a few laps later, Pagenaud was in the lead, never to relinquish it. While Pagenaud put on his driver exhibition, Castroneves and Hinchcliffe fought over second spot, and Daly, Rahal and Kimball fought it out for 4th.

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The reports of Honda’s demise are premature. For most of the race, the top 10 were evenly split between Honda and Chevy teams. At the end, 6 of the top 10, 8 of the top 13, were Honda-powered, and a Honda-powered car set fast lap of the race. Honda had a new generation engine for the teams, and the teams (perhaps absent Andretti) seems to have figured out its aero package.

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Conor Daly was born in Indy and raised in nearby Noblesville. Ed Carpenter is a local guy too, and will be a force next weekend for Pole Day. Graham Rahal is from Columbus, Ohio, which even Michigan people will concede is “American". Hunter-Reay, born in Texas and lives in Florida. Alexander Rossi, a California guy as are Spencer Pigot and JR Hildebrand. Marco, Nazareth. Newgarden, Tennessee. I’m sure I’m missing someone, but it does seem to me that there is a strong bit of American talent in this series now. Maybe it’s the tides of history, but maybe, just maybe, American drivers are looking again at IndyCar (and have been for a while)?

QUOTES

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "I struggled leaving the pits. I was on cold tires and I went down there and turned and the car never turned. I needed to go through the line and I didn't manage to. It was really close, so I got on the brakes and tried to make it but I didn't so I got a drive through penalty and pretty much ruined our day. At the beginning I was struggling a little bit, but we made a change to the car and it got a lot better. At the end we had a really good car."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "Great teamwork. Never give up. The hum Verizon boys – everybody was really in sync. We never gave up because we knew we had issues and knew we didn't have the fastest car. But we had the heart, man. We had the passion. We put it out there and had a little bit of luck, obviously, but it all blends together. A great sauce. It turned out to be great momentum for the Indianapolis 500. I can't thank the guys enough, but again – it was a total team effort."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "It was great to be able to push and not have to save fuel. That yellow in the middle there kind of really helped everybody because the windows here were pretty small up to that point. We had a great car. Huge credit to everybody at Schmidt Peterson. The Arrow Electronics car was great all weekend. Missed the whole first practice. Managed to put it on the second row. Got caught up on some of the restarts there but the guys were awesome in the pits. We were way quicker than Helio but just didn't have enough to get by him. Great result."

JR HILDEBRAND (No. 6 Preferred Freezer Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "It started out all right. We definitely made the car better. Josef and I were kind of running the same thing. The car had pretty good long run pace. We made up some spots, we got through our first stop and passed a few guys on track. We were looking OK but ended up getting caught out by a yellow and didn't quite have the fuel in the car that we thought we did. We ran out of fuel and ended up going a lap down. At that point I don't want to get in the way of anybody who's running full time, but we had a consistent pace and made up the spots that were available to us. We needed a yellow to get back on the lead lap which we didn't get. All things considered it was good to just get a race under our belts here. We're rolling into the Month of May, the car's in one piece and we can move forward with a few more live reps going to the oval. We're looking forward to that."

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I think the team did a good job putting the No. 7 DOOM and SMP Racing car into the second round of qualifying. It was progress for us and P11 is a good place to start from. It's going to be a long race and I'm confident that we can score some good points."

MAX CHILTON (No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "It was a pretty frustrating race for the Gallagher team today. We got the car handling where we wanted it but when we got around other cars it just went off. We were around sixth or seventh and we ended up dropping to around P20. We did get to P14 but we need to get the car better when we need it at the start of the stint. I'm sure we'll continue to work on that and I look forward to getting where we need to be."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series champion): "At the start I didn't feel a touch or anything. I thought (Tony Kanaan) was on my right, but it sounded like he was actually on my left. At some point we broke the front wing and we didn't have any speed. We were just off and it was one of those days where we tried to work something and it didn't play out for Team Target."

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Group Chevrolet): "It was a quick and unfortunate end to our day with the NTT Group car. It's a very wide track here at the IMS road course and people were going three- and four-wide. Scott (Dixon) was trying to give me room and I was trying to do the same with others but it was just a racing incident. I don't think it was any one person's fault. It's just disappointing and I wish we could have still been out there today."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Team EUROPA – KVSH Chevrolet): "Obviously it was a disappointing end to the weekend for the Europa – KVSH Racing team especially since we damaged the car. I got a run on the outside of Scott (Dixon) and was up against the wall. There was still a reasonable amount of room and I was on my line. From what I saw, (Tony Kanaan) just got pushed a bit to the left and that was it. Tough luck."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, 2015 Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis winner): "Unfortunately, things didn't end the way we would have liked for the Verizon Chevy. We just weren't good in traffic and were never able to recover from there. The front wing had some issues, so we took the time to change it during the second pit stop. Then we couldn't capitalize on that caution because we were too far behind the leader. In the end, I could have finished a lot higher without the final penalty. It just wasn't our day. The Verizon Chevy boys worked really hard today, though. We'll just look ahead towards better results at Indy 500."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): "A tough and long day. I didn't have the speed to compete. A lot of things were unfortunate as well. We really need to go back and see why we were not quick enough. At one stage we were competitive in Practice 3 but since qualifying we lost speed and couldn't get it back. It was really a tough day but the boys did a good job on the pit stops. We fought hard but it was a tough one."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak 'n Shake Honda): "These are the days that build character. Our backs were up against the wall for sure. To come out and have a result like that is pretty awesome. Twenty-fourth to fourth is better than I expected today. With the cold I've got, I'm going to sleep well tonight. This one took it all out of me. The Steak 'n Shake boys do a great job for me, great strategy again, topping off on that early yellow, going a little bit long on that stint, getting into that top eight, I think, after one stint was good. After that we just kind of chunked away. We were on the blacks at the wrong time when everyone else was on reds, but to still make up three spots on that (last) restart was pretty good."

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 16 RLL/Mi-Jack/Manitowoc Honda): "The race was really good. I think we had a really good first stint; I was able to pass a few people. The pace was good and the car was handling great. Unfortunately that yellow (for Bourdais) came out at a bad time for us but still we kept our heads down and had great stops. The guys did an awesome job. We were able to jump people every time we stopped. I'm just happy to be back in the car. I can't thank Manitowoc, Mi-Jack and the team enough for the support. Now I will try to recover a little bit, rest up and turn all of the focus to the Indy 500. I'm really excited about that. It's something I've always wanted to do and now it's only a few hours away."

CONOR DALY (No. 18 Jonathan Byrd's Hospitality Honda): "It was a great effort from the team. They put us in the right place at the right time and thankfully I was able to get around Helio (Castroneves) on the restart and go from there. It was a crazy race, even after the last stop coming out in traffic was just so painful but we tried our best to work around it. When Graham (Rahal) got around me I had no more overtakes left. I was really helpless and our rear tires were going away and Charlie (Kimball) got a good run on us. The other manufacturer is really hard to keep up with on the straight so he was able to get me but I had to hold on to what we could do. We just lost the tires at the end. But it was awesome to lead laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's a good way to kick off May here."

GABBY CHAVES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): "It was the first race back for me. We had the potential just like our teammate did. We were on the same strategy as Conor (Daly), we just got caught by a safety car at the wrong time. A few seconds difference and we would have been right there as well. We could've had a double team run for the top six. We just got unlucky with the safety car. I think I took a step forward as well, with this being my first race back and figuring everything out. It felt good in the car. We just have to keep working."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet): "It's just a tough weekend all around. I'm proud of all of our efforts. We've got a lot of great partners here with Fuzzy's and Preferred Freezer Services. It's a shame we couldn't do better for this first race in May, but the big show's up next that's what really matters. We'll treat this as a warm-up and make sure we get all of our ducks in a row for the 500."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): "The car was fantastic once again. The balance was perfect all race. When we were in the lead, we were cruising, doing what we could to save the tires. But the car was just fantastic to drive. Charlie (Kimball) had a really good pit stop on the first one. I managed to get him on the outside on Turn 7. It was very difficult on cold tires so you could really make some ground on the pit sequence. After the first one I realized it was something to do with it. I let Kyle (Moyer) know. He already knew but that's what we did the next two pit stops. We did the opposite and it worked. Thanks to my guys. Obviously, we had great last pit stops, too. Drove like a rally car into pit lane and that was it. What a day. Three races! It's incredible to win three in a row like this and here in Indy for me, it's very special. I lived here for nine years so this place is very special in my heart."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 hhgregg Honda): "That was a really hard race, we were pushing the limit of the hhgregg car the whole time – I really couldn't push much harder than that. I made a mistake and went off of the track and that cost us the top 10. Now we have to concentrate to our big goal which is the '500.'"

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Snapple Honda): "We had a decent warm up this morning, but the race didn't pan out for us. It's frustrating; I wish we were going into the 500 with more momentum than we are. The whole start to the season has been tough and we just can't put our finger on it."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "We started 15th and had a monster start – went straight up to seventh. From there we settled into a rhythm and everything was looking great, and then the yellow came out and my race kind of went sideways. We pitted early after that then I had to save fuel, it just snowballed. We found ourselves trickling back from fifth, lost a couple spots on the yellow and then found ourselves in ninth. It could have gone better, but we salvaged a top 10 for DHL on what was a pretty messy weekend going."

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 35 Alfe Heat Treating Special Honda): "I think out of our three cars, we had the strongest, we just got into some really weird situations on track. In regards of pace, we definitely had something to fight for a top 10 finish today."

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 41 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): "The first stint wasn't great but I thought we could hold our own. When we came in to put on the other reds we were P6 but we did not have a good pit stop. We fell way down in the order. We had some issues with the car after that and then the front wing broke and I didn't hit anything, so that just added to the day we were having. It was a long day."

MATT BRABHAM (No. 61 PIRTEK Team Murray Chevrolet): "I think it was almost the perfect introduction for me to the Verizon IndyCar Series. I wasn't sure how things like the pit strategies were going to play out, having never done a racing pitstop before, but the PIRTEK Team Murray guys were on fire with every single stop.The start was crazy, I nearly shat myself going into turn one – there was so much stuff that was flying around, the buffeting on my head was unbelievable. Due to the crash, we were able to get through clean and then settle into a rhythm for the race.The whole experience was definitely different, I had never done anything like the restarts, push to pass or pit strategies before, but it all went pretty smoothly!"

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet): "Frankly I'm a little disappointed with a top five, I think we were better than that today. I wasn't awesome on a couple of the race craft pieces but we made progress in the pits. The Chip Ganassi Racing guys are always solid in the pits. We had a pretty good car, the Novo Nordisk car was solid, but the wake behind the Hondas seemed pretty big so I was struggling with that a little bit more. The conditions being so different I think we got caught out a little bit. The car was definitely better when it was warmer yesterday, but overall a solid day for the No. 83 car."

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda): "Considering I think that the pace that we had was one of the best on track, it's very disappointing to come away 10th. I would've been really pleased with a 10th a week ago, it's weird how goals shift. We had a really questionable penalty which cost us quite a bit on the next to last stint- we'll need to look at that and understand what that was because I don't understand it. The team did a really good job and the car was pretty fantastic the whole race, it's just unfortunate we came away 10th, but it's something to build on for the future."

Results

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 108.784 mph
Time of Race: 1:50:18.5823
Margin of victory: 4.4748 seconds
Cautions: 2 for 10 laps
Lead changes: 7 among 5 drivers
Fastest Lap: Alexander Rossi Lap 67 of 82 1m09.553s

Lap Leaders:
Pagenaud 1 – 21
Kimball 22 – 23
Rahal 24 – 25
Pagenaud 26 – 40
Castroneves 41 – 45
Daly 46 – 59
Castroneves 60 – 61
Pagenaud 62 – 82

Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Pagenaud 242, Dixon 166, Montoya 160, Castroneves 159, Rahal 133, Kanaan 111, Kimball 111, Hinchcliffe 110, Hunter-Reay 109, Power 105.

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