until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

IndyCar

Power pips Herta to win, Newgarden cuts Dixon’s lead again

by Jack Benyon
5 min read

until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

Team Penske’s Will Power took his second victory of the season from pole position in the second race of a double-header on the Indianapolis road course, while Josef Newgarden reduced Scott Dixon’s lead further to 32 points heading to the season finale.

Power dominated at first, extending his lead out to almost five seconds just before the first stop where he switched from the softer red tyres to the harder blacks.

Alexander Rossi reeled in Power across the second stint, and emerged from the second stop just over two seconds behind – and having taken black tyres while Power was back on reds.

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The softer compound should have given Power an advantage but Rossi’s lapped Andretti Autosport team-mate Marco Andretti gave Power a hard time, holding him up and then racing wheel to wheel with him allowing Rossi to close in.

Then Colton Herta came to the fore. Having never finished second or third since starting his IndyCar career last year, the three-time race winner barged past Andretti team-mate Rossi at Turn 1 with 11 laps remaining.

He reeled in Power and appeared to have better tyre life – solving the problem that cost him in Friday’s race which he led before burning his rear rubber – but came unstuck when backmarker Conor Daly moved trying to get out of the way but did just the opposite.

Herta had to dive to the inside of Turn 1 after weaving in avoidance, which cost him valuable tenths and helping Power hold on for his fourth win in nine attempts on the Indy road course. Herta recorded his first IndyCar podium in a second or third place, taken after three wins.

On the harder tyre, Rossi wasn’t a factor but luckily had a huge gap to the fourth-placed Newgarden, Rossi taking his fourth consecutive podium in a year where a title challenge didn’t emerge and he is yet to win a race for the first time in his series career.

How Newgarden stole momentum with a 77-point title swing
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Penske’s Newgarden fell back from ninth to 11th with what looked like a conservative start to run one spot ahead of title rival Dixon, but quickly put the car of Ryan Hunter-Reay between the two and continued to make forward progress.

He was into the top five following the first pitstop, and then passed Patricio O’Ward with a one lap undercut after the second stops to run fourth in the final stint.

However instead of joining the top three, he merely remained where he was and under pressure from O’Ward until the end.

He held on though, and leaves Indianapolis with a 32-point deficit to Scott Dixon with 54 remaining on offer at the season finale at St Petersburg later this month.

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Arrow McLaren SP’s O’Ward took fourth ahead of Jack Harvey, he and his Meyer Shank Racing team an ever-present challenge at this circuit and buoyed by the recent investment of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media in its squad.

Behind Harvey, Graham Rahal turned a 10th-placed start into seventh, ahead of a typically methodical if not rapid drive from Dixon.

He moved forwards in the early stages, but struggled to follow Newgarden as he became stuck behind Hunter-Reay.

The Andretti driver guarded the inside of the 90 degree Turn 7 but the two made contact inside the first 10 laps, damaging Dixon’s floor.

It didn’t appear to hinder his performance however, and he moved up to ninth by passing Santino Ferrucci on lap 31 of 75, and also benefited from positions gained during the first pitstop phase.

He ran eighth for the last stint but was unable to overturn Rahal.

Rookie Alex Palou of Dale Coyne and 19th-place starter Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top 10.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 75 1h32m08.522s 1m11.776s 2 54
2 Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +0.894s 1m11.843s 2 41
3 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +6.19s 1m11.904s 2 35
4 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +9.589s 1m11.928s 2 32
5 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +10.077s 1m11.903s 2 30
6 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +17.989s 1m11.745s 2 28
7 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +18.506s 1m11.945s 2 26
8 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +20.521s 1m11.636s 2 24
9 Alex Palou Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +23.236s 1m11.801s 2 22
10 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +35.438s 1m11.377s 2 20
11 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +39.443s 1m11.953s 2 19
12 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +40.282s 1m11.823s 2 18
13 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +52.713s 1m12.198s 2 17
14 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +52.991s 1m11.951s 2 16
15 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +54.587s 1m12.07s 2 15
16 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 75 0 +55.375s 1m11.773s 3 14
17 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +59.761s 1m11.945s 2 13
18 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +1m10.969s 1m12.113s 2 12
19 Max Chilton Carlin Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 75 0 +1m11.469s 1m12.451s 2 11
20 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 74 0 +1 lap 1m11.924s 2 10
21 Hélio Castroneves Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 74 0 +1 lap 1m11.829s 3 9
22 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian Dallara DW12-Honda 74 0 +1 lap 1m12.462s 2 8
23 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 74 0 +1 lap 1m12.419s 3 7
24 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 74 0 +1 lap 1m12.642s 2 6
25 Dalton Kellett A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 73 0 +2 laps 1m12.425s 3 5
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