With Power in front, the race reset with six laps to go following the only caution flag of the afternoon, stunting the momentum of points leader Simon Pagenaud, who was then in second place. Power pulled away before turning away Kanaan.
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“I think the combination of the corners, the undulation in the grounds, the fact that there’s a lot of fast corners”, said retired driver Dario Franchitti, who won at Elkhart Lake in 1998.
The only caution of the day came when Dale Coyne Racing driver Conor Daly had a component on the rear of the auto break while trying to drive deep into Turn 1, causing him to spin into the tire barrier.
He was set to win Belle Isle race 1 from pole, but bad strategy put him in 17th after leading the most laps. “Both food poisoning problems and diet along with lingering concussion symptoms from my incident before the St. Petersburg race kept me out of that first round”. There is no reason he shouldn’t be in the mix to win again today.
Simon Pagenaud now sits in first place in the Verizon IndyCar Series point standings with 375, even after fading late at the Kohler Grand Prix.
“It was a decent day”.
“I feel like I’m back where I was and that’s a very good feeling for me”. Our finish is pretty big given the year we’ve had.
“We wasted an opportunity for the championship”, Pagenaud said, “but Dixon didn’t have much luck either”. “I was under TK for just a moment there at the end but they (Chevrolet) had more top speed”.
“I’m not disappointed in anything today”.
Road America President and General Manager George Bruggenthies couldn’t provide the attendance figures for the massive crowd, but called it the largest attendance in track history. They don’t have to stay in one spot and there’s stuff for the kids to do-zip-lines, karting. “We did still have a good race, I just think we had a (top-three) vehicle if I could have qualified the thing properly”. We don’t need to overthink this.
“The race, to be honest – whatever happens, happens – but just to have so many people here, I’m just excited”, Helio Castroneves said.
Front row starter Scott Dixon dropped out with engine trouble after just six laps, Daly crashed, Gabby Chaves had two pit road speed penalties and Detroit race victor Sebastien Bourdais finished 18th, one lap down. “All the fans are great”.
Power said Pagenaud’s struggles may have opened up the door for some of the other drivers, including himself, to start to close the gap in the point standings.
The following two tabs change content below. The race was still under caution as track officials worked to fix the safety barrier on the frontstretch where that accident occurred when the race was stopped because of more rain. We had no problems We could do full stints. “You finish a three-lap, or four-lap run and you’re out of breath”.
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It is one of the best parts of the track for Tony Kanaan. I think we put on a great show for the fans, we had an unbelievable crowd.
