As IndyCar’s ABC Supply 500 approaches on Sunday, there’s no doubt many minds will be thinking back to the tragic events of last year’s race. The race was postponed due to the rain until Monday.
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This is the first time in 23 IndyCar races at Pocono that a race was postponed and moved to Monday.
The race is the second round of the 2016 IndyCar championship season to be suspended by the weather after the Firestone 600 in Texas was delayed until the following day after its initial calendar slot of 11th June before being suspended indefinitely and rescheduled for next weekend on the 27th August.
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) – Will Power can’t seem to do any wrong, which means IndyCar has another serious points race looming.
Power thus took over the lead and drove away to his 29th career Indy Car win.
The third caution of the race then flew for points leader Simon Pagenaud after his vehicle bottomed out in Turn 1 and collected the wall. That’s what I was doing.
“Very few times in your career do you get a vehicle that you’re completely in line with and have it do everything that you need it to do”, Hunter-Reay said. We’ve seen quite a few guys lose the rear of the vehicle here on the start of the race.
He picked off eight cars on the first lap, soon learned that he “was so in a zone with that vehicle”, and less than a quarter of the way through, he was in the lead.
“Rick has taught me to be patient, hang out, work with the auto and then get it right for the finish”. What more could happen?
Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third, Josef Newgarden was fourth and Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the top five. Hunter-Reay finished third. The memory of that tragic day remains nevertheless, evidenced by the “JW” painted on the track at the finish line.
Hunter-Reay and Aleshin took turns in the lead for the first two-thirds of the race.
The complexion of the race and the points race changed after Pagenaud crashed while running 12th to bring out a caution.
Hunter-Reay soon took the lead from him, but then lost power and fell a lap down. He was fourth on lap 142 after Power surged past.
Other things to know about the IndyCar race at Pocono on Monday. He was just too fast.
The defending race victor needed just 50 laps to wrestle the lead from pole-sitter Mikhail Aleshin and stalked the Russian-born driver for most of the race. The competition is very intense on the track and everyone wants to win, but it’s also about putting on a great show for the fans.
Hunter-Reay was arguably the driver of the day, with the 2013 champion starting the race from 22nd and last on the grid after a hefty crash during practice on Saturday.
Brown’s vehicle rattled and lost traction early while Force’s dragster backfired and released the parachutes just a little farther down track than Brown, allowing her to coast to the finish line in front.
Hunter-Reay crashed early in the first practice. Aleshin demonstrated the strength of the Honda superspeedway engine and aero package by leading 87 laps from pole, but a bad penultimate stint cost the Russian driver a shot at his first IndyCar win. What more could happen? It’s been that way. If I was racing, going around the track would give me some weird feelings.
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PAGENAUD PLUMMETS: Pagenaud hit the wall on lap 158 after his No. 22 Chevy bottomed out.
