Aleshin was fastest in the 90-minute morning practice session, then followed it up during qualifying in the afternoon to claim the pole for the ABC Supply 500.
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The ABC Supply 500 has been delayed until Monday (22nd August) at the Pocono Raceway due to heavy rain suspending the action on Sunday.
The complexion of the race and the points race changed after Pagenaud crashed while running 12th to bring out a caution.
In second place in points, Power had a golden opportunity to cut down on Pagenaud’s big lead, and did so by taking the checkered flag for his first win at Pocono Raceway. He missed the season-opener at St. Petersburg with a misdiagnosed concussion which turned out to be an inner ear infection.
When the race restarted on lap 164, Hunter-Reay was second to eventual race victor Will Power.
Defending champion Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third.
“We just kept adding and adding downforce”, Power said. “I came to the guy after the race and said, ‘Forget about it, just do your favorite job as your favorite job.’ I’ve been there; I’m not a machine”.
“It’s a very good comeback”, Power said. “I just wanted this win so bad”.
He managed to get the vehicle going – on the third and, he thought final, try – but lost a lap in the process and was shuffled at the rear again.
It was the fourth win in the past six races for Power, 29th of his career, and cut the lead of Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud to 20 points in the standings with three races remaining in the season. The series will resume the interrupted event at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday. From the first lap, the vehicle was just at the edge of what we needed.. He fell a lap down. He got back on the lead lap after a caution for debris on Lap 175 and drove all the way back to finish on the podium. The Team Penske driver led teammate Will Power by 58 points entering the race. Pagenaud’s Chevrolet appeared to lock brakes through the sweeping turn and side-swiped a SAFER barrier hard before drifting to the bottom of the track.
The rear all of a sudden just snapped, said Hunter-Reay, who won this race a year ago. He said there was no indication of problems previously. I just knew that we couldnt do any better. “This is going to be a hard one to put behind me, but you have to do it”.
A year ago, Hunter-Reay won a crash-filled race at Pocono that took the life of Englishman Justin Wilson.
The race was marred by a scary pit road incident in which Alexander Rossi’s vehicle made contact with Charlie Kimball’s, went airborne and landed on the top of Helio Castroneves. Kimball was able to continue and there were no injuries. Aleshin was penalized for a pit safety infraction and for hitting personnel. Instead, the green finally flew on Lap 2, and Josef Newgarden quickly got by pole-sitter Mikhail Aleshin for the top spot. The Team Penske crew attempted to fix the No. 3 Chevrolet before shutting it down, leaving Castroneves with a 20th place-finish.
Newgarden came home a respectable fourth, ahead of another late charger in the form of Sebastien Bourdais. Sato was in third place with multiple empty auto lengths ahead and behind when he lost control. The stadium features a retractable roof and can seat over 37,000 fans, who are more used to watching fastballs than fast cars.
“It’s the way we’re wired as drivers”, he said. “That’s where oval racing is at its best”. Especially after such a rough start to the year and the first half of the year where I was feeling disgusting and could hardly complete a race physically. I like them even more than most of the road courses. If the race was a little longer there’s no doubt he’d have repeated as the victor at Pocono.
Winner’s average speed: 180.198 miles per hour. Then, Power got a good jump on the restart on Lap 180 to stay out front.
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Perhaps Will Power should petition the Verizon IndyCar Series to run all races on Mondays.
