The IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway has been postponed until Tuesday because of rain.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS Mikhail Aleshin, of Russian Federation, leads the field down the backstretch during Monday’s Verizon IndyCar Series ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway. Simon Pagenaud, the current series leader, finished second, which meant Power spotted his Team Penske teammate 43 points with much road to travel.
For Power, as the season dwindles his mind still wanders back to St. Petersburg.
The 29-year-old Russian piloted the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda around the 2.5-mile triangular track in a two-lap average speed of 220.445 miles per hour for his first career IndyCar pole. Hunter-Reay was third.
“We’re chipping away at it”, Power said. It’s just so interesting; very intense racing.
So you know it was a very good comeback and I am very happy to win here.
“At the end, we just ran out of time”.
“It’s just been one of those seasons I guess, right?” The league is heading to Texas, where it will have to finish the second half of the 2016 Firestone 600 this Saturday, Aug. 27.
Power initially started the race from eighth on the grid and during the opening few stints was thought to be out of contention for the win. He fell a lap down.
Because he had no practice at all in the vehicle in which he started Monday’s race, Hunter-Reay couldn’t know exactly what he had under him, even though he admitted the setup was “close to my setup” on the auto that crashed in the first turn on his sixth lap of practice on Saturday. Hunter-Reay wasn’t injured, but the left front of the Honda was demolished, forcing his Andretti Autosport team to switch to a backup vehicle. The Team Penske driver led teammate Will Power by 58 points entering the race.
Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay delivered the performance of the day. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if we couldn’t have made our way back to the front if we went back a little”. That one was weird. “This is the type of year it has been, really heart-breaking”.
On lap 63, as the leaders pitted under green flag conditions, Indy 500 victor Alexander Rossi, who had been running in the top five, led Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves into the pits.
“I don’t know what happened at this point”, said Pagenaud on his wreck. The Team Penske crew attempted to fix the No. 3 Chevrolet before shutting it down, leaving Castroneves with a 20th place-finish. Shortly after, coming off Turn 3, Takuma Sato, running inside the top 5, spun off turn 3 and slammed the outside wall head first. Sato was in third place with multiple empty vehicle lengths ahead and behind when he lost control. “He had a big smile”, Sato said. Turn 1 was fine. Three races remain for him to extend that streak to seven. The problem is lessened in packs, he said. He lost the steering, hit the wall hard and was still puzzled after exiting the care center.
Having lost a lap, Hunter-Reay looked likely to struggle to regain that time, but received a lucky break when he recovered the lap due to a well-timed caution period, and then drove strongly to claim the podium position on the penultimate lap by passing Josef Newgarden. However, Power has four wins and two second-place finishes in the last six races. He will conclude his season on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. “But now I understand it and now I like ovals 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.
Lead changes: 29 among 9 drivers.
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On Lap 164, leader Hunter-Reay suddenly slowed, as an electronics issue resulted in his engine switching off.
