He ran out of fuel coming to the pits and finished 19th after going a lap down midway through the race.
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“Unfortunately on my final lap, starting it, my engine just died in the last corner there”, said Power, the victor at Watkins Glen the last time the Verizon IndyCar Series raced here in 2010.
Dixon won the pole Saturday with a speed of over 147 miles per hour in a record-shattering time that eclipsed the previous record by almost six seconds on the track’s new pavement.
After topping the speed charts throughout the weekend, Dixon easily sped off into the lead when the green flag signaled the start of the race.
Fastest in all three practices, Dixon topped the Fast Six on Saturday with a track-record-smashing time of 1 minute, 22.5259 seconds at 147.008 miles per hour to win the pole for the Grand Prix at The Glen. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver insisted that he was not at fault for the contact with Power, as Power, he contended, had sent him into the grass before the contact while defending an odd line.
He trails Pagenaud by 43 points going into the double points finale, the Grand Prix of Sonoma on September 18. “Yeah, we got it all together, and it was nice to get a solid qualifying result together”. “But the Road America race went awfully badly, so hopefully we can change that tomorrow”.
“The vehicle was just fantastic”, said Dixon. That he’s really not in the hunt this time Dixon is sixth in the standings, 132 points behind Pagenaud isn’t so much fun. “Definitely cost us some time, but starting on the front row is definitely better than where we were”. “Just got to take a chance, and our group made a decision to go with the reds, and that’s the best we could do”.
Sebastien Bourdais will start third on the grid at the Watkins Glen International on Sunday after an exciting qualifying, although the Frenchman once again found it a struggle to get the supposedly faster red-walled Firestone tyre to work.
Sunday’s 60-lap Hitachi INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen will be telecast by NBCSN at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Graham Rahal, last week’s victor at Texas, also was penalized for interference and did not advance.
The Verizon IndyCar Championship has come down to the final race each year since 2006, and the unique challenges of Sonoma Raceway make it anyone’s race, and championship, to win.
Juan Montoya has +1300 odds today. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 01:23.6392 (145.052) 10.
Mikhail Aleshin also had a scary situation.
Someone else who may be in trouble is Josef Newgarden.
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James Hinchcliffe also was a victim. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 01:24.8928 (142.910) 15.
