Helio Castroneves finished the race in seventh place in the No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet to wind up third in the championship. Last year: Scott Dixon took the final race of the season from the ninth position to win the IndyCar championship.
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What is known is one of the two Team Penske drivers will capture the title, a nice prize to celebrate their 50th anniversary in motorsports. Pagenaud gained points on Power at the last race at Watkins Glen. Pagenaud exclaimed in a Victory Lane interview. “What a race! There is so much emotion right now, to be honest, I don’t know if you can see it. The whole team was a dream to work with and today was the proof of that”. “For an athlete, I think when you can perform 100 percent under pressure like this is incredible”. The 67-year-old Force, a 16-time season champion, powered his Chevy Camaro Funny Car to a 3.946-second run at 324.05 miles per hour to beat No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr.in the final. We knew we’d have him for three years, then we knew he’d probably move on.
“It has been an incredible journey”, Pagenaud said. But Pagenaud won the pole to earn another point, led the most laps and won a race that was worth double points in the standings. It was really impressive.
Power is seeking his second series title while Pagenaud needs to only finish as low as fifth place to win his first series championship.
The team will go 1-2 in the standings, and Castroneves will try to make it 1-2-3 for the first time since Penske did it 22 years ago with Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy.
“Today I just think we just, again, showed strength”, Pagenaud said. “He helped our team and we helped him, and everything’s great”. [But] It was a bit of a relief, I have to say.
The pole capped a huge day for Pagenaud, the 32-year-old Frenchman who earlier shared the news that Menard’s home improvement stores will double their sponsorship commitment to the No. 22 Team Penske vehicle from five to 10 races in 2017.
Pagenaud entered Sunday’s title showdown with a 44-point lead over Power in the drivers’ championship after taking pole, and managed to retain his lead at the start. “Pagenaud dug deep all year and came up with a win for the team”.
Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch dominated most of the race on the 1.5-mile oval, leading 154 of the first 181 laps until he cut a tire and spun out. He and Power battled wheel to wheel for a full 14-corner lap before the Frenchman pulled ahead into a lead he would not give up. When pressed, the team owner only said “no comment”. “You have to make sure the chemistry is the best and it took awhile to make it happen”.
“But to me, the biggest points this season were the times when it was bad”, he added.
Montoya won the Indianapolis 500 in 2014 for Penske, but lost the championship in the season finale. His championship rival, Will Power had clutch problems and finished 8 laps down.
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“It has been a wild season”, Power said. The last thing we need is a straightforward race, because Simon’s going to be pretty tough to beat if that’s the case. Rossi had just one podium all year. “Everything fell for him and when it came down to the end here, he did everything he needed to do and made it hard for me”.
