“The vehicle was working really well and especially in front of Pocono and ABC Supply”.
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The victor of last year’s Pocono race came here on Saturday with high hopes of turning around a season that had already handed him some disappointments. The race will be televised at 9 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
People gather in the garage area to get out of the rain at Pocono Raceway before the Pocono IndyCar 500 auto race Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, in Long Pond, Pa.
Will Power’s summer march toward a second Verizon IndyCar Series championship continued at Pocono Raceway Monday in a race delayed from Sunday because of rain. Pagenaud, who has a series-high four wins this season, came into the race with a 58-point lead on Team Penske teammate Will Power.
Karam was leading the IndyCar race a year ago at the 2.5-mile track in rural Pennsylvania when he spun and crashed in the closing laps.
Bourdais dropped back on the restart, however, and Power held off Aleshin for the win while Hunter-Reay rallied his way back up through the field to finish third. Hunter-Reay wasnt injured, but the left front of the Honda was demolished, forcing his Andretti Autosport team to switch to a backup vehicle.
Wilson died on August 24, 2015, when he was struck on the helmet by a piece of flying debris from a vehicle that crashed almost half a mile up the track. Pocono Raceway painted “JW” on the track at the finish line and Union Jacks flew at half-staff in his honor. Dale Coyne Racing says Conor Daly will drive the No. 88 in Sunday’s race to honor Bryan Clauson, who died August 6 during a dirt-track race in Kansas.
Simon Pagenaud, the current series leader, finished second, which meant Power spotted his Team Penske teammate 43 points with much road to travel. He looked on course to challenge Power and Aleshin for victory, however a brief mechanical blip saw him lose a whole lap to the rest of the field.
The complexion of the race and the points race changed after Pagenaud crashed while running 12th to bring out a caution.
Power then regained the lead, and after a debris caution on lap 176, he exited the pits in first place as Hunter-Reay got back on the lead lap with one last chance. He ran out of laps after weaving his way back to third. I took a leap of faith.
“I am OK, so thanks to IndyCar and Pocono safety”, Sato said. He was just too fast.
Its the first career pole for the Russian, who drives for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
“Now that I’ve gotten older and mature as a driver, I can see how you just let the race unfold”, Power said.
“I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?'” he said.
“I was running wide open that last stint, except for a couple of laps, and I think we were the fastest vehicle on the track”. I was going through Turn 2 and (the car) just shut off.
Power, who had a reputation for cracking under pressure when he came out second-best in championship battles with Franchitti in 2010 and ’11 and Hunter-Reay in 2012, instead was the driver who never put a wheel wrong on Monday. What more could happen?
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“We just kept adding and adding downforce”, Power said. It’s been that way. Fittingly for a race halted because of Saturday night storms, Harvick had to sit out one last rain delay before easily pulling away on the restart and cruising to victory.
