If the race was a little longer there’s no doubt he’d have repeated as the victor at Pocono. He gave eventual race-winner Will Power a run for his money as the two traded the lead back-and-forth after the second-to-last restart. Power had assumed the race lead just a few laps before Pagenaud’s crash.
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There were a couple of scary crashes, and one terrifying one – Takuma Sato pounded the wall on lap three but walked away, and later in the race points leader Simon Pagenaud, on a full tank of fuel, bottomed out on a bump, which shot him up into the wall. Despite a auto issue, Hunter-Reay finished in third. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out”. I don’t think working with an existing tub is a big issue. “And Will has got the bit between his teeth and hair on fire”. He missed the season-opener at St. Petersburg with a misdiagnosed concussion which turned out to be an inner ear infection.
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.
“It feels normal. It’s not like I’m doing anything special. That’s the amusing thing”, Power said.
Foyt won a record four IndyCar races at Pocono in his heyday. That was more of a concern than anything else.
“I had two good laps”.
Now, it’s Pagenaud who is feeling the heat.
ALESHIN SHINES: The 29-year-old Russian was fastest in first practice on Saturday, fastest with the pole on the line, and very fast on Monday.
It took Hunter-Reay under 50 laps to rise from 22nd to lead the race, displaying fearsome pace behind the wheel of his Honda-powered vehicle. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, so we’ll move on”. I think it’s the flawless situation. “We’ve gone all-out all season and that’s not going to change”. With only three events remaining in the IndyCar Series this year, time is running out. Expect to see the Penske teammates fighting for the title from the front of the field at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. The finale is a double-points race. The Team Penske crew attempted to fix the No. 3 Chevrolet before shutting it down, leaving Castroneves with a 20th place-finish. “I’ve already finished where I finished there”, said Newgarden, who trails Pagenaud by 120 points.
Scott Dixon is fourth, 111 points back. Aleshin would fade a little in the late going but fought back valiantly to score a runner-up finish.
“He gets better and better the more seat time he has”, Newgarden said. That’s bad news for Josef Newgarden, fourth in points.
Still, Newgarden thinks he has a shot at the championship. “There was no steering”, Pagenaud said.
“The race was changing the whole day”, he said. “If it all works out, it can still work”.
The Race Of Champions is run over two days: first comes the Race Of Champions itself (on Saturday January 21) with a flat-out battle for individual glory.
In recent years ROC has visited the Stade de France in Paris (2004-2006), London’s Wembley Stadium (2007-2008), the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Beijing (2009), Düsseldorf’s Esprit Arena (2010-2011), the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok (2012), Bushy Park Barbados (2014) and London’s former Olympic Stadium (2015). He has learned from those experiences.
“I was pretty confident that even if I did not keep the lead, I would be fast”, Power said.
“American race fans are passionate about their sport and I’m sure they will enjoy the great competition and shows we put on”. Used to frustrate me because I’m quicker, I’m fast.
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Methodical. It was how Power won at Pocono on Monday.
