Jones passed Elliott Sadler with nine laps to go and held off Kyle Larson to win the NASCAR Xfinity race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., allowing Ryan Sieg and Blake Koch to claim the final two spots in the Chase for the championship. Now free of the worry that his teammate would jump him on strategy at the first available opportunity, the #22 Penske team ran a three-stop strategy to perfection, outrunning a quick Graham Rahal all while saving fuel en route to a win with an impressive 76 of 85 laps led.
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SONOMA, Calif. (AP) – Simon Pagenaud gave Roger Penske an IndyCar championship to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the most storied organization in motorsports. It was the 14th series title for Penske, which also managed the first 1-2-3 sweep of the standings since another group of Penske drivers did it in 1994. By the time Power’s repairs were made, he was eight laps off Pagenaud’s pace and out of title contention.
Power, a three-time Sonoma race victor and five-time pole sitter at the track, was fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (1:16.6659, 111.992 mph).
“Throughout the entire season, he was not only an awesome driver but a champion”, Castroneves said of teammate Pagenaud.
The IndyCar series season finale is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.at Sonoma Raceway in California. “We didn’t get a win, but today, to finish 1-2-3, it’s like a win for everyone”.
“It’s just how it flows”.
Pagenaud has led the point standings for the entire season with Power making a late season charge for the title. 2015 was a struggle, as a championship finish of 11th stood in stark contrast to finishes of 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, but 2016 has been a revelation, recording seven poles and five wins en route to his first championship season.
“That’s all I could do in qualifying, that was everything I had and the auto had”, Power said, “It’s a long race”.
“I can’t control what’s going to happen behind, when people are going to start to pit”, he said.
Pagenaud won three road course races in a row early in the season, a run capped at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit, and added Mid-Ohio last month to bolster his edge ahead of Sunday’s dream victory at Sonoma. I didn’t feel like we could let that one go.
The IndyCar defeat was a tough one: Juan Pablo Montoya had led the standings wire-to-wire but lost the title on a tiebreaker to Scott Dixon because Dixon won the season finale. He did so this year despite being forced to miss the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla., with vertigo issues related to an inner ear infection.
Dixon is trying to maintain a streak of finishing third or better in the standings every year since 2007.
Montoya finished third at Sonoma to bookend the year with podium finishes.
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Montoya, who was rumored to have run his final race for Team Penske, finished in third, while Ryan Hunter-Reay came home fourth and Indy 500 victor Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five, clinching rookie of the year honors in the process.
