Power is on a roll, which is even more impressive than teammate Pagenaud’s start to the season, cutting the points lead to just 20.
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Coming into Pocono, Power trailed Pagenaud by 58 points. Now we will give it everything. I havent had a chance to win on the recent rallies and I was missing that feeling for sure. He famously lost chances to capture the crown in 2010, ’11 and ’12 by posting an average finish of 22.6 in what turned out to be the season finales (the last race of the ’11 season, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, was canceled).
The track stayed green for the next 250 miles before points leader Simon Pagenaud would make contact with the outside wall bringing out caution number three on the afternoon. If the race was a little longer there’s no doubt he’d have repeated as the victor at Pocono. “There was no steering”, Pagenaud said.
Helio Castroneves was fortunate not to be injured when Alexander Rossi’s vehicle went over the top of his cockpit. Its been really exciting and a long time since I was battling like this for a win. Turn 1 was fine. “There’s never been one year where I’ve had a full-time ride and I’ve never won a race”. He was fourth on lap 142 after Power surged past.
Will Power is now on the charge to what arguably would be the most impressive comeback in Verizon IndyCar Series history. However, a setup change made to Aleshin’s Honda at the fifth scheduled pit stop backfired, and he faded slightly until the issue could be addressed at the final round of pit stops. “This is going to be a hard one to put behind me, but you have to do it”.
“In the end I couldn’t get Will”, Aleshin said. Just not quite fast enough. Seriously, I was on the edge.
Because he had no practice at all in the vehicle in which he started Monday’s race, Hunter-Reay couldn’t know exactly what he had under him, even though he admitted the setup was “close to my setup” on the auto that crashed in the first turn on his sixth lap of practice on Saturday. “I had wiggles and I just couldn’t get him”. After driving through the pits and recycling the electronics, Hunter-Reay found himself again at the back of the pack.
Following a late race caution Hunter-Reay got back on the lead lap and once again headed for the front, making daring passes to the inside and outside of competitors. He just ran out of laps after weaving his way back to third. The 2012 series champion worked his way back through the field to cross the finish line with a podium finish.
“I had to come through the field twice and that is heart-breaking for us”, RHR said. The No. 28 DHL Honda really deserved to be in contention for the win there at the end. I was going through Turn 2 and (the car) just shut off. He had the best vehicle of the day, fighting through the field twice to finish third.
Rounding out the top five were Josef Newgarden and Sebastien Bourdais. “I don’t think it changes anything”. He was so fast, he had an incredible drive so congrats to him. It also erased an nearly two-second lead Power had built over Aleshin.
The race was marred by a scary pit road incident in which Alexander Rossi’s vehicle made contact with Charlie Kimball’s, went airborne and landed on the top of Helio Castroneves. “Kimball was obviously trying to come in his box but then Helio (Castroneves) was being released”. So I don’t know. Finally thought we were going to get that win. It was a little unusual to be honest. “We’ll move on to Texas where, fortunately, we’ve had a lot of success”.
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Verizon IndyCar Series Point Standings: Pagenaud 497, Power 477, Newgarden 397, Dixon 386, Castroneves 384, Kanaan 380, Munoz 354, Hinchcliffe 349, Rahal 343, Kimball 333.
