Autosport – 25 July 2019

Late stop under yellow

flags enabled Dixon to

rescue unpromising race

Race start was delayed

until 10.45pm after

thunderstorms struck

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25 JULY 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 37

when the yellow flew. But of course
when the pits opened, the frontrunners
were the first to take advantage while
all those a lap down circulated a couple
more times to get back on the lead lap.
At the lap 199 restart Pigot briefly
jumped Pagenaud for third and Carpenter
briefly demoted Hinchcliffe, but then the
Penske 1-2-3 was restored and Hinchcliffe
regained his fifth spot. Once the pit window
opened for the final stop, most took
advantage, which is when Power made his
error – and Dixon’s Ganassi crew had a
brainwave. They left Dixon on track and
suddenly he was second, behind only
Newgarden, and hoping for a ‘free’ stop –
or a less harmful one, at least – should
another full-course caution occur.
Their prayers were answered when
Carpenter lost control of his car exiting
Turn 2 in dirty air and hit the wall on lap

264. Dixon – as well as Rossi and others
     with little to lose – pitted while the field
     was reduced to a relative crawl behind
     the Chevrolet Corvette pace car, and the
     reigning champion emerged sixth and with
     tyres that had around 10 fewer racing laps
     on them than those on the cars ahead.
     At the green flag Dixon surged past
     Rahal’s sick-sounding car, and took just
     two more laps to dispense with Pigot.
     Up ahead was Pagenaud, who had been
     jumped by Hinchcliffe, and with 18 laps
     to go the polesitter became another of
     Dixon’s victims, then the Kiwi passed
     Hinchcliffe three laps later.
     Newgarden was too far away and scored
     a deserving win, but Dixon and Ganassi
     had proved once again that you never
     count them out, even when they’re
     running 16th and a lap down.

POWERED BY

RESULTS ROUND 11/16, IOWA (USA), 20 JULY (300 LAPS – 268.200 MILES)

QUALIFYING

1 Pagenaud 180.073mph; 2 Power 179.589mph;

3 Newgarden 179.449mph; 4 Sato 177.646mph;

5 Hinchcliffe 176.200mph; 6 Rossi 176.057mph;

7 Rahal 175.857mph; 8 Dixon 175.725mph;

9 Hunter-Reay 175.618mph; 10 Ericsson 175.578mph;

11 Herta 175.346mph; 12 Ferrucci 175.316mph;

13 Kanaan 174.848mph; 14 Karam 174.323mph;

15 Rosenqvist 174.237mph; 16 Daly 173.837mph;

17 Carpenter 173.540mph; 18 Andretti 173.044mph;

19 Pigot 171.791mph; 20 Veach 171.626mph;

21 Bourdais 171.390mph; 22 Leist 167.136mph.

CHAMPIONSHIP

1 Newgarden 487; 2 Rossi 458; 3 Pagenaud 429;

4 Dixon 389; 5 Power 322; 6 Sato 311; 7 Hunter-Reay 298;

8 Rahal 290; 9 Hinchcliffe 279; 10 Bourdais 255.

POS DRIVER TEAM / CAR TIME

1 Josef Newgarden (USA) Team Penske / Dallara-Chevrolet 1h56m53.5753s

2 Scott Dixon (NZL) Chip Ganassi Racing / Dallara-Honda +2.8527s

3 James Hinchcliffe (CAN) Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports / Dallara-Honda +3.3941s

4 Simon Pagenaud (FRA) Team Penske / Dallara-Chevrolet +7.5630s

5 Spencer Pigot (USA) Ed Carpenter Racing / Dallara-Chevrolet +10.9683s

6 Alexander Rossi (USA) Andretti Autosport / Dallara-Honda +12.1308s

7 Zach Veach (USA) Andretti Autosport / Dallara-Honda +17.1267s

8 Graham Rahal (USA) Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing / Dallara-Honda -1 lap

9 Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan / Dallara-Honda -1 lap

10 Tony Kanaan (BRA) AJ Foyt Enterprises / Dallara-Chevrolet -1 lap

11 Marcus Ericsson (SWE) Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports / Dallara-Honda -1 lap

12 Santino Ferrucci (USA) Dale Coyne Racing / Dallara-Honda -1 lap

13 Conor Daly (USA) Carlin / Dallara-Chevrolet -1 lap

14 Felix Rosenqvist (SWE) Chip Ganassi Racing / Dallara-Honda -1 lap

15 Will Power (AUS) Team Penske / Dallara-Chevrolet -1 lap

16 Matheus Leist (BRA) AJ Foyt Enterprises / Dallara-Chevrolet -2 laps

17 Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA) Andretti Autosport / Dallara-Honda -2 laps

18 Colton Herta (USA) Harding Steinbrenner Racing / Dallara-Honda 276 laps-mechanical

19 Ed Carpenter (USA) Ed Carpenter Racing / Dallara-Chevrolet 262 laps-accident

20 Takuma Sato (JPN) Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing / Dallara-Honda 216 laps-accident damage

21 Marco Andretti (USA) Andretti Herta Autosport / Dallara-Honda 205 laps-handling

22 Sage Karam (USA) Carlin / Dallara-Chevrolet 193 laps-accident damage

Winner’s average speed 137.664mph. Fastest lap Newgarden 18.1160s, 177.655mph.

NEXT REPORT

MID-OHIO 1 AUGUST ISSUE

IndyCar heads back to a road

course. Can Rossi or Dixon do

anything about the Penske drivers?