(Photo: Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden
INDIANAPOLIS — Post-race review and analysis from the NTT IndyCar Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Who Won?
Simon Pagenaud. The 2016 champion returned to form with an impressive comeback in the wet.
Top Stories
Ross’ Redemption
“I’m singin’ in the rain.
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feeling
To be happy again.” – Gene Kelly, “Singin’ in the Rain”
Simon Pagenaud entered the Month of May with a winless drought that stretched back to the 2017 season finale. But all it took was a little rain in Saturday’s INDYCAR Grand Prix to wash the drought away.
Pagenaud put together a memorable drive through the wet to score his first victory of 2019 on Saturday, passing defending champion Scott Dixon just before the white flag to cap off a furious comeback in the waning moments of the race.
“I honestly always hope for rain because I love driving in the rain,” Pagenaud said. “It’s such a fun exercise. You can’t calculate as much. You really have to balance the car with your feet, your hands and play with it, dance with it, and instinct driving comes out, where on a dry track it’s very much repetitive. In the wet it’s more like what I used to grow up on dirt racing. It reminds me of my childhood, and passion comes back out, and it’s fun.
Despite his two wins on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Pagenaud wasn’t among the favorites entering the race’s sixth running. His eighth-place starting spot was lower than any previous winner’s, and his consistent struggles over the past two seasons left the Frenchman as a dark horse contender prior to the race.
Had the track stayed dry, historical predictions might have proven true. But a bit of Midwest weather opened the door for Pagenaud to surge to the front in the closing laps.
The 2016 champion ultimately did just that, putting together the sort of drive that delivered him that first IndyCar championship to march through the field. With 15 laps to go Pagenaud wasn’t even on the podium, but he rose to second in the final laps after utilizing what remained of his push-to-pass.
A combination of a well-handling car, unique racing line and the oval section’s new sealant helped Pagenaud work his way through traffic.
“I was trying to see — for each of the corners it was a bit different because obviously we have a new sealant on part of the track, and the sealant reacts very differently than — there’s a patch in Turn 1, there’s a patch in Turn 12 in the mid- corner,” he said. “And I was trying to avoid those patches that were a bit slippery to carry that speed through, so I was trying a different line to see.
“But my car was just very, very good on the braking, so I could really experiment with that and fake some moves on people, and by doing that, they were thrown off their game, and I would gain time mid-corner and get them on the exit.”
When he made it to second, Pagenaud’s drive appeared done. Dixon held a six-second advantage, and he had more than 30 seconds of remaining push-to-pass to increase his speed while Pagenaud was out. The Team Penske star considered shifting to the defensive at that point, but he quickly realized that a win was there for the taking.
“The first lap I passed Harvey, I saw Dixon locked up a bit in Turn 7, I gained a good two seconds, I think, and then I realized he was struggling,” Pagenaud said. “So then he started pushing a bit, and that was my chance because the more he was pushing, the more he was going to degrade his tires, and I think he had more to lose, too.”
Dixon’s issues allowed Pagenaud to close the gap. Once he got to the veteran’s rear wing, a last-dash effort in Turn 8 helped Pagenaud secure the lead coming to the white flag. The move came as a surprise given the location on the track, but Pagenaud trusted his instincts to carry him through.
“I realized that I had a shot, but I was out of Push-to-Pass, so my only chance was to get him on the infield,” Pagenaud admitted. “But quite frankly, none of the passes I made today I planned. I just drove with full instinct mode, and it worked out.”
The victory was Pagenaud’s 12th in IndyCar, and his third in six races at the IMS road course. The only other driver to claim an IndyCar victory on the track is Team Penske teammate Will Power, who also has three triumphs on the road course.
Lost Race, Gained Points
A Day for Underdogs
Look beyond the veterans in Pagenaud and Dixon, and the rest of the frontrunners at race’s end on Saturday supplied a host of feel-good moments from young stars searching for a breakthrough.
Jack Harvey led the way for the group, capping off an impressive race with his first-career podium. The third-place run was Harvey’s first single-digit finish, besting a pair of 10th-place efforts from earlier in 2019 that had previously served as his top results.
It also served as a breakthrough for Meyer Shank Racing, serving as the team’s first podium and a sign of continue growth since the team launched with a three-race slate in 2017.
“I think this was a really exciting result for us today because if we could do a full-season drive in 2020, to mix it with Simon and Scott would be great,” Harvey said. “If you could do it more weekends than you don’t, then good things will happen at the end of the year.
“But to share the podium with both of those guys I think is pretty special. Our first podium in IndyCar today, and hopefully it’s the first of a few, and we’re just going to keep using it to keep learning, get more experience, and hopefully it won’t be as much of a shock when we get in here again.”
Following Harvey in fourth was Matheus Leist. The 20-year-old had previously finished no better than than 11th in 21-career starts, but he surged on the wet IMS road course to deliver AJ Foyt Racing a fourth-place result.
“It’s an awesome place to have my best finish in IndyCar,” Leist said. “And if you go back to 2017, here is where I had my first best finish in Indy Lights too. So I think this places likes me at the same time that I like it, so let’s try to keep the momentum going now for the (Indy) 500.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot rounded out the top-five, returning to the top quarter of the field for the first time since his fourth-place effort in the penultimate race of the 2018 season at Portland.
“The rain was teasing us the whole race,” Pigot said. “The team made a great call to go on the wets when we did as we were able to jump a handful of cars. I’m happy with fifth and it was a good, strong finish for me.”
Last among the group was Ed Jones, whose sixth-place run provided much-needed momentum ahead an upcoming Indy 500 attempt with IndyCar hopefuls Scuderia Corsa.
“It was quite a good weekend, obviously the first solid weekend we’ve had this year,” Jones said. “I’ve struggled a lot. It’s good to have that going into the Indy 500, building momentum and that’s what every team wants to do. I think we’ve done that now, so now it’s just time to focus on the oval and see what we can do there.”
Whether Saturday’s performances will translate to additional success down the line for any of the quartet remains to be seen. But for at least on wet day in Indiana, each driver in the group provided a drive that showcased their talent.
Other Notes
- Colton Herta’s post-Circuit of the Americas blues continued on in a disappointing day at the Brickyard. Herta’s No. 88 machine never saw wet tires, with the rookie crashing out on a restart after just 15 laps. Since his breakthrough Texas win, Herta’s had three DNFs with an average finish of 23.3.
- Former Haas F1 Team prospect Santino Ferrucci put together one of the best drives of his young IndyCar career in his first trip to Indianapolis, battling with defending winner Will Power and bringing home a 10th-place finish at race’s end. “Trust me, it’s stuff I haven’t had since go karting days,” Ferrucci said of the battle with Power. “But let me tell you, it was probably one of the best races I’ve had in a really, really long time. I really enjoyed it.
- Prior to Saturday’s race, each of the past four trips to the IMS road course had been won from the pole. But it wasn’t meant to be for rookie Felix Rosenqvist. The Chip Ganassi Racing newcomer lost the lead to teammate Scott Dixon on the Lap 16 restart and stumbled back from there, slotting in eighth at race’s end.
- A poor qualifying effort quickly translated to a disappointing finish for Alexander Rossi and Andretti Autosport. The team’s leader was hit from behind by Patricio O’Ward as the field took the green flag, and the damage forced him to pit road for four laps as his team made repairs. Rossi ultimately finished 22nd, tying his worst-career result from Texas Motor Speedway in 2017.
- Rossi wasn’t the only Andretti car to struggle on the day. No one on the team finished higher than Zach Veach in 12th, and even technical affiliate team Harding Steinbrenner Racing was relegated to 23rd after Herta’s wreck
- Helio Castroneves made his IndyCar return in the INDYCAR Grand Prix, but finished outside of the top six for the first time in his career on the IMS road course after spinning at pit exit and slotting in 21st.
