Round 14: ABC Supply 500, Long Pond, PA. August 17-18.
After the three week break, the 2019 IndyCar season resumes at Pocono Raceway. The Tricky Trangle as it is sometimes known, was founded by Joe 'Doc' Mattioli, a Philadelphia dentist turned successful property businessman. At first Pocono Raceway comprised a three-quarter mile oval and a drag strip, which later doubled as the main straight for the full 2.5-mile 'tri-oval'. A 1.8-mile road course was added in 1969 and in early 1970 the work on the full sized oval was started.
The Pocono 500 was first held on July 3, 1971 and was won by Mark Donohue for Penske Racing, driving a McLaren M16-Offenhauser. The race was part of the USAC National Championship Trail and part of USAC's "Triple Crown", comprising the Indianapolis 500, Pocono 500, and California 500.
After the CART/USAC split, the race became a CART event from 1982 - 1989. However, it was dropped, mainly due to the increasingly rough track surface as well as poor safety features, like the lack of run off areas and catch fencing.
After a 23-year hiatus, the IZOD IndyCar series successfully revived the race in 2013, including the "Triple Crown". It adopted the 1971–80 USAC format, with the Indianapolis 500 in May, the Pocono IndyCar 400 in July. The MAVTV 500 in October at Fontana, replaced the original California 500 held at Ontario, as the venue longer existed. In 2014 the race returned to it's original distance of 500 miles and is the fastest 500 mile race in IndyCar history, with an average speed of 202.402 mph (325.734 km/h) and was the first 500-mile race to be completed in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. However, with the MAVTV 500 being dropped after the 2015 season, the "Triple Crown" is no longer contested.
Some trivia:
Triple Crown: Al Unser Sr., 1978.
The driver with the most wins, A.J. Foyt: 1973, 1975, 1979, 1980.
The team with the most wins, Team Penske: 1971, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2014, 2016.
Track Layout:
The track has unique layout and its three turns, are each based on turns from 3 other tracks.
Turn One, with 14 degree banking, is based on the now defunct Trenton Speedway. Turn Two, also known as "The Tunnel turn", is like Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with 9 degree banking and Turn 3 has 6 degree banking, similar to The Milwaukee Mile.
Original 3/4 Mile oval, with the 1969 road course in grey.
Current track.
Length: 2.5 mi (4.023 km)
Turns: 3
Lap record:
Juan Pablo Montoya.
July 5th, 2014. 40.1929, 223.871 mph (360.285 km/h).
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.
Last year's race:
Will Power grabbed the 53rd Pole, of his career but was unable to capitalise on his achievement, as the first full course yellow came out, when Graham Rahal made an inauspicious start from 18th on the grid, tagging the back of Spencer Pigot's car, as he tried to make an early getaway. He broke the left-front wing of his car and spun Pigot into the inside wall, while his own car ricocheted off the outside wall. Pietro Fittipaldi also broke his front wing, on the back of Ed
Carpenter's car. Not a good start for Ed Carpenter Racing.Under the yellow, Carpenter, Conor Daly and Max Chilton stopped, along with Rahal. At the
restart, Alexander Rossi jumped ahead of Will Power. Robert Wickens moved up the inside of Ryan Hunter-Reay and as they went through Turn 2, Wickens' front-right wheel made contact with the side of Hunter-Reay's car, turning Hunter-Reay's car to the left. Wicken's drove over the nose
of the #28 car and was launched along the top of the SAFER barrier and up into the catch fencing, spinning viciously, desytroying a section of it and shredding large parts off the car.
Hinchcliffe applied full opposite lock trying to avoid his teammate and hitting the outside wall but his efforts to lessen the crash were in vain, as he was hit by an out-of-control Fittipaldi, who had run over debris, ending the race for both drivers. Takuma Sato in the second RLLR car was sprayed with oil, struck the wall and his car was retired. Rahal’s would restart albeit many laps down, as a result of damage repair and a penalty.
The race was Red flagged, with the engines refired after a 1 hour and 56 minute stoppage to clean the track and repair the extensive catchfence damage.
Sebastien Bourdais had initially baulked at the idea of returning to his car. Dale Coyne's lead engineer Craig Hampson stated over the radio, “We got a little problem with the driver. The fence repair that they’ve done looks like something you and I coulda done in our backyard. The pole is short, it’s a piece of like construction fence tied to it. Driver’s pretty upset and basically saying he ain’t getting back in the car if it looks like that – so he’s going to find race control.”
However, eventually Bourdais got back in his car.Under the last lap under yellow before the restart, the two Chip Ganassi cars immediately pitted, as the cars had been untouchable under Red flag conditions. Jones took on a new front wing but lost a lap. Dixon, as a precaution, took on new right-side tires, as he’d driven through the Wickens debris. Dixon returned to the track still on the lead lap.
The race would be restarted in single file, with Rossi leading, followed by Power, Newgarden, Zach Veach, Sebastien Bourdais, Marco Andretti, Carpenter, Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist, At the drop of the green, Rossi sprinted into the lead, as Veach tucked in behind the two Penskes, with
Andretti passing Bourdais for fifth, while Dixon was into the top 10 by Lap 14, just two laps after the restart. Kanaan had to pit almost immediately, elevating Dixon to eighth, and Leist to ninth, while Pagenaud was already into 10th.
Rossi had pulled a six second lead over Power by the time he pitted on Lap 38. Power, Newgarden, Andretti, Veach and Bourdais pitted a lap later, with Carpenter pitting on Lap 40. This left Dixon out in front, having taken on fuel during his pitstop before the restart. By Lap 42 he needed to take on more fuel, handing the lead back to Rossi, who now had 7.5 second lead
over Power, who in turn was 4 seconds clear of Newgarden. Bourdais had managed to split teammates Veach and Andretti to go fifth, while Dixon was ighth, trailing Carpenter.
Rossi saw his lead over Power erode to 5.5 seconds as he got stuck behind backmarkers Conor Daly and Max Chilton but once past, was able to turn laps of around 214mph and pull away once more, as it was now Power’s turn to encounter the lapped traffic. By the time Power was clear, he was
12.5 seconds down.
Andretti and Leist made early second stops, on lap 66, with Andretti taking on much more front wing to combat the understeer that several drivers including Dixon had complained of. Dixon was next in on Lap 68, short-filling and getting into clean air. Newgarden also pitted early, emerged into Dixon’s path, who lost momentum trying to pass Newgarden.
However, Andretti jumped them both, though Dixon eventually got around Newgarden for fourth, staying close to Andretti.Rossi pitted on Lap 71, as did Pagenaud, while Power pitted on Lap 72. He had both front and rear wing adjusted but emerged 11.3 seconds behind Rossi, while Andretti and Dixon were 10 seconds further back. Newgarden, Bourdais, Veach, Pagenaud, Carpenter and Leist completed the top 10.
The third round of stops began with Carpenter on Lap 97, followed by Andretti on 98, Leist on 99 and Pagenaud on 100, Veach on 101, Dixon and Newgarden on 102. Andretti again got past Dixon, while Rossi and Power came in at the same time behind Chilton, which effectively bunched them
together in as both the Penske and Andretti pit crews, were in adjacent pit boxes. Both teams were put under review. Andretti for leaving an airjack hose in Power’s way and Power for driving over it as he left the pits. Power was fined and given a warning for running a rival team’s equipment.
Rossi pulled clear of Power once more, despite briefly sitting Carpenter's wake as he was determined not to be lapped. Twenty seconds back, Andretti, Dixon and Bourdais were battling over third but Andretti received instructions to save fuel, having been the lead runner who’d stopped earliest. 1.7 seconds back, Newgarden was struggling to hold off Veach.
By Lap 120, Pagenaud who was running eighth, had Rossi in his mirrors, the #22 car’s slower pace started backing Rossi up towards Power. The gap reduced to little more than one second, before Pagenaud pitted on Lap 131. So too did Andretti, elevating the Dixon-Bourdais-Newgarden-Veach
battle to third through to sixth.
With clear air, Rossi sprinted hard, setting the fastest lap of the race, at 215.850 mph, to pull a two second gap over Power.
Rossi made his penultimate stop on Lap 136, with Power stopping on 137, with the Team Penske pit crew getting their man out in front. However, Rossi took just a couple of laps to find his way around Power down the inside into Turn 2, as they both trailed in fifth, sixth.
Veach let teammate Rossi lap him on Lap 146 and Andretti did the same just a couple laps later. Would Newgarden do the same? No, but Newgarden’s failure to get around Chilton eventually allowed Rossi to lap him. Rossi wasted no time in getting around Chilton's car. With Power still
unable to get past Veach and Andretti. Rossi quickly opened up a six second lead.
Rossi made his final stop on Lap 169, his lead now down to 1.7 seconds, while Dixon stopped from third place on the same lap. Power stayed out two laps longer but had a terrible in-lap, understeering up the track toward the wall as he caught Max Chilton's slow car. By the time Power emerged from the pits, Rossi’s lead was back over six seconds. By the time Power got past
Ed Jones, Rossi was leading by 8.3 seconds. However, in the closing stages as Rossi came up fast on fourth placed Bourdais, Power began closing on him rapidly but it wasn't enough and Rossi scored his third win of the season his second consecutive, by 4.5 seconds. Dixon held off Bourdais to take third, while Newgarden beat Veach to take fifth place.
With three races to go – including double-points Sonoma – Dixon now has 530, with Rossi on 501, Newgarden 464, Power 449, Hunter-Reay 411.
Pole position:
Will Power,
Lap 1 40.9198
Lap 2 41.0808
Average 1:22.000. 219.511 mph (353.268 km/h)
Team Penske
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6
Last year's winner:
Alexander Rossi,
Andretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy
Laps: 200
Distance: 500 Miles (804.672 km)
Race Time: 2:36:49
Average Speed: 191.304 mph (307.873 km/h)
Cautions 2
Laps 1O
TV Coverage:
NBCSN. Aug 18, 2:00pm ET.