IndyCar Series: Will Power wins at Pocono Raceway, Pagenaud crashes

Will Power wins the ABC Supply 500 race at Pocono Raceway, the 13th round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season, which was rescheduled from Sunday to Monday due to heavy rain.  The driver of the Team Penske #12 Chevrolet, who is second in the championship points, scored his fourth win of the season and 29th victory in a career to make the fight for the title more intense because the series leader Simon Pagenaud didn’t finish the race.

Pagenaud is one of five drivers who didn’t finish the race. First who retired was Takuma Sato after touching the wall on Lap 2. Ed Carpenter retired after 57 laps due to mechanical issues. On Lap 64 three-car incident happened in the pit lane. Alexander Rossi was on his way out but he didn’t look right and collided with Charlie Kimball. Rossi then went airborne over Helio Castroneves’ Chevrolet. The race was over for Rossi and Castroneves, Kimball survived the accident.

The series leader Simon Pagenaud crashed out, so Will Power decreased the gap in the title fight

On Lap 158 the yellow flag was out after Simon Pagenaud’s crash on turn 1. After the restart Ryan Hunter-Reay was the leader but his 31-lap long leading run ended on Lap 164, when the unexplained issue with the car slowed him down. He reset the engine without stopping in the pits but dropped to 12th place.

After Hunter-Reay’s misfortune, Will Power took the lead, ahead of Josef Newgarden and Mikhail Aleshin. After the last round of pitstops, with twenty laps to go, Will Power remained in the lead. Only driver who was close to him was Aleshin, but at the end the Australian crossed the finish line 1.1459s ahead of Russian driver. Ryan Hunter-Reay not only returned into the same lap as leaders but made an impresive progress through the field to finish on the podium.

With three races to go, Pageaund’s gap over Power is now only 20 points. The next round will be the second part of the Firestone 600 race at Texas Motor Speedway, which was stoped after 71 laps due to bad weather on June 12 and postponed to August 27. After that, two road course races will follow at Watkins Glen and Sonoma.

Check the full results of the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway

Photos: indycar.com