By RICHIE HALL
SPEEDWAY – As racing fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway watched Simon Pagenaud pull into Victory Lane, a television commentator noted how appropriate the weather was: Pagenaud ended a lengthy drought in the rain.
The weather didn’t bother the French driving star, who used a stunning surge in the final five laps of the race to win the INDYCAR Grand Prix, which took place on a rainy Saturday afternoon. It was Pagenaud’s first win since September 2017.
“I answered it,” said Pagenaud. “I know what I’m worth. I’ve got to get everything right, and we did that this weekend. Slowly and surely, we got there. The stars just didn’t align before. But the performance has always been there this year. The team has been fantastic at giving me what I need, so here we are.”
Pagenaud ended the drought in spectacular fashion. With seven laps to go in the 85-lap race, Pagenaud was running in third place, nearly 7 seconds behind then-leader Scott Dixon.
First, Pagenaud had to move up to second place, which he did by passing Jack Harvey on Lap 80. At that point, Pagenaud trailed Dixon by almost 4 seconds, then steadily gained on him over the next three laps.
The moment of truth came on Lap 83. Pagenaud had been running about a half-second behind Dixon during the previous lap, and he made his move while exiting Turn 7. The two cars briefly touched, but Pagenaud was able to complete the pass on Turn 9. He then zoomed out in front, and held the lead until the checkered flag, winning by 2.0469 seconds.
It was the third win for Pagenaud at the Grand Prix, tying him with Will Power for most wins. The two Team Penske stars are the only winners in the six-year history of the Grand Prix. Power, the defending champion, finished seventh.
“We kept it in the Penske family,” said Pagenaud. “I can’t believe it. Awesome. What a race. I want to thank Team Penske, everybody that supports me. This is the sweetest win I’ve ever had, I guess.”
It was a tough one for Dixon, who finished as the runner-up at the Grand Prix for the third straight year. Dixon led the most laps in the race with 39 and stayed in contention for most of the race.
“I knew from the get-go that we would be struggling with the front end, and I don’t know why it was balanced that way,” said Dixon. “It felt like we needed about 6 inches of front wing. I thought maybe we could hold the gap. But the harder I pushed, the worse it got and just blitzed the front tires off the car. But all in all, it was a solid effort. It was a tricky race. It sucks to lead that many laps and come up short, but again, congrats to Simon.”
Harvey never led in the race, but was always a factor, immediately moving into second place at the beginning of the race and stayed in or around that position until Pagenaud made his move. Harvey’s third-place finish marked his first time ever on an INDYCAR podium and was easily the best every result for the young British driver, who had notched 10th place finishes in the series’ first two races.
“Everybody at Meyer Shank Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports worked so hard to give us that,” said Harvey. “It wasn’t an easy race, being half dry and half wet, but we put on a great show for everybody at AutoNation and SiriusXM. You can see how happy these guys are at getting a podium. Can you imagine how happy we’re going to be when we get a win? That’s where we’re going.”
American driver Josef Newgarden led 20 laps, the second-most of any driver, but he fell out of contention after a penalty that took place during a pit stop on Lap 68. A tire bounced out of Newgarden’s pit box, and the driver was penalized by having to restart at the back of the field, as this took place during a caution period.
Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist, a longtime Formula 3 racer making his rookie run in INDYCAR, started from the pole position. He led the first 15 laps of the race, but was passed by Dixon on Lap 16 and fell back after that. Rosenqvist went on to finish a respectable eighth place.
Other lap leaders included Graham Rahal, who paced four laps, and Sebastien Bourdais, who led two laps. Rahal and Bourdais finished ninth and 11th respectively.
Simon Pagenaud (right) makes his move on Scott Dixon on the second-to-last lap as the two Penske racers battled for the lead at the INDYCAR Grand Prix Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pagenaud pulled ahead and would go on to win the Grand Prix race for the third time. (Kent Graham)