Oval Victory For Bourdais
Sebastien Bourdais wins his fifth Indy car victory on an oval. Bourdais, driving the No. 11 Team Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Chevrolet, tied Al Unser Jr. for seventh on the all-time list with 34 wins.
Bourdain, led a field-high 118 laps, had built a large enough cushion on his competitors that he retained the lead after pitting on Lap 213 of 250 on the 1.015-mile historic oval. He then held off Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet on a Lap 232 restart and sped away to a 2.2366-second victory. Bourdais led 117 laps from the pole in winning at The Mile in 2006.
Graham Rahal, finished third in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda and Verizon IndyCar Series championship leader Juan Pablo Montoya finished fourth in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Pole sitter Josef Newgarden led 109 laps early on and finished fifth in the No. 67 CFH Racing Chevrolet.
For the second consecutive race, a DNF by Will Power provided Montoya an opportunity to increase his championship points lead. Scott Dixon, who was making his 250th Indy car start, overtook Power for second in the standings with a seventh-place finish in the No. 9 Cottonelle Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Montoya takes a 54-point advantage into the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway on July 18. Power is tied with Rahal and Castroneves with 370 points.
Power’s No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet was collected in a Lap 131 incident off a restart when the No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda driven by Ryan Briscoe spun in Turn 4.
“No question it makes it tough. We just have to focus and move on to the next one,” said Power, the reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion who won from the pole at Milwaukee in 2014.
Castroneves started last in the 24-car field because of a qualifying rule violation.
“I was pushing to the limit,” he said. “I knew the Hitachi car would be very good, but the 11 car was very fast. That seemed to be the key here. That was a hell of a job by the guys. We had a little miscue with qualifying but we never lost faith. We focused on the race. I’m just so proud and honored to be part of this team.”
Source: Indy500