MADISON, Ill., Aug. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Recovering in the
best possible fashion following an opening-lap crash last weekend
at Pocono Raceway, Takuma Sato took
advantage of an off-sequence pit strategy and a fast Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda to win the Bommarito Automotive
Group 500 after a thrilling duel with Ed
Carpenter in the final laps.
A total of five caution flags and high tire wear led to numerous
pit strategies during the 248-lap NTT IndyCar Series contest, the
final oval race of the season, with some teams attempting to
complete the race on just three stops, while others used various
four-stop strategies. Rahal Letterman Lanigan used a four-stop plan
to perfection, with Sato emerging in the lead on Lap 188. On
slightly fresher tires, Carpenter closed the gap to the leader
during the final 24-lap run to the checkers, but Sato held on for a
narrow, 0.0399-second victory.
For Sato, tonight's win is his second of the year, following a
road course victory at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama in April, and his fifth career IndyCar
Series win, which includes the 2017 Indianapolis 500.
The award for the most entertaining drive of the night, however,
went to rookie Santino Ferrucci, who
led a race-high 97 laps in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda and battled
former series champions Tony Kanaan
and Josef Newgarden for third in the
closing laps. His fourth-place finish equals his best previous
efforts this year from Pocono Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.
Championship contender Alexander
Rossi had a fast Honda throughout the race, but was one of
the drivers caught out by pit strategy and ill-timed caution flags,
relegating him to a disappointing 13th-place finish, one
lap down to the leaders.
Defending series champion Scott
Dixon's hopes of a repeat title also took a hit tonight when
debris penetrated his radiator on the opening lap. The
resulting coolant leak forced Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing team to
take the car behind the wall for extended repairs. He returned
to the track near the midpoint of the 248-lap race and finished
20th, ending a streak of four consecutive first or
second-place finishes.
Social media content and video links from this weekend's IndyCar
Series action from St. Louis are
available on the HPD Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and Twitter
(https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) channels. Produced by
the Carolinas Production Group, YouTube video packages can be found
at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
Next
The NTT IndyCar Series continues its stretch run
to the finish of the 2019 season and heads to the Pacific Northwest
for next weekend's penultimate race, and the September 1 Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International
Raceway.
Quotes
Takuma
Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Started
fifth, finished first, second IndyCar win of 2019, fifth career
victory: "For sure, we were a little lucky in terms of
strategy, but we were fast all night. It was tough, I lost
momentum [and multiple positions] twice tonight in traffic, but we
made it happen tonight. Big thank you to the Rahal Letterman
Lanigan team, it's an incredible team. I think our most
important run was the one before our [second-to-last] pit
stop. We were able to run at a very high pace throughout that
run, and that kept us on the lead lap when we made our [final]
stop. That was a very significant moment for us tonight."
Santino Ferrucci (Dale
Coyne Racing Honda) Started sixth, led 97 laps and finished
fourth, equaling his season-best finishes from Pocono Raceway and
Texas Motor Speedway: "We had a strong race car all
night. We were able to run out front all night and, quite
frankly, our race car was good enough to win this thing. At
the end, I was really trying to get 'TK' [Tony Kanaan, for third place], but I nearly lost
the car and got up in the 'marbles' and I did what I had to do to
save the car. It was tough having to save fuel at the end [to make
the finish], but all-in-all, I'm pretty happy to come home with
another top-five finish."
Steve Eriksen (Vice
President and COO, Honda Performance Development) on tonight's
race, Honda's seventh IndyCar Series race win of 2019: "It was
great redemption for Takuma [Sato]
following the challenges of last week, and a thrilling drive by
Santino which kept us all on the edge of our seats. It's great
to add an oval track victory to our total for the season.
Congratulations to our partner teams, and all the HPD associates
who worked so hard to get us back to Victory Lane."
NTT IndyCar Series
Bommarito Automotive Group 500
|
Circuit:
|
World Wide Technology
Raceway (1.25-mile oval) Madison, IL
|
2018
Winner:
|
Will Power (Team
Penske)155.644 mph average
|
Weather:
|
Clear, mild, 74
degrees F
|
Top-10 Race
Results:
|
Fn.
|
St.
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Manufacturer
|
Laps
|
Notes
|
1.
|
5.
|
Takuma
Sato
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
248
|
136.874 mph
average
|
2.
|
27.
|
Ed
Carpenter
|
Ed Carpenter
Racing
|
Chevrolet
|
248
|
+0.0399
seconds
|
3.
|
20.
|
Tony
Kanaan
|
A.J. Foyt
Racing
|
Chevrolet
|
248
|
|
4.
|
6.
|
Santino
Ferrucci-R
|
Dale Coyne
Racing
|
Honda
|
248
|
|
5.
|
4.
|
Simon
Pagenaud
|
Team
Penske
|
Chevrolet
|
248
|
|
6.
|
18.
|
Conor Daly
|
Carlin
Racing
|
Chevrolet
|
248
|
|
7.
|
1.
|
Josef
Newgarden
|
Team
Penske
|
Chevrolet
|
248
|
|
8.
|
9.
|
Ryan
Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
248
|
|
9.
|
12.
|
Colton
Herta-R
|
Harding
Steinbrenner
|
Honda
|
248
|
|
10.
|
22.
|
Marco
Andretti
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
248
|
|
Other Honda
Results
|
11.
|
10.
|
Felix
Rosenqvist-R
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
248
|
Running
|
12.
|
7.
|
James
Hinchcliffe
|
Arrow Schmidt
Peterson
|
Honda
|
247
|
Running
|
13.
|
11.
|
Alexander
Rossi
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
247
|
Running
|
14.
|
15.
|
Zach
Veach
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
247
|
Running
|
16.
|
14.
|
Marcus
Ericsson-R
|
Arrow Schmidt
Peterson
|
Honda
|
247
|
Running
|
18.
|
16.
|
Graham
Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
226
|
Did not finish –
mechanical
|
19.
|
2.
|
Sebastien
Bourdais
|
DCR with
Vasser-Sullivan
|
Honda
|
189
|
Did not finish –
crash
|
20.
|
8.
|
Scott
Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
136
|
Did not finish –
mechanical
|
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SOURCE Honda Racing/HPD