Round 14: ABC Supply 500 at Pocono, Long Pond, PA. August 19-20.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 14: ABC Supply 500 at Pocono, Long Pond, PA. August 19-20.

After a three week break, since Mid-Ohio, the season resumes this weekend at Pocono.

Pocono Raceway, or the Tricky Triangle as it has become 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.


In qualifying for last year's race, Mikhail Aleshin became the first Russian driver to take pole in an IndyCar race, as well as in a major open wheel series.

The race was postponed from its original date Sunday due to rain and was held on Monday. The start was waived off, as Aleshin appeared to go too early but the second attempt was clean, with Aleshin taking the lead. However, Newgarden passed him entering turn three and took the lead. As the field went through turn three, to complete the first lap, Sato lost control of his car and hit the perimeter wall, bringing out the first caution of the race.

The race restarted on lap 9, with Newgarden still leading but Aleshin overtook Newgarden on lap 11, keeping the lead through the first round of scheduled pitstops. Meanwhile, Hunter-Reay had moved up to second and on lap 49 passed Aleshin to take the lead. However, Aleshin took back the
lead on lap 54.

The second caution came on lap 64, during the second round of scheduled pitstops. Rossi's car was released from his pit box, into Kimball's path, launching Rossi's car into the air and coming down on the nose and part of the cockpit of Castroneves's car, which had just been released after his pit stop. Rossi and Castroneves were forced to retire. Kimball was able to continue but a lap down.

Racing resumed on lap 71, with Aleshin maintaining the lead but on lap 90, Hunter-Reay who was still second, passed Aleshin again, though Aleshin retook the lead after the third round of scheduled stops. By the end of lap 134, as the fourth round of scheduled stops came and went, Power who had slowly made his way through the field, after starting 8th, emerged fourth. Aleshin, Hunter-Reay and Newgarden remained in the top three places, until Aleshin's car developed a handling issue giving Hunter-Reay the lead once more. Aleshin continued to drop back and by lap 142 had lost places to both Newgarden and Power. Within a few laps, Power had passed Newgarden and after a quick stop during the fifth round of scheduled pitstops, took the lead.

Two laps later, Pagenaud drifted wide at turn one hitting the outside wall, bringing out the third caution. The race restarted on lap 163 and Hunter-Reay passed Power to take back the lead. However, going into turn two, Hunter-Reay suddenly lost power forcing him to pit. Though the car was restarted, he had fallen off the lead lap. This now gave Power the lead, ahead of Newgarden and Aleshin, who had rectified the car's handling issue and had moved up the field to third.

The fourth and final caution came on lap 176, as a rear-wing winglet fell off Kanaan's car on to the track at turn one, which prompted the final round of pit stops under yellow; Power kept the lead and Hunter-Reay got back onto the lead lap. The restart came on lap 180 and by lap 183, Hunter-Reay was now 9th and Aleshin had re-passed Newgarden. With less than 10 laps left, Aleshin closed on Power to less than half a second. However, Power pulled ahead to just over a second to win while Hunter-Reay managed to take the final step on the podium.


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: July 5th, 2014, Juan Pablo Montoya. 40.1929, 223.871 mph (360.285 km/h). Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet, Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's winner:
Will Power,
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Laps: 200
Distance: 500 Miles (804.672 km)
Race Time: 2:46:29
Average Speed: 180.198 mph (290.000 km/h)

Cautions
4, laps 20

TV Coverage:
NBCSN, 2:00pm ET.

[fieldodreams79]

Love Pocono. Good stuff as always, BJS!

Interesting to see all the Penske wins, but AJF still has the most!

I'll likely have to catch this one next week...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying

Sato is on pole, with a first lap speed of 220.045 mph, (354.128 km/h) in qualifying, that saw both Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay, crash heavily at Turns 1 and 3, respectively. Both drivers were taken to the medical centre. Castronevres was immediately cleared. However Hunter-Reay was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in near by Allentown, Pennsylvania, after the incident for further evaluation. He was checked and released but not cleared to drive at that time, pending the follow-up evaluation by Dr. Billows today. He has subsequently been cleared to race,

1 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 219.639
2 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 219.395
3 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 219.369
4 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 219.012
5 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 218.688
6 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 218.622
7 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 218.099
8 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 218.020
9 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.819
10 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.748
11 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.565
12 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 217.556
13 Esteban Gutierrez, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.292
14 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 217.235
15 Sebastian Saavedra, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 216.943
16 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 216.801
17 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 215.964
18 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 215.115
19 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 214.988
20 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.000
21 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 0.000
22 Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.000

[BudLightJaguar]

Ryan Hunter-Ray's racing today. Good luck, don't take too much risks there.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A clean but a messy start. I swear they were at least 8 wide. Kanaan takes the lead.

[bjohnsonsmith]

The first FCY, as Gutierrez brushes the wall and loses a bit of his rear wing.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was an amazing save by Hinchcliffe.

[bjohnsonsmith]

2nd FCY as drivers pit. Saveedra got high and went into the wall. Newgarden takes the lead.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Back to Green flag racing and Kanaan initially takes the lead but is overtaken by Rahal.

[bjohnsonsmith]

3rd FCY as Hinchliffe and Hildebrand have a major moment.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Back to Green flag racing and there's lead swapping between Kanaan and Rahal.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Will Power on back to back wins at Pocono. What a clever move, going low. Newgarden just didn't have an answer. To come back and win after that lengthy pitstop was no mean feat.

If I were a betting man, I would have said either Andretti Autosport and Honda or Ganassi and Honda, had that in the bag but Penske and Chevrolet proved otherwise.

[Nikki Katz]

Power must have made up a load of time with a clear track, I thought he was a lap down when he came out of the pits in the lead.

Why are both of the ganassis now painted the same as Andretti? It's really confusing.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result

1 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 2h43m16.6005s
2 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 0.5268s
3 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 200. 0.7112s
4 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 0.8770s
5 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 200, 2.9056s
6 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 200. 3.3544s
7 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200, 3.7273s
8 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 200. 4.0833s
9 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 200. 4.6884s
10 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 6.9330s
11 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 200. 9.4607s
12 Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 10.4503s
13 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 200. 11.2388s
14 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 19.8050s
15 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 200. 20.6790s
16 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 200. 24.4523s
17 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 200. 25.0689s
18 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 129. Mechanical
19 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 124. Contact
20 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 124. Contact
21 Sebastian Saavedra, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 114. Contact
22 Esteban Gutierrez, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 23. Contact

[D.R.T.]

Great race and looked a solid turnout in the grandstands

[Lanky Turtle]

Another exciting race for Indycar at Pocono. The current cars race really well there so let's hope that continues for next year. Congratulations to Will Power on another fine performance, holding off Newgarden at the end after going a lap down early and having to replace both the front and rear sections of the car on different pitstops during the race.

[NaBUru38]

Great race, I really enjoyed it.

I talked with my father for a while, so I got confused when I saw Power pitting out of sequence and then leading by 4 seconds.

[fieldodreams79]

Good stuff and there was indeed a noticeably larger crowd there than year's past.

Once Power started to make the defensive move down the short shoot in the final laps, I was a little surprised that Josef didn't react sooner to it than the final lap. Not sure if it caught him completely off guard or what (didn't listen to post race interviews)...good points race for him and a great points last few races, so maybe he wasn't really wanting to risk too much?

Love this track and don't understand why it gets so much hate from both "top" series fans in the states.