Pagenaud claims first oval win at Phoenix

The 63rd IndyCar race on the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval went to Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud and Chevy after the Frenchman used the timing of a crash by Takuma Sato and the ensuing pit strategy to perfection. The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion, who came into the race with nine wins on road and street courses, earned his 10th by capturing what he wanted most – an oval victory.

"Those were the longest 50 laps of my life," said the Frenchman, who streaked to an easy 9.1-second win ahead of teammate Will Power as Penske cars led all 250 laps. "It was an incredible day. It's been fun. This is just incredible. This is my best win. It's so strategic to win on an oval. Today was a perfect day; I couldn't be any happier. It's a long time coming."

Power was chased home by Ed Carpenter Racing’s JR Hildebrand and teammate Helio Castroneves as Chevy swept the first four positions.

"Good solid day,” said Power who leapt from 14th to seventh in points, but spent far too many laps stuck behind lapped cars (below) as Pagenaud drove away. "I don’t understand why they blue flag the leader (to have lapped cars move over) but not second place. It ruined the race. It turned into a boring race."

"The car was just so good," said Hildebrand, who overcame the limitations of racing with a broken left hand to trail Power by just 0.2389s at the checkered flag. "We were really close on the track and were able to get Helio and Josef there. I felt like we had something for Will at the end but just couldn’t get the timing right. Happy to break up the Penske sandwich."

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan were the first Honda runners in fifth and sixth, albeit one lap down to the Chevys. ECR team owner Ed Carpenter, who started 21st after losing most of Friday to mechanical issues, capitalized on the numerous crashes and restarts to claim and improbable seventh.

Power’s indictment of the race was anything but sour grapes. Despite multiple drivers warning IndyCar that its high-downforce Phoenix aero specification would create a boring event, the series went ahead with the aero package and delivered an immensely forgettable race with very little passing.

Compelled to apologize for the snoozefest, Kanaan climbed from his car and shared his thoughts: "In my opinion we need to improve the product for the fans," he said. "I think the fans deserve a little bit better than what it was."

The green flag waved over the field of 21 cars and was rapidly replaced by yellow as former IndyCar points leader Sebastien Bourdais, Max Chilton, Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti failed to complete the first lap when Mikhail Aleshin spun on his own at the apex of Turn 1 and 2 and collected the Frenchman, which set off a messy chain reaction. The hard hits by Aleshin and Bourdais, spin and contact with Chilton, and the multiple hits suffered by Andretti and Rahal left IndyCar with 16 entries left to take the restart on Lap 22.

"Unfortunately when I turned into Turn 1 I felt the rear of the car go," said Aleshin, who was uninjured, along with the other four drivers. "It was just snap oversteer. I couldn't do anything at the moment. It was my mistake. I am sorry for all the guys who hit me as well, but that's racing."

With most of the drivers unable to pass, the first chance to shuffle the running order came when polesitter Castroneves surrendered the lead to pit on Lap 74. Teammate Power then used staggering in and out laps to leapfrog from fourth to first when he stopped on Lap 75. With the first batch of stops completed, Chevy held a 1-2-3-4-5 with Penske's Castroneves, Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and ECR's Hildebrand chasing Power.

Other than a brief bit of playfulness between Hildebrand and Hinchliffe in sixth as the race approached the 100-lap mark, the race sped toward the halfway point with the leaders running in formation. Conor Daly's terrible season continued when he pitted as his AJ Foyt Racing Chevy developed gear shifting problems. Starting 20th, Daly worked his way inside the top 10 before the cartoon anvil fell on his No. 41 entry.

Finally, with the midway point of the 250-lap contest having arrived, Hildebrand was able to move forward and take fourth from Newgarden, who was dealing with a semi-broken left-front wing end plate. Alexander Rossi pitted on Lap 132, returned to the track, slid high in Turn 4 and glanced off the wall; the 2016 Indy 500 winner would lose multiple laps while repairs were made before eventually parking his car. Andretti teammate Takuma Sato would copy Rossi's move when he pitted on Lap 135, then slid into the same Turn 4 wall on cold tires and did enough damage to retire on the spot.

The timing of Sato's crash and ensuing yellow flag meant Pagenaud, who stayed on track and led while some of his teammates and other drivers had either pitted or were diving onto pit lane, was given the wave around and gained a lap on the field. In most circumstances, the driver who stays out during a yellow is disadvantaged, but with the wave around, Pagenaud was able to pit under yellow and return to the track on the lead lap.

He also happened to come out in front of a group of newly-lapped Honda drivers like Dixon, Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe, whose fortunes plummeted due to the timing of the caution. With his Penske teammates plus Hildebrand stuck behind the Hondas when the race returned to green on Lap 149, Pagenaud sailed away. His lead extended out to 8.8 seconds by Lap 170 as Power and the gang sat stuck in traffic.

Although the final round of stops were unremarkable, a touch of drama was on the horizon when Newgarden tapped a slowing Ryan Hunter-Reay entering Turn 3 with just after Lap 230. The Penske driver damaged his right-front wing end plate while ripping away a portion of Hunter-Reay's left-rear wheel pod, but the real casualty was third-place Castroneves, who was slowed by the interaction and watched as Hildebrand, with a full head of momentum, motored by and took the final podium position.

Struggling for front downforce, Newgarden pitted for a new nose and fell out of contention. RHR, who slid up into the wall and was trying to regain speed when Newgarden happened upon his car, pitted and retired after right-rear suspension damage was found. Other than Carpenter's late improvement from 10th to seventh, the dozen or so cars left running wrapped up the closing laps in order.

Chevy dominated qualifying by capturing the top five starting positions and carried that clear advantage through the end of the race as the Honda runners were plagued by a lack of speed and poor fuel mileage. The manufacturers are now even at two wins apiece, Chevy has surged on two consecutive tracks where its aero kit has Honda covered in high-speed corners, and now it's off to the Grand Prix of Indy and Indy 500 where the Bowtie could take another on the road course and Honda should rise on the superspeedway.

If nothing else, the month of May should compensate for everything Phoenix was missing.