Smart strategy helped Simon Pagenaud to back-to-back wins at Sonoma on Sunday, but even his victory was not enough to stop Penske teammate Josef Newgarden from securing the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series drivers’ championship.
Pagenaud, who started from third, lost a place to Helio Castroneves on the opening lap, and then showed his hand when he pitted on lap 12 – half a dozen laps earlier than expected – for his first scheduled stop. Stickered blacks made way for scuffed reds, and he set off into the pack to see whether he could make a four-stopper work.
Meanwhile, Josef Newgarden had led the field away from pole and was looking completely comfortable up front, quickly opening up a gap on the pursuing Will Power. His strategy and Pagenaud’s finally converged during the last sequence of stops.
Newgarden’s final service came on lap 62, his crew sending him back out to complete the race with a set of new blacks. His stop handed Pagenaud the lead heading into his own stop, which came two laps later. And when he rejoined, he looked in his mirrors – and saw Newgarden. The mission to use strategy to leapfrog his way into the lead had paid off, but Newgarden could still afford to finish second without costing himself the championship.
You wouldn’t have known it from Newgarden’s aggression over those first couple of laps of the final stint, though. He almost tagged Pagenaud’s rear at the top of the hill while the Frenchman was trying to get his tires up to temperature, and made a robust passing attempt at the hairpin, which Pagenaud deflected. Another lunge at the last chicane was also rebuffed, and after a few nervous words over the radio from Tim Cindric, Newgarden settled into a more measured pursuit. Pagenaud eventually crossed the finish line 1.0s clear.
“So cool,” said Newgarden as he stepped out of the car. “I’m so proud of these guys. I don’t even know what to say. It took a lot to make this happen. Thank you to my teammates; they gave me a lot of help to make sure we got this done.
“It was hard [at the end]; I was using my natural instinct, trying to get Pagenaud because that’s what I naturally do – try to win.”
Pagenaud was gracious in passing the No. 1 plate on to his stablemate.
“I’m exhausted,” he said. “That was as hard as I could drive for 85 laps non-stop. I can barely lift my arms. I want to congratulate Josef and Team Penske – this season showed how strong everybody is at Penske. We did what we had to do – we won the race, and it wasn’t quite enough.
“The tires came up to temp pretty quick, and I knew Josef wasn’t going to take any risks. It was a bit difficult with the backmarkers, but overall, what a beautiful day. We came up short this year, but we defended really well. I’m proud of my guys and we carried the number one well. But I’m really happy for Josef and I think he’s going to be a great champion.”
Will Power, who was the lowest-placed among the Penske drivers going into the weekend, was tasked with shadowing Newgarden and acting as a shield against any potential threat from Scott Dixon. That threat never eventuated, and he dutifully crossed the line in third after having spent the entire afternoon within a couple of seconds of the No. 2.
“I was just keeping a buffer between Josef and Dixon, that was our plan all day,” Power said. “We were just going to do what Josef did and hang behind him all day unless something happened. It was kind of a boring day, but it was the job that we needed to do.”
The other two main title contenders never featured right up at the front and instead spent a good part of the afternoon hovering around each other, with Dixon eventually finishing fourth (and third in the standings) ahead of Castroneves.
“Last year I tried the four stops and it didn’t work,” Castroneves said. “We had four fast cars and knew we had to try something different. [Pagenaud] tried that [strategy], and good for him, he won the race. And congratulations to Josef, great job.”
Graham Rahal was sixth ahead of Marco Andretti, with Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais and Conor Daly rounding out the top 10.
Remarkably, the entire race was completed without a caution. The closest it ever came to disaster was on the opening lap, when Tony Kanaan slowed on the back straight with a puncture and caused a concertina that ended with himself, Jack Harvey and Zachary Claman DeMelo sustaining damage, although all were able to continue.
James Hinchcliffe’s day was derailed when he was helped into a spin by contact with Spencer Pigot. He was eventually able to rejoin, only to have an electrical problem pop up to end his weekend.
Alexander Rossi was sidelined by what appeared to be an engine issue, while Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato lost considerable time to a right-rear puncture early in the race, and then ended up beached in the gravel early in the final stint.
