Simon Pagenaud extended his IndyCar championship lead with his third consecutive win for Team Penske in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
The Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park winner held a comfortable lead during the first half of the Indy road course race over fellow Dallara-Chevrolet driver Charlie Kimball and the Honda-powered James Hinchcliffe.
Pagenaud looked able to manage his advantage until a slow moving Sebastien Bourdais - who had already been in the wars when squeezed into the wall at the race start in Turn 1 by Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon – brought the yellow flags out just before half-distance.
Helio Castroneves, who had pitted under green flag conditions two laps previously, and Dale Coyne Racing’s Conor Daly then found themselves at the front after the rest of the field cycled into the pits under the caution.
On the restart Daly stormed past Castroneves into Turn 1 and threatened to claim a first IndyCar win when he created a 2.8s gap on the Penske man.
But it wasn’t to be for the Indianapolis home-hero, who was forced to take his final stop on lap 60 of 82, and found himself back into fourth after the rest of the field had pitted.
Pagenaud stayed out an extra lap over team-mate Castroneves, which was enough for the championship leader to reclaim the lead by more than 3s leaving the pits.
From there Pagenaud eased to the chequered flag with Castroneves and Schmidt Peterson’s Hinchcliffe rounding out the podium.
Fourth went to Graham Rahal, who managed to steal a strong points finish despite starting from the back after his car was deemed underweight in post-qualifying scrutineering, while Kimball came home fifth.
Daly held on to finish sixth to take his best finish of the season, ahead of Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Montoya had struggled in qualifying and a pit exit infringement early on in the race left him in damage-limitation mode.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose off-strategy decision paid off when he vaulted eight positions at the start and remained in the top 10 mix despite a poor qualifying, took ninth.
Will Power was unable to fulfil his Friday practice speed when he spun under pressure from Alexander Rossi into the Turn 7 left-hander at the end of the infield straight early on. The Penske driver was left disappointed with 19th.
