Reigning IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud claimed his first ever oval win at Phoenix, taking advantage of a yellow during a pitstop phase to lead home a Penske 1-2-4.
In a race dominated by the Penske quartet, the second round of stops just after half-distance started under green but then a full course yellow came out due to a crash by Takuma Sato.
Of the leaders only Pagenaud had not yet pitted at that point, which meant he had a temporary one-lap lead over those who had stopped.
He was able to pit under caution and lead for the restart, with a cushion of lapped cars between himself and his nearest challengers after they had been waved ahead to join Pagenaud on the lead lap.
Pagenaud was therefore able to make a break from his chasing Penske team-mates and quickly was several seconds clear of Will Power in second place. The result also means that Pagenaud now leads the points standings.
He was followed home by Power, whose podium ended a frustrating start to the season in which he was yet to finish above 13th.
Power only just held off Ed Carpenter Racing’s JR Hildebrand in third.
Hildebrand, back in action after missing last weekend’s Barber Motorsports Park race with a hand injury, was the only other driver to run with the Penskes at the front.
Helio Castroneves finished fourth, and was the last car on the lead lap.
Poleman Castroneves led the opening stint, then Power vaulted to the lead at the first round of stops, all under green, thanks to better in and out laps than those ahead. But he lost the lead to Pagenaud at the second round of stops.
The fourth Penske Dallara-Chevrolet of Josef Newgarden fell from contention late on after making contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay when lapping him, and then tagging the wall.
Newgarden’s subsequent stop to replace his front wing lost him two laps. He finished ninth.
Ganassi’s Scott Dixon was the first Honda runner home, a lap down in fifth, ahead of his team-mate Tony Kanaan in sixth.
Ed Carpenter finished seventh and Charlie Kimball eighth. Carlos Munoz completed the top 10 for AJ Foyt Enterprises.
The points leader heading into the race Sebastien Bourdais made it only as far as the first corner, after being caught up in a multi-car smash initiated by a spin by Mikhail Aleshin.
The incident also removed Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti and Max Chilton as well as Aleshin.
