The NTT IndyCar Series was back at it in Road America for race two of the Rev Group Grand Prix. In race one, Scott Dixon took the victory to win his third straight race of the season. Qualifying took place in the morning, and Pato O’Ward took the pole position, and next to him was Colton Herta. After the introductions and the national anthem, it was time to go racing.
Just like the race yesterday, chaos started right away, entering turn one a couple of separate crashes occurred. First, Ryan Hunter-Reay got hit from behind by Will Power and went flying into the gravel trap in turn one. At the same time in turn one, Santino Ferrucci hit Jack Harvey and Harvey spun, Connor Daily was also involved, bringing out the first caution of the day.
In a separate crash, Will Power and Graham Rahal made contact, then Rahal made contact with Felix Rosenqvist, sending Rahal off into the grass and hitting the edge of the concrete wall ending his day.
Both Will Power and Santino Ferrucci were issued penalties for their incidents. Troubles continued for Power as on the fifth lap as he went off into the grass in turn 14 and took out the Rev Group signs to bring out the second caution of the race.
The race got back underway at lap 7 with Pato O’Ward still in the lead. Scheduled green flag pit stops began on the eleventh lap as Josef Newgarden was the first one to pit road. Scott Dixon made his scheduled stop on lap 12; however, the right rear tire was not tight, costing him time on pit road. Pato O’Ward made his stop at lap 15, handing the lead to Felix Rosenqvist. Rosenqvist led a couple of laps before making his scheduled pit stop, and the new leader was Will Power.
Power would lose the lead to O’Ward on the 20th lap and came in for his third pit stop of the afternoon. O’Ward had a comfortable lead ahead of Rosenqvist by seven seconds. Rosenqvist was cutting O’Ward’s lead down to just four seconds when O’Ward came in for his second pit stop of the day as Rosenqvist took over the lead on lap 28.
Rosenqvist would lead a couple more laps before making his second scheduled pit stop, and the lead went back to Pato O’Ward. O’Ward had an eight-second lead on Rosenqvist. Rosenqvist began cutting O’Ward’s lead each lap that passed. O’Ward’s lead was just down to three seconds as he made his final pit stop of the day. Rosenqvist, for the third time, would lead a couple of laps before making his final pit stop on lap 43, and O’Ward resumed the lead.
O’Ward had a six-second lead after Rosenqvist made his pit stop, and the race was on. O’Ward’s lead was shrinking each lap. A lap-down car was hurting O’Ward, and the lead had shrunk down to just one second. With two laps to go, Rosenqvist passed O’Ward for the lead at turn eight.
Once Rosenqvist got the lead, he was gone and would give Chip Ganassi Racing his fourth win of the season, winning the second race of the Rev Group Grand Prix by 2.8699 seconds over the second-place finisher Pato O’Ward. Rosenqvist had the fastest average time of 118.942 miles per hour. His fastest lap was the best lap that came at lap 13 at 134.823 mph.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Alexander Rossi third, Marcus Ericsson fourth, Colton Herta comes in fifth, Santino Ferrucci sixth, Alex Palou seventh, Takuma Sato eighth, Josef Newgarden ninth, and Charlie Kimball tenth. After the race, Scott Dixon was issued pit safety infraction, and his team will have a post-race fine. There were eight lead changes by three drivers, two cautions for four laps.
The points standings after the race have Scott Dixon leading with 173 points, Colton Herta in second with 119 points. Simon Pagenaud and Pato O’Ward are tied for third with 110 points, Josef Newgarden is fifth with 106 points, Marcus Ericsson sixth with 93 points, Will Power seventh at 92 points. Felix Rosenqvist and Graham Rahal are tied for eighth at 88 points, and Santino Ferrucci is tenth with 87 points.
The NTT IndyCar Series will now head to Newton, IA, for another doubleheader race starting Friday night with race one of the Iowa IndyCar 250s from Iowa Speedway at 8:30 pm on NBCSN.
