Car 77 Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda who started in 3rd place, won the Verizon IndyCar Series Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Race 2. It’s his 2nd win of 2014 and 4th career win.
In 2nd Place was Pagenaud’s Schmidt Peterson teammate Car 7 Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda who started in 2nd place, crashed out the day before with Takuma Sato.
3rd Place Car 98 Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda started in 23rd place followed by 4th place Car 83 Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy started in 19th place.
In 5th Place Car 11 Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy started in 5th place, followed by 6th place Car 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, who started in 21st place.
7th Place Car 2 Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy started in 14th place followed by 8th place holder Car 8 Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy who started in 15th place.
9th place Car 25 Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda started in 16th place and last in the Top 10 was Car 10 Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy 10th place who started in 8th place.
The amazing thing about this race is all the cars that had damage from the race the day before were fixed and back on track for this race. Some teams had to work through out the night to get the job done.
This weekend was also great for Rookies finishing on the podium and one wining Race 1. Race 2 was different with weather instead of rain it was dry & hot but it still had lots of action. I think they might want to change the name to crash-fest as this is where Dario Franchitti had his career ending crash last year & lots of crashes this year. Both Verizon P1 Award winners did not finish the race on a very tough race course, but both races were exciting to watch.
The race had 5 Cautions for 21 laps and only 3 Lead Changes among 2 drivers. 1st Caution on lap 42 for Contact: Car 34 Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda on the Frontstretch, 2nd Caution on lap 49 for Contact: Verizon P1 Award winner Car 3 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy & Car 11 Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy in Turn 6, 3rd Caution on lap 64 for Stall Car 67 Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda in Turn 6, 4th Caution on lap 67 for Contact: Car 19 Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda in Turn 9, 5th Caution on lap 76 for Contact: Car 14 Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda in Turn 8. Lead Changes: Castroneves 1 – 30, Pagenaud 31, Castroneves 32 –48 & Pagenaud 49 – 90
Post race coments:
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Racing Honda): “Helio (Castroneves) was super fast on the red tires. The hit was really strong straight away so that’s something I had to deal with straight away after Lap 12 to be honest. But I knew we had a fast car. I knew we would be okay. I had such fantastic traction and comfort in the car that I knew on blacks it would be all right and when we put the blacks on I could see Helio struggling and took my chance in Turn 4 with a really good pass, a good criss-cross opportunity and all was clean with Helio. I don’t know what happened to him. Disappointed we couldn’t run a fight to the end.”
[On the Occulus Car] “What a beauty! First of all, I love the orange like this. The car looks really cool and in addition to that the package is incredible. It’s the classiest of the field this weekend, which is why I was so disappointed yesterday. But we kept it nice today and as a race driver when you have car like this my job is to win and I did my job today.”
MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda): “I can’t really explain my feeling. I just have so much emotion in this moment. We had a great qualifying today and a great car during all of the race and then I had a contact with Graham (Rahal) after his pit stop and then at this moment, I thought that that’s it. But then I had a good strategy and as I said I had the same pace as the leaders so I could catch up and I would overtake some of them and because of the changes, we were up there. And then can you imagine? In the end I had a flat tire. I had a flat tire on my car in the last few laps so I was really lucky to finish actually. Really lucky. I’m very happy and the team did an amazing job. Just can’t even say. I don’t even have any English words to thank the team for that because they did an amazing job.”
JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 98 Integrity Energee Drink Honda): “Just a fantastic day really. We’ve been starting up front so many times this year and it’s not happened on Race Day. Today, we had a terrible qualifying and we end up on the podium. The guys did a great job on pit wall. We were quick at the right time. We were able to pass cars at the right time and I’m so delighted and so proud of Bryan Herta Autosport. They really deserve this. It’s been rough this year. We’ve been so fast on occasions and it’s just not quite happened. We haven’t been able to put it together and today we were able to do it.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Mistic KVSH Racing Chevrolet): “It was an interesting day. We took a bit of a gamble starting on the black (primary) tires. We didn’t think we would be the only ones, but as it turned out there were only two of us who did and it kind of worked out. We managed to hang on during the first stint and were really strong once we switched to the red (alternate) tires. We started to run down the leaders and then there was the first yellow. On the restart I was strong and the other guys were struggling. I passed (Will) Power and went for Helio (Castroneves). He was on the inside and I went to the outside, the right side. I put my nose next to him and I guess he never saw me coming. He changed lanes and we made pretty heavy contact. That busted my front wing pretty good. After that it was a tough fight. I had to be really creative to compensate for the balance of the car. I played with the brake balance and I was having trouble stopping the car and lost a lot of positions. Then there was another yellow and another yellow and another yellow. We hung in there and at the end of the race I was able to make a couple of moves and in the end we had another top-five finish. We just have to keep on working and hopefully we can win one for the Mistic and Hydroxycut guys.”
TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): “A frustrating, difficult day for us. We made a good start and went side-by-side with Munoz through the chicane, he forced me wide through the shortcut. I didn’t gain an advantage, and didn’t overtake him until turn 5. So I thought there shouldn’t be a penalty. After that I overtook a couple cars on the track and gained some good positions. IndyCar saw it differently and told me to get behind Munoz who was three cars back. We lost a lot because of that but we kept going. We still got back to the top 10. Then on a restart, Marco tried to dive inside me in turn 4 and punted me and I was forced wide and picked up the marbles and I lost many positions. We pitted because the car didn’t feel right and we thought it was another flat tire so we pitted. I kept fighting back and we got back into the top 10 but unfortunately I clipped a curb too high and the car bounced badly and hit the wall. After a long tough day it’s a shame we couldn’t achieve a good result. The car was good so hopefully we can have a good race in Pocono.”
CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “Well I feel really good for yesterday and today is disappointing, but it is impossible to finish every race without having at least one problem. Hopefully we don’t have any more. It was strange because the car just shut off completely. It must have been an electrical failure or something but we don’t know right now. All in all, I am proud of our accomplishments this weekend.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Levemir FlexTouch Chevrolet): “The No. 83 Levemir FlexTouch Chevrolet was quick – I kind of like it in the Levemir FlexTouch green. The Novo Nordisk guys did an awesome job in pit lane and the Chevy guys have been working really hard all weekend to give us an engine that’s drivable and gets good mileage. Overall I’m really happy with a top-five finish and we just drove the wheels off of it when we could.”
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “I had a great car today; passed a lot of cars. We had a great first pit sequence with the Verizon Chevy. We were in position for a good day, considering where we qualified. We were going to maximize our points and we had a parts malfunction with two laps to go. It’s the same part that malfunctioned on two other cars at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. I feel bad for all the sponsors. We fought really hard all day with nothing to show for it. We have a nice lead in the points but we need to get back on track a little bit at Pocono.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “That was a fun day. The No. 2 Verizon Chevy was really good. It was good on both the ‘red’ tires and ‘black’ tires. We were in position there at the end. The racing was really hard right there. That was a good learning experience for me and I’ll know how hard I can race the next time I’m in that situation. Very good points day for us. Now we go to Pocono where I have a lot of experience.”
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): “We clearly can’t drive when half of the race is run under yellow. I’m embarrassed almost to have been in that race with the amount of cautions there were. We had an engine problem and were running in the back… but I just can’t believe how many cautions there were in the end. It was good for us. All those accidents were moving us up, because obviously we can’t make any progress with a damaged car. But, I’m just gutted. It’s such a long day out there when you’re not really in the race. I think the United Fiber & Data car was competitive up until we had the problem. We’ll just move on to the next one.’
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda): “The Snapple car was good today. We showed we were a contender for the win, but things didn’t end in our favor. I need to get better at getting up to speed on cold tires – which is usually my strong point, so we need to figure that out. We got caught up with other cars at the end and were forced from fifth to 11th and just couldn’t get back up to the front before the checkered.”
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM Honda): “It’s a really disappointing day after the great race we had yesterday. Today I was just pushing hard, trying hard. I was in a good position, for sure. I was fifth at that point (making contact), but this is racing. It was my mistake. I just lost the car, and now I’ll focus on next week for Pocono.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Strike/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): “Just a tough day. Nothing seemed to really go our way except for the first part of that race. I think we were doing a good job on strategy. We had great calls and good pit stops. The guys were solid on everything in the first part of the race. But just all day long if you look at the little things, we got bit by silly stuff. There was an incident in qualifying that I didn’t agree with that sent us to the back. We tried a bit of an aggressive strategy but then we had a failure in the pits (wheel gun failure) so it’s just a shame to not be able to put anything together while having good pace.”
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda):”We fought issues with the drive train all day, so to be able to salvage points and bring home a sixth-place finish was big for us. At this point in the season every point counts and we want to do everything we can to close in on the championship.”
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “It was a frustrating end to my day. I think we were the first guys to pit, no, Aleshin came in two laps before us so on our lap we were the first ones. I thought we were good and I thought it was going to work out. We struggled a bit on restarts so guys were all over the back of me. I knew that if I could hang on for a couple of laps I would get going and be quick again. Marco tried to come down the inside and it wasn’t really going to happen. He tried to get out of it and he just tapped me into the wall. He came down and apologized and said ‘I didn’t mean to do that.’ It is just racing. I know it was just a mistake and it is a shame but we kept going on when we were a lap down and we were trying to salvage any points we can.”
Verizon INDYCAR Series Shell and Pennzoil GP of Houston
HOUSTON – Results Sunday of the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 1.634-mile MD Anderson Cancer Center Speedway at NRG Park.
Position, Satrting Position in parentheses, Car #, Driver, Chassis-engine, Laps, Status
1. (3) Car 77 Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running
2. (2) Car 7 Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running
3. (23) Car 98 Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running
4. (19) Car 83 Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
5. (5) Car 11 Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
6. (21) Car 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running
7. (14) Car 2 Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
8. (15) Car 8 Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
9. (16) Car 25 Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 90, Running
10. (8) Car 10 Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
11. (18) Car 12 Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 90, Running
12. (6) Car 19 Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 89, Running
13. (17) Car 20 Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, 89, Running
14. (7) Car 27 James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 89, Running
15. (12) Car 16 Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 88, Running
16. (4) Car 15 Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 87, Running
17. (20) Car 17 Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 84, Running
18. (11) Car 9 Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 78, Running
19. (10) Car 14 Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 74, Contact
20. (22) Car 67 Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 61, Mechanical
21. (1) Car 3 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 48, Contact
22. (9) Car 34 Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 40, Contact
23. (13) Car 18 Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 2, Off Course
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 78.981 Time of Race: 01:51:43.0625
Margin of victory: 7.2622
Cautions: 5 for 21 laps
No Duration Total Reason for Caution
1 42 to 46 5 Contact: Car 34 on Frontstretch
2 49 to 53 5 Contact: Cars 3 & 11 in Turn 6
3 64 to 65 2 Stall: Car 67 in Turn 6
4 68 to 71 4 Contact: Car 19 in Turn 9
5 76 to 80 5 Contact: Car 14 in Turn 8
Lead changes: 3 among 2 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Castroneves 1 – 30
Pagenaud 31
Castroneves 32 -48
Pagenaud 49 – 90
Penalties:
Car Reason Lap Penalt
0 No Penalties
Verizon P1 Award: Helio Castroneves with a time 59.1707 seconds & speed of 99.415 mph
Point Standings: Power 405, Castroneves 366, Hunter-Reay 364, Pagenaud 346, Montoya 289, Andretti 281, Munoz 270, Bourdais 242, Dixon 237, Hinchcliffe 229.
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES HITS HALFWAY POINT OF 2014 SEASON
Entering the 18-race 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season, drivers and team personnel predicted that the competition at each of the 15 venues would be exceptionally competitive.
The field’s depth of talent and experience, combined with knowledge gained about the fourth-generation Verizon IndyCar Series chassis set in motion a season featuring close racing and unexpected results. Such as:
• Seven different winners representing five teams in the 10 races.
• Seven different Verizon P1 Award winners.
• Seven different teams represented in the top 10 of the standings.
• No pole sitter having won a race. In fact, the highest starting position for a race winner is third, and four drivers have won after starting 17th or lower.
• No driver has led laps in all 10 races and no driver has completed every lap.
• All four full-season Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates have recorded a podium finish.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher to win any INDYCAR race just because of how balanced the teams are and the driving talent in the series is arguably the toughest it’s ever been,” said Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has claimed two victories for Andretti Autosport. “There are no real weak spots. Everybody can challenge for a win on a road course or oval.”
With eight races in the next eight weeks remaining, including a pair of double points events and a doubleheader race weekend in which each race pays full points, championship contenders will surge and wane.
For the ninth consecutive year, the season finale — the 500-miler MAVTV Indy 500 on Aug. 30 at Auto Club Speedway – will determine who will hoist the Astor Cup.
Championship front-runner Will Power carries a 39-point advantage over Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves into the 200-lap Pocono INDYCAR 500 fueled by Sunoco on July 6, which offers double points. Hunter-Reay closed to two points of Castroneves with seventh- and sixth-place finishes at Houston last weekend, while Houston 2 winner Simon Pagenaud is 59 points out of the lead.
Next Race: Pocono Raceway July 6 500-mile race