Open Wheel America

An interesting part of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is the Rookie of the Year award, given out the day after the race. This year’s group of “rookie” drivers is deep, accomplished, and very talented.

In 1952 the first Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award was given out. There has been at least one rookie starter in every race since then. A “rookie” is defined as a driver who has never qualified for the race and/or has never been credited with a start. The award doesn’t necessarily go to the highest finishing rookie.

There have been some interesting scenarios that have played out since the award began.

In 1984 Jacques Villeneuve qualified, then crashed in practice. He was forced to withdraw after he wasn’t able to be cleared to drive. He came back the next year, but crashed again before qualifications and was unable to participate. He was finally able to qualify and start the 1986 race, where he was considered a rookie. He was eligible, but did not win the award.

If you think that was bad, Bill Puterbaugh failed to qualify for the race six years in a row, before finally making it in the show in 1975. It must have been worth it though, as he won the award after his seventh place finish.

Another awkward situation presented itself when Affonso Giaffone qualified for the 1997 race. He actually wrecked on the pace lap (never took the green flag) and never turned a single lap. Had he ever returned to race in the 500 again, he would not be considered a rookie.

There have been several veteran/accomplished drivers that were labeled as rookies in their first race in Indy. Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet were both World Champions before they made their first starts. Graham Hill won the 1962 World Championship, and was a rookie in the 1966 race.

Juan Montoya won the 1999 CART Championship, and was a rookie in the 2000 race, where he won in his only start. Helio Castroneves spent three full seasons in CART before he too won the 500 as a “rookie” driver in the 2001 race.

Both Montoya and Castroneves are part of an exclusive club. Only ten drivers have won the Rookie of the Year award and the 500 mile race in the same year. Montoya and Castroneves are joined by Parnelli Jones, Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Mark Donohue, Rick Mears, Arie Luyendyk, Eddie Cheever, and Jacques Villeneuve.

Louis Meyer served as a relief driver in 1927, and then won the race in 1928. He was considered a rookie in that race, but there was no award given out at the time.

JR Hildebrand nearly joined that illustrious group last year, before his debacle in turn four. JR is the most recent driver to win the Rookie of the Year award. Art Cross won the first one, 60 years ago.

This year, nine talented drivers will compete for the Rookie of the Year award. Bryan Clauson, Wade Cunningham, James Jakes, Simon Pagenaud, Jean Alesi, Katherine Legge, Michel Jourdain, Josef Newgarden, and Rubens Barrichello give us an impressive group of first timers.

The oldest and youngest drivers in the field will also be two rookies (Newgarden, 21 and Alesi, 47).

Today the Rookie Orientation takes place at IMS, the start of a long and busy month. All of the rookies and Sebastien Bourdais, who will participate in the refresher course, will get some track time from 9 am until about 2:30 in the afternoon. There will be three phases that they must pass before they can participate in the Indianapolis 500.

The rookies will get help from driver coach and two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk during orientation. Tony Kanaan will also assist as a driver advisor.

This year’s rookie class has a vast amount of racing experience, but this is a totally different level. Their results will depend on a number of factors, including engines, teams, and as always, luck.

Ask any race fan which Indy 500 was their favorite, and the overwhelming majority will tell you it was 1992. Al Unser Jr and Scott Goodyear in a seven-lap shootout that resulted in the closest finish in the race’s century old history.

Perhaps the finish is what most fans remember, but the entire Month of May was special that year.

There was a buzz in the air from day one of practice. Formula One World Champion Nelson Piquet was set to run in the historic race, but a crash on the second day of practice resulted in severe leg injuries that prevented him from racing. He needed nearly a year of rehabilitation.

Rick Mears also made headlines with his crash in turn two during practice. He slammed the outside wall and slid on his side. He had a fractured foot and a wrist injury, but would somehow manage to get in the car on race day.

Things were not exactly going great for eventual winner Al Unser Jr either, as he blew an engine on just the second day of practice.

Pole Day arrived with more cold temperatures, and rain. Qualifying finally began around 4pm, resulting in a flurry of activity before the 6pm gun was fired. Just after 5:30, Roberto Guerrero went out took the pole by setting a new all-time one lap, and four lap track record. His total time was 2:34.851 at a speed of 232.482 mph.

Scott Goodyear was the full-time driver for Walker Racing. His teammate Mike Groff had an oil pressure problem, and was having trouble trying to qualify. Goodyear and Groff temporarily swapped cars to qualify. They planned to swap the drivers back to their original cars, with both moving to the rear of the field. Groff qualified 26th, but Goodyear was bumped. Goodyear took Groff’s place behind the wheel in the primary car, forcing him to start in 33rd position.

The morning of the race saw temperatures under fifty degrees. Shortly before 11am, the command to start engines was given. Bobby Unser was driving the pace car, when the unthinkable happened on the second parade lap.

Pole sitter Roberto Guerrero accelerated to warm up his tires. When he did, the back end came around, and he spun into the inside wall. The suspension was damaged, and he was out of the race before it even started.

Once the race got started, Michael Andretti began to flex his muscle. After a long stretch of green flag laps, he had already lapped the field up through 12th position. By lap 60, he had a 30-second lead over second place, and only three cars were on the lead lap.

Arie Luyendyk was trying to lap AJ Foyt on lap 137, but AJ didn’t have a mirror to see him. Luyendyk went into the marbles, and eventually into the turn four wall. There were only 15 cars running with 50 laps remaining, just five of them on the lead lap. One of them was being driven By Goodyear, who had made his charge all the way up to the front after starting last.

The drama began to unfold as Michael Andretti began to slow down the backstretch on lap 189. His fuel pump had failed, and his car came to a stop at the north end of the track. His 28-second lead, and his chances of winning the race, were gone with just 11 laps remaining. He led 160 of the first 189 laps before the Andretti Curse went into effect.

The excitement grew even more, as Unser had a 0.3-second lead with just four laps to go. Unser and Goodyear took part in a flurry of nose-to-tail racing that was sure to end with both drivers in the wall. They kept it together though, creating some of the most intense racing we have ever seen.

Coming off the final turn, Goodyear made a charge, diving to the inside just seconds before they crossed the bricks. The official winning margin was actually closer than reported, due to the timing device in Unser’s car being near the nose, instead of the side pod.

The 76th running of the Indy 500 took place on May 24. This was just the third time in history that the race was run on that date. All three races were won by the Unser family (Bobby in 1981, Al Sr in 1987, and Al Jr in 1992).

The race featured ten former winners, accounting for 20 victories. There were 13 cautions, resulting in 85 laps under yellow. It is still the slowest average race speed since 1958.

This was the final race featuring the apron, as the track reconfiguration months later removed it for safety reasons. It was also the last time we would see the legends of Foyt, Mears, Sneva, and Johncock take part in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

If this year’s race turns out to be anything like the one in 1992, we’re all in for a real treat.

To say that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has some impressive history would be the biggest understatement known to man. The greatest venue on earth has given us unforgettable moments every year since it was born more than one hundred years ago.

Famous architects Carl Fisher, James Allison, F.H. Wheeler, and Arthur Newby first broke ground on March 15, 1909. Construction didn’t take long, as the hundreds of workers (and mules) were able to get the track opened less than five months later on August 12.

Fisher first envisioned the massive speedway in 1905 when he was visiting France. He noticed they didn’t have sufficient ways of testing the cars before they were delivered to consumers. His original plan was to build a circular track, three to five miles in length.

He was searching for the right spot to put this giant oval, turning down two potential sites before finding the 328 acre farmland just outside of Indianapolis. The men bought the property for $72,000 and so it began.

The Racing Capital of the World began with a simple rectangle drawn into a patch of Indiana dirt. Fisher envisioned an automotive proving ground that would revolutionize the auto industry. What resulted from this, is arguably the greatest venue on earth.

There have been several unique events held at the speedway, mostly in the early years. An ace in the air, Eddie Rickenbacker actually had a plane at the speedway in the early 1930s. The balloon and motorcycle events are more well known, but in 1931, Cummins took the track to prove a point. They did so by breaking an impressive endurance record with their new diesel engine.

Their plan was to drive 10,000 miles around the speedway without stopping. They began on December 12, and drove two full days before losing a tire. They made the repair and kept going. The steering arm then disintegrated, but they made the repair without stopping. Two weeks later on December 26, they broke the endurance record, logging 13,535 miles around the track.

After the balloon and motorcycle races, a change in marketing focus led to having just one big race in 1911. It was then, that the 500 was born. An estimated 80,000 people witnessed the very first 500 mile race at the speedway on May 30, 1911.

Fisher’s vision was very clear from the start. When asked about the plan for one large race in 1911, Fisher said “We’re talking about the greatest automobile race ever put on anywhere on the face of the earth. Everything connected with it is going to have to be bigger and better than ever before-or we’ll miss the boat.”

As you descend upon 16th & Georgetown, an indescribable feeling overwhelms you. The sun glistens over the pagoda, and you feel the cool morning air in the shadows of the grandstands. Generations of people have experienced the cultural touchstone known as Race Day in Indy.

For more than a century drivers have been showcasing their bravery and talent, risking it all to win here at the Roman Colosseum for race fans. Nearly 400,000 fans, 33 drivers, and one trophy complete the scene, like a Van Gogh painting that has come to life.

To put it into perspective, there are only three major venues in the world that are older than IMS. Churchill Downs, Saratoga Race Course, and the Old Course at St. Andrews. All of the talk about Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Pebble Beach, the Rose Bowl, Soldier Field, and Augusta is interesting, but they don’t compare to the history of the greatest race course in the world.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is older than them all.

When the speedway was being constructed in 1909, William Howard Taft had just succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as the President of the United States. The construction had just begun on the giant Titanic ship, and the Pittsburgh Pirates and Yale University were the respective champions of baseball and college football.

In 1954 Wilbur Shaw said “To me the track is the last great speed shrine, which must be preserved at all cost. I felt that all I was, or ever hoped to be, I owed to the Indianapolis 500 mile race.” Shaw knew the importance of this place, and had a great passion for everything associated with it.

Before the first 500 mile race in 1911, the speedway was already one of the first race tracks to have permanent garages, which were just inside of turn one. In 1913 the first “Japanese” pagoda was built. It lasted until 1925, when it was taken down to make room for a newer, bigger pagoda.

It is interesting to note that even though it is over a century old, the speedway has only had three owners. Eddie Rickenbacker bought it for $750,000 in 1927, then Tony Hulman purchased it at the same price on November 14, 1945.

This was also the first race track to install safety warning lights, which they did in 1935. The coming World Wars would have a drastic effect on the speedway, as it was deteriorating while it was used by the military during the 1940s.

Once the War came to an end, and the focus was back to racing, there were some major improvements all around the course. All of the old wooden grandstands were replaced with steel and concrete ones. Almost a decade later, the first Hall of Fame Museum/office building at the speedway was up and running.

The pagoda constructed in 1926 was replaced in 1957 by a larger control tower. Other improvements this year included a new pit area and a new tunnel that went under the backstretch.

On April 5 of 1976, a multi-million dollar Hall of Fame Museum was officially opened up. The museum is a must visit for any race fan, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Later that year, the entire track was resurfaced with asphalt. This was the first complete replacing since the bricks were laid in 1909. Ten years later the new garage area was built, giving race teams a total of 96 individual garages to work from.

Victory Lane got a major face lift in 1994 when a circular rotating lift in the Tower Terrace was constructed. Also, new a 97-foot tall scoring pylon replaced the old one on the main straightaway that had been there since 1959. The new Administrative Office at the corner of 16th and Georgetown was also finished in 1994.

The modern day Bombardier Pagoda was completed in 2000. Two years later IMS introduced the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) Barrier walls in all four turns.

When you talk about history, it really doesn’t get any deeper or richer than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For all the talk of a century of racing here, there are only 27 living Indianapolis 500 winners left today. The traditions, bravery, speed, competition, and creativity of everyone associated with this place are what make it so special today.

As we have already seen, it is impossible to duplicate this place. In southern California in 1970, Ontario Motor Speedway tried and failed with their 2.5-mile oval track. After numerous problems, the property was sold in 1980 and the track was destroyed.

Try as they might, there will never be another place like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Four races into the 2012 IndyCar Season, Team Penske and Chevrolet have yet to lose a race.

Will Power won his third straight race of the year in dominating fashion in Sao Paulo. He has now won all three races in Brazil. Ryan Hunter-Reay had another solid run, finishing second. Takuma Sato went from 26th to third to complete the podium. Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top five.

The threat of rain moved the start of the race up a little, but it never came. After a clean start to the race, the yellow flag flew multiple times in the late stages. On a restart about one-third of the way through the race, Mike Conway (who was having a great run in the top five) locked up his front wheels and punted Franchitti going into turn one.

Dario was able to rebound, but teammate Scott Dixon faced some adversity when a late caution put a damper on his chances of a good finish. Lady luck has not been kind to the Target cars this year. Heading into Indianapolis, Chip Ganassi does not have a car in the top five of the points standings.

The race in Brazil featured some great passing, but also some impatient drivers. Power, the pole sitter, was not challenged much on Sunday. For the series, he focus now turns to Indianapolis for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Opening day at the track is Saturday, May 12.

The points standings heading into Indianapolis:

1. Will Power
2. Helio Castroneves -45
3. James Hinchcliffe -57
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay -59
5. Simon Pagenaud -62

Here are the official results from today’s race in Sao Paulo, Brazil:

1. Will Power
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay
3. Takuma Sato
4. Helio Castroneves
5. Dario Franchitti
6. James Hinchcliffe
7. JR Hildebrand
8. Charlie Kimball
9. EJ Viso
10. Rubens Barrichello
11. Oriol Servia
12. Simon Pagenaud
13. Tony Kanaan
14. Marco Andretti
15. James Jakes
16. Graham Rahal
17. Scott Dixon
18. Sebastien Bourdais
19. Mike Conway
20. Ana Beatriz
21. Ed Carpenter
22. Justin Wilson
23. Josef Newgarden
24. Ryan Briscoe
25. Katherine Legge

Since the incredibly entertaining race atLong Beach, the IndyCar Series has been making a lot of noise off the track. Several things have happened in the past week that seem to be reshaping how the rest of the season will play out. Before this weekend’s big race inSao Paulo, lets get a recap of everything that has transpired.

• We learned that Paul Tracy’s open wheel career is likely over. He told SPEED that he has accepted the fact that he is done, but will continue to race other types of cars.
• Graham Rahal was put on probation for the next six races, following his incident with Marco Andretti atLong Beach. The Twitter exchange between he and Mario Andretti was settled with a phone call, and all is well.
• AJ Foyt Racing announced that Wade Cunningham would be driving their second car in this year’sIndianapolis500.
• The 2012 Indianapolis 500 Entry List was revealed with 34 entries. Since then we have seen some shake-up, but it appears we will have 34 cars going for the 33 positions.
• Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing announced Bryan Clauson would be driving for their team in the Indy 500 this year.
• Team Barracuda-BHA announced that they would be skipping the race inSao Paulo,Brazil. They would have had to pay for the team to travel since they were not in the top 22 in the points standings. We later learned of the Lotus engine issue, further explaining why they decided to turn their focus to the 500.
• KV Racing hired Eddie Jones as the primary engineer for Rubens Barrichello.
• It was announced that Honda would be allowed to switch turbos before the race inBrazil. General Motors then filed an official protest on the decision to allow the change. A hearing for this appeal is scheduled for Thursday, April 26.
• Michael Shank Racing filed an entry for theIndianapolis500, announcing Jay Howard as its driver. They have a car, but are still looking for an engine.
• Rahal Letterman Lanigan announced their plans to have Michel Jourdain Jr drive their entry in this year’s Indy 500. Jourdain is back for his second race here, with his only other start coming in 1996. He will take part in the “refresher” course before practice officially begins May 12.
• Team Barracuda-BHA and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing were officially released from Lotus. This leaves the engine supplier with just three teams for the rest of the year. The drivers of both teams (Alex Tagliani and Oriol Seriva) are having horrible seasons. Both of them started on the front row of last year’s Indy 500, with Tagliani on Pole.
• SimRaceway has announced plans to produce an official IndyCar Series video game. The online game was helped developed by Dario Franchitti, and the late Dan Wheldon. It will feature the new “DW12” chassis, and all of the tracks on the current schedule.
• Dollar General announced it will be back with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in Indy this year, sponsoring Josef Newgarden.

All of this news comes between theLong Beachrace, and this coming weekend’s race inSao Paulo. The race is nearly sold out, and the buzz around Barrichello, Kanaan, Helio, and the others will be interesting to watch. The course features many long straights, with speeds in excess of 190 mph in some spots. Honda has a good chance to rebound this weekend, but Chevrolet (and Team Penske) appear to be firing on all cylinders.

Through the first three races of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series, we have seen some familiar faces in victory lane. Will Power, Team Penske, and Chevrolet have been in the spotlight every weekend. Shine a light into the shadows, and you’ll see someone lurking, ready to pounce.

Taking a look at the points standings after the first three races, Will Power sits on top with teammate Helio Castroneves 24 points behind him. It’s the driver in third place, just three points behind Helio, that you need to take notice of. Simon Pagenaud is quietly having a sensational year.

Pagenaud finished in sixth place at St Petersburg, and followed it up with a top five at Barber. On Sunday at Long Beach he led the most laps on his way to a runner-up finish, less than a second behind Power. He had built up a 19-second lead over Power before having to come in for a splash of fuel on lap 69. To think his chances of winning were over would be a mistake.

Simon came out of the pits in fourth place, but quickly moved up to second. He was 5.8 seconds behind Power with five laps to go and was able to get to his rear on the final hairpin turn. Had the race been 86 laps instead, the end result likely would have been different for the Frenchman.

This is the first full season in IndyCar for Pagenaud, after competing in three races last year. His series debut at Barber with Dreyer & Reinbold resulted in an eight place finish. His success in IndyCar with Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports should come as no surprise to most fans.

In 2004 Simon finished in second in the European Formula Renault standings, with two wins and two poles. He won the Champ Car Atlantic Series title in 2006 after scoring six podium finishes.

In 2009 Pagenaud was driving for de Ferran Motorsports in the American La Mans Series. He ended up with five wins on his way to a second place finish in the championship standings.

The next year Simon was able to get over the hump, winning the American Le Mans Series LMP Championship with Patron Highcroft Racing. In addition to his three IndyCar races last year, he continued to race in the Le Mans Series, earning a runner-up finish in the Twelve Hours of Sebring, as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours race.

Now the Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports driver finds himself in the IndyCar Championship hunt as the series moves to Brazil for the Sao Paulo Indy 300. Once things wrap up there it’s back to the states where he will prepare for the biggest race of his career, the Indianapolis 500. This is a place where his team knows how to find speed.

Simon lives in the Indy area and will celebrate his 28th birthday on “Fast Friday” this year.

Many people are already calling Pagenaud this year’s Oriol Servia. While Servia is older, and has more experience in the series, it is easy to see why the comparisons are being made.

Servia’s success with Newman/Haas Racing last year surprised a lot of people. He wasn’t terrible with KV Racing, but not many people expected him to finish fourth in the points standings last year. He had 11 top-ten finishes and landed on the podium three times. He started on the front row at Indianapolis, where he finished sixth.

Simon was graceful in defeat at Long Beach, but he made sure everyone knew the confidence he has in his team, and his own driving ability. He knew if he had one more lap, he could have gotten around Will. He also has a great sense of humor, which shows after spending just a few minutes with him. He has been nicknamed “Jean Gerrard” which was the French character in the movie Talladega Nights. He embraces everything good about the sport, which makes it easy for fans to love him.

The team chemistry has been there from day one. Team manager Rob Edwards won the 2006 Atlantic Championship at Walker Racing. His lead engineer, Ben Bretzman, was his engineer when he won the ALMS championship.

Before the season began, Pagenaud said he was really looking forward to the challenge of racing a single-seater again. He said that it was the best situation he could have hoped for, and that he has been waiting for this opportunity for “many years”.

Obviously Simon has the driving talent to win on any road/street course. Now he also has a car and a team capable of giving him the speed he needs to win on the ovals. This team won the Pole last year at Indianapolis for a reason. His Honda single-turbo engine was designed to produce the best results here at the most famous race course in the world.

If Pagenaud can take his Honda HP Motorsports car to Brazil and come back with another top five , there will be a lot of buzz in Gasoline Alley next month. With an engine developed with the Indy 500 in mind, and a team that won last year’s Pole, he will be a driver to watch on Pole Day.

Regardless of the result, he should be considered a serious threat to win at every event this year.

As we get closer to May, the debate rages on about how many cars/drivers/engines will be in the field for this year’s Indianapolis 500. At least 33 of each will be entered, and possibly as many as 35 cars/engines will be available.

Marshall Pruett recently did an interview for SPEED with all three engine manufacturers. Basically, Chevrolet is set to have 14 or 15 engines ready, Honda will have 14, and Lotus will have five or six ready to go.

In addition to the 26 full-time drivers this season, eight additional drivers for Indy are nearly set.

• Sebastian Saavedra – Andretti Autosport
• Ana Beatriz – Andretti Autosport
• Bryan Clauson – Sarah Fisher
• Townsend Bell – Schmidt Hamilton
• Buddy Rice – Ed Carpenter Racing
• Michel Jourdain – Rahal Letterman Lanigan
• Jean Alesi – Newman Haas
• Wade Cunningham – AJ Foyt

An interesting topic being thrown around now is what will happen with all of the extra engines after the 500? Speculation is that some teams could actually opt to switch manufacturers after Indy.

Provided there are no significant engine malfunctions in Sao Paulo, the Field of 33 should be set to go. Obviously having 35 cars would make Bump Day more exciting, but it depends on what drivers and teams step up, if the 35 engines are ready to go.

Every May, 32 drivers leave Indianapolis disappointed while one leaves forever changed. This year will be no exception.

With everything that happened in the few days before Sunday’s race at Long Beach, we were preparing for a very interesting and intense race. Perhaps we should have expected chaos, because that is what we got on Sunday.

With all of the Chevys starting in the back of the field, it looked like Honda had the edge. Dario Franchitti started in first but quickly faded. Before he did that though, he and rookie Josef Newgarden made slight contact on the first lap of the race. Josef had a run on the outside of Dario heading into the turn, but there wasn’t room for both of them and Newgarden’s day came to an abrupt end in the tires.

As Dario faded in the opening laps, Justin Wilson took over the lead and ran with it. He had a seven-second lead over second place before he came into pit lane.

Things got crazy on lap 22, when multiple cars had problems. Katherine Legge, Alex Tagliani, and EJ Viso all had issues, but it was Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal that really made some noise. Going into the turn, Marco had a run and was looking to the outside of Rahal. Graham appeared to chop him a little, catching Marco off-guard. He slammed into the right-rear of Rahal, and was sent flying into the air.

Marco was interviewed after the incident and said: “I was lucky I didn’t get upside down. I could have been killed.” Twitter began blowing up with comments about the new rear wheel guard preventing cars from being launched.

While I understand those points, it would be foolish to think that two cars slamming into each other at a high rate of speed could be prevented by a piece of carbon fiber. This was a perfect example, unfortunately for Marco. As the two made contact, the bodywork shredded off, leaving just the tires to make contact, which sent Marco airborne.

Other problems early on included Scott Dixon having engine trouble that ended his day, Sebastien Bourdais finding the tire barriers, and Franchitti needing a nose replacement after making contact with Ryan Briscoe’s right rear tire.

Who could forget Helio Castroneves taking out teammate Will Power in last year’s race? This year he decided to focus his attention on his other teammate. He nearly put Briscoe into the wall after cutting him off as he tried to get around Viso.

So after winning the first two races, Chevrolet does it again in race number three. They did it in improbably fashion too, as none of them started the race in the top ten, given the engine change rule penalties. Add to that the fact that Dario Franchitti started the race from pole position, and you have a very impressive victory.

What does this mean for Honda and Lotus? As Bourdais said about their chances at Indianapolis; “We’re going to get killed (on horsepower)”. As Hinchcliffe blew by Silvestro on the front straight in a drag race, it was very apparent that Lotus has some work to do. The Hondas and Chevys were seven miles per hour faster at the end of the straights than the Lotus machines.

Power took over the lead with 15 laps to go as Pagenaud came in for fuel. Simon quickly made up ground afterwards, moving into third with eight laps to go, then to second with six to go. He then made up five seconds on Power, getting to his rear in the final turn, but Power held him off for his 17th career IndyCar win.

It’s been a great year for Team Penske, having won all three races so far. It’s also been a great year for Pagenaud, who is beginning to turn heads. His second place finish today was impressive, but he also finished fifth at Barber, and Sixth at St Pete.

It was a tough day for Chip Ganassi. He had the defending series champion starting first, only to see him finish 15th. Kimball was 18th, Dixon 23rd, and Rahal 24th.

Takuma Sato had a great run all day, and made contact with Hunter-Reay on the final lap. Ryan was given a 30 second penalty, giving teammate James Hinchcliffe his first career podium finish. It was a questionable penalty, especially considering that Rahal wasn’t given a penalty for his chop on Marco that sent him flying through the air.

Eight of the top ten finishers were Chevrolets, including four of the top five. After being spotted ten positions on the grid, only two Hondas scored a top ten finish.

So after all of that, what does this mean for Honda and Lotus? They clearly have some serious work to do before the next race. Perhaps more importantly, two weeks from now when the Indy 500 will be the next race on the schedule.

The win gives Power his second of the young season, and also puts him on top of the points standings heading to Sao Paulo. The Sao Paulo Indy 300 in Brazil is in two weeks (4/29) and can be seen on NBC Sports Network at Noon EST.

Here is the finishing order for today’s race at Long Beach:

1. Will Power
2. Simon Pagenaud
3. James Hinchcliffe
4. Tony Kanaan
5. JR Hildebrand
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay
7. Ryan Briscoe
8. Takuma Sato
9. Rubens Barrichello
10. Justin Wilson
11. James Jakes
12. EJ Viso
13. Helio Castroneves
14. Ed Carpenter
15. Dario Franchitti
16. Oriol Servia
17. Sebastien Bourdais
18. Charlie Kimball
19. Katherine Legge
20. Simona de Silvestro
21. Alex Tagliani
22. Mike Conway
23. Scott Dixon
24. Graham Rahal
25. Marco Andretti
26. Josef Newgarden

Ryan Briscoe beat teammate Will Power in the final minutes of qualifying to win the Pole for Sunday’s race at Long Beach. Dario Franchitti and Josef Newgarden will start on the front row. If that doesn’t make any sense, you havent been paying attention to the IndyCar Series this past week.

First there was the engine problem that James Hinchcliffe had at Sonoma. Both he and Sebastien Bourdais were already set to make engine changes and serve a 10-spot penalty at Long Beach. Then there was the announcment that Chevrolet was going to be changing ALL of their engines, and that every car would be given the same 10 position penalty.

Friday was a monsoon, and for some odd reason, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were out on the track. There was nothing to gain, and nearly everything to lose. Dixon hit a puddle, hydroplaned, and slammed into the wall. If that wasn’t enough, his gearbox caught fire twice during qualifying today and he landed in 12th position.

In practice, both Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves found the wall. James Jakes did the same moments later, and Simona de Silvestro had problems of her own. She may also need to change an engine, along with Dixon. That would put the number of engine changes for this race at 16.

The Firestone Fast included Briscoe, Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Franchitti, EJ Viso, and Hinchcliffe.

Below is the actual starting lineup for the race once all of the penalties were handed out:

1. Dario Franchitti
2. Josef Newgarden
3. Justin Wilson
4. Simon Pagenaud
5. Scott Dixon
6. Takuma Sato
7. Mike Conway
8. Graham Rahal
9. Charlie Kimball
10. Alex Tagliani
11. Ryan Briscoe
12. Will Power
13. Ryan Hunter-Reay
14. James Jakes
15. E.J. Viso
16. James Hinchcliffe
17. Simona De Silvestro
18. Helio Castroneves
19. Tony Kanaan
20. JR Hildebrand
21. Marco Andretti
22. Rubens Barrichello
23. Oriol Servia
24. Ed Carpenter
25. Sebastien Bourdais
26. Katherine Legge

Below are Saturday’s qualifying results (before penalties):

1. Ryan Briscoe
2. Will Power
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay
4. Dario Franchitti
5. EJ Viso
6. James Hinchcliffe
7. Josef Newgarden
8. Helio Castroneves
9. Justin Wilson
10. Tony Kanaan
11. Simon Pagenaud
12. Scott Dixon
13. Takuma Sato
14. Mike Conway
15. Graham Rahal
16. JR Hildebrand
17. Charlie Kimball
18. Marco Andretti
19. Rubens Barrichello
20. Oriol Servia
21. Alex Tagliani
22. James Jakes
23. Ed Carpenter
24. Sebastien Bourdais
25. Katherine Legge
26. Simona de Silvestro