Alexander Rossi has won the Gallagher Grand Prix on Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to snap a 49-race winless streak, earning his first victory since capturing the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race June 23, 2019 at Road America, 1,133 days ago. This was Rossi’s eighth career victory.
Kiwi drivers Scott McLaughlin finished fourth and eighth respectively. Dixon remains fourth in the championship 38-points behind new leader Will Power with McLaughlin seventh, 81-points behind Power.
Andretti Autosport driver Rossi crossed the finish line in his No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda 3.5441 seconds ahead of rookie Christian Lundgaard, who earned a career-best second place in the No. 30 Shield Cleansers Honda.
Power finished third in the 85-lap race in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and took the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship lead with just four races remaining. Power holds a nine-point lead over Marcus Ericsson, who rallied from starting last in the 25-car field to finish 11th in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Team Penske ended up with all three of its drivers in the top five. Scott McLaughlin finished fourth in the No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet, with two-time series champion Josef Newgarden fifth in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet.
Rossi, who started second, took the lead for good on Lap 42 when leader and teammate Colton Herta lost drive after navigating Turn 8 on the 11-turn, 2.439-mile road course in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. Herta was able to coast to the entry of the pit lane, but his race was over. He was credited with 24th place.
The mechanical problem was a cruel twist of fate for Herta, who started ninth and drove to the lead by Lap 8, passing NTT P1 Award winner Felix Rosenqvist in Turn 7. Herta and Rossi emerged as the class of the field as the early laps unfolded, with rival teams unsuccessfully trying multiple strategies to neuter their advantage.
Once Herta was out of the race, Rossi built a steady gap of around four seconds to Lundgaard. The Danish rookie made things interesting late in the race, closing to within 2.7 seconds with 10 laps remaining.
But Rossi pulled away over the closing laps for a decisive win, ending Lundgaard’s chance of becoming the first rookie to win an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race since Rossi shocked the racing world with his victory in the 2016 Indianapolis 500.
Power once again produced a composed drive, overcoming early near-calamity, to take the points lead. Power made contact with the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward in a three-wide traffic jam in Turns 1 and 2 on the first lap and also had an early dustup with the No. 06 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda of Helio Castroneves, finding himself in 16th in the early laps
Less than a race worth of points separates Power from fifth-place O’Ward, who is 46 back. Newgarden is third, 32 out of the lead. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, who finished eighth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, is 38 points back in fourth.
The hectic recent schedule for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES continues with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, Aug. 7 on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Power 431, Ericsson 422, Newgarden 399, Dixon 393, O’Ward 385, Palou 379, McLaughlin 350, Rossi 318, Rosenqvist 299, Herta 285, VeeKay 282, Rahal 274, Pagenaud 262, Grosjean 259, Lundgaard 248, Daly 236, Malukas 221, Castroneves 207, Sato 199, Ilott 166, Johnson 166, Harvey 158, DeFrancesco 151, Kirkwood 133, Kellett 103, Tony Kanaan 78, Santino Ferrucci 71, Ed Carpenter 67, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, Simona De Silvestro 21, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10.
Race Results (order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out)
1/ (2) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 85, Running
2/ (6) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 85, Running
3/ (4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 85, Running
4/ (15) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 85, Running
5/ (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 85, Running
6/ (8) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 85, Running
7/ (17) Graham Rahal, Honda, 85, Running
8/ (20) Scott Dixon, Honda, 85, Running
9/ (1) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 85, Running
10/ (7) Alex Palou, Honda, 85, Running
11/ (25) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 85, Running
12/ (3) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 85, Running
13/ (11) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Running
14/ (19) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 85, Running
15/ (18) Takuma Sato, Honda, 85, Running
16/ (22) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 85, Running
17/ (10) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 85, Running
18/ (14) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 85, Running
19/ (16) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 85, Running
20/ (13) Jack Harvey, Honda, 85, Running
21/ (24) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 84, Running
22/ (23) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 84, Running
23/ (21) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 84, Running
24/ (9) Colton Herta, Honda, 42, Mechanical
25/ (12) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 34, Off Course
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