Yahoo Autos Pagenaud Comfortably Wins Third Straight Race, Second Indy GP
According to some, Roger Penske had wanted the services of Simon Pagenaud since the season he entered IndyCar full time, 2012. Pagenaud initially spurned him to stay with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, but finally relented to join the superteam in a fourth car last season. That year didn't exactly go as planned for Penske Racing, with the team losing the driver's championship after Scott Dixon passed teammates Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya in the closing races, or Pagenaud, who claimed just two podiums over the course of a season that ended with a championship finish outside of the top ten. This season, however, has been a revelation for both. While the Penske team, has won four of the five races run, Pagenaud has finished better than he did in any race last season in all of 2016's IndyCar events, starting the season with two runner-up finishes and following them with his current win streak.
The French ace, sponsored by Menards over the course of the Month of May, for the second straight race had a notable battle with Conor Daly. While their conflict a few weeks back at Barber Motorsports Park was between a leader and lap traffic, today some fortunate pit strategy and an incredible restart saw Dale Coyne Racing rookie Daly leading the race for ten laps after passing Helio Castroneves on a restart. Despite putting up a 3 second lead after getting into clean air, Daly would find himself behind the Penske pairing of Pagenaud, Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe after the race's final round of stops, and a few laps later would fall behind Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon to record a sixth-place finish, still a spectacular day for the rookie that saw him finish ahead of the entire Andretti Autosport contingent. Daly wouldn't be fastest of the Hondas, however, as a podium for Hinchcliffe marked his first since returning from a harrowing injury suffered in a wreck in practice before last season's Indianapolis 500 and best-ever finish at the venue.
A quick turnaround sees the IndyCar Series begin practice for the 100th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on Monday, beginning what is now a two week Month of May.
