It was to say the least an incident-filled event as Will Power earned victory at the IndyCar grand finale at Fontana while Scott Dixon was able to hold on to fifth to secure his third IndyCar championship.
At the end of the evening, only eight cars were still running on the Californian oval to take the checkered flag; an indication of the intensity of the race. Title contenders Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Helio Castroneves (Penske) both endured a tough race. It all started with Castroneves being called in for a stop when the pit lane was closed, forcing him to serve a drive-through penalty with less than 40 laps to go. Even though he was able to get back to pace with the leaders and still had a shot at the title, the final blow came when he was forced to pit again to have his front broken wing repaired. Back out, he was one lap down. Many of the contestants were forced to retire due to cooling problems cause by huge amount of debris that were being sucked into the cars' radiators. That is what happened slowed down Dixon, who had to make a few extra stops late in the race to have his ducts cleaned out. Despite his misfortune, he was able to beat Castroneves and win the title by 27 points.
Meanwhile, Will Power was enjoying a very strong night. The Austrakian led 103 of the 250 laps to finish in front of last year's winner Ed Carpenter. In what will be his last stint with KV Racing, Ganassi bound Tony Kanaan crossed the line in third followed by James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport). There were also a lot of accidents down the field. Justin Wilson caused the biggest when he caught a seam and spun in the middle of the track. He was T-boned by Tristan Vautier, and the resultant combination of smoke and debris accounted for several other cars. All drivers but Wilson, who suffers from some pelvic fractures and a small pulmonary contusion, escaped unharmed. Race results – IndyCar (Fontana) Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap 1. Will Power Penske/Chevy 3h13m42.8699s 2. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy +1.4883s 3. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy +1.8615s 4. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy +3.0395s 5. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda +15.8759s 6. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy +1 lap 7. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy +2 laps 8. Simona de Silvestro KV/Chevy +3 laps Retirements Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy 242 laps Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda 238 laps JR Hildebrand Herta/Honda 237 laps Sebastien Bourdais Dragon/Chevy 229 laps Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 217 laps Alex Tagliani Ganassi/Honda 209 laps Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 200 laps AJ Allmendinger Penske/Chevy 188 laps Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 144 laps Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 110 laps Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy 110 laps Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 110 laps Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda 110 laps James Jakes Rahal/Honda 110 laps Carlos Munoz Andretti/Chevy 100 laps Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy 69 laps Pippa Mann Coyne/Honda 68 laps
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