Speedway, IN (93.7 The Fan) - Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud passed Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon with 2-laps to go to win Saturday's IndyCar Grand Prix on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The win was Pagenaud's first of the year, third in the event and 12th of his career.
"The car was just amazing all day," said Pagenaud. "I took some risks at the end, maybe more than Dixon could. I just kept pushing and others were having trouble with tire wear and we weren't having any trouble with the tires."
Dixon, who started 2nd and led 39-laps to finish 2nd in the event for the third straight year, had mixed feelings about the result.
"It sucks to lead that many laps and come up short," said Dixon, who moved into second position in the points, six behind leader Josef Newgarden. "I knew with 10-laps to go we were in trouble. I don't know if we changed the front wing or what but I didn't have any grip left".
Jack Harvey finished third for Meyer Shank Racing, a career best for him and for the team who is running a 10-race, partial schedule this year in the hopes of running full-time in 2020.
"It wasn't an easy race," said Harvey, who started third and ran in the top 5 all day except during pit stop cycles. "It was half-wet, half-dry but what a great day. To start third and to finish third, hopefully that is a springboard for May and for the rest of 2019 and 2020".
A. J. Foyt Racing's Matheus Leist finished a career-best fourth followed by Ed Carpenter Racing's Spencer Pigot who rounded out the top 5.
Pagenaud's drama began to unfold when teammate Helio Castroneves spun out after his pit stop bringing out a caution and sending everyone to pit road on lap 60.
Dixon's team elected to go with rain tires along with Harvey, Pigot and Sebastien Bourdais while the top 7 cars including Pagenaud, Graham Rahal, Newgarden, Patricio O'Ward and James Hinchcliffe opted for racing slicks. Newgarden's team lost control of a tire on pit road sending him to the rear of the field for the restart.
Slicks were not the right call as the rain continued to fall forcing those drivers back to pit road on lap 63 under caution for rain tires, giving the lead back to Dixon followed by Harvey, Pigot, Leist and Ed Jones.
The race restarted with 18-laps to go and Dixon quickly built an almost 3-second lead in one lap and a 6-second lead in 10-laps but Pagenaud never gave up, passing Dixon with 2-laps to go to win by 2.049-seconds.
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