Conway Wins IndyCar Race at Long Beach
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LONG BEACH, Calif. — Ed Carpenter’s decision to put a road course standout in his Verizon IndyCar Series car this season paid off Sunday when Mike Conway won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Carpenter, the owner-driver of Ed Carpenter Racing, is an oval-track specialist, and he stepped out of the Chevrolet-powered car in favor of Conway, who won his third career IndyCar race and his second at Long Beach.
With a front wing broken on the first lap, Conway took the lead with two circuits left when Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon was forced to pit road for more fuel. Conway then held off Team Penske’s Will Power for the win.
Conway won this race for Andretti Autosport in 2011.
Conway did not expect to become a two-time event winner on this weekend.
“I wasn’t sure Scott was going to pull in there,” he said. “I couldn’t see he was saving fuel where he should have been saving.”
Said Dixon: “We wanted to go for it, but we couldn’t run the risk of running out of fuel in front of the pack and causing a big accident.”
Those two (and Power) were in a winning position because the lead pack got shuffled on Lap 55 of
the 80-lap race when pole-winner Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport banged into Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing’s Josef Newgarden in a battle for the lead.
Newgarden said he did not expect Hunter-Reay to dart inside him in Turn 4, and the bump sent them sliding to the left side of the narrow track. Running fourth, Power swung to the right and motored on, but others were not so fortunate.
James Hinchcliffe followed Hunter-Reay, his teammate, into the mess. A few cars got through safely, but Helio Castroneves could not, running into the back of Hunter-Reay, and the entanglement of Newgarden and Hinchcliffe sat in the blind path of Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato and rookie Jack Hawksworth.
Hinchcliffe took a swipe at Hunter-Reay.
“Patience is a virtue and someone wasn’t virtuitous,” he said. “It was a rookie move.”
Hunter-Reay tried to explain the move, saying both he and Newgarden could have done something different.
“Giving each other a little bit of room (in Turn 4) would have gotten us both through there,” he said. “A lot of people will say that’s my fault. I made the decision at that split-second, when he had wheel spin, to go for it, knowing I was on (new) tires. That’s the type of driver I am; I go for it.”
Said Newgarden: “I didn’t expect anyone to make a move there in Turn 4. There’s so little room there.”
All escaped injury except Hinchcliffe, who suffered at least a sprained left thumb. He will need to be re-examined before the April 27 race at Barber Motorsports Park.
The first standing start of the season did not produce much drama. Only Hinchcliffe suffered, dropping from second to fifth.
Sebastien Bourdais jumped from third to second at the start. After getting service on Lap 25, he was trying to swipe the lead from Hunter-Reay when he drove into a tire barrier at Turn 8. Bourdais did it again later, ending his race.
On a restart, Justin Wilson’s car got turned around in the hairpin at Turn 11 by Graham Rahal. Rahal received a penalty for avoidable contact.
Moments later, Power’s bump on Simon Pagenaud in the left rear corner sent Pagenaud into the tire barrier. IndyCar’s race control deemed that a racing incident and did not punish Power.
Power tried to apologize.
“My bad; I feel bad,” he said. “I’m surprised I didn’t get a penalty. He should be angry. Man, I’d be the same.”
Pagenaud didn’t accept the apology, leaving open the possibility that this tension festers.
“It’s too late for (apologies),” he said.
On the television broadcast, former driver Paul Tracy, who was known for his aggressiveness, quipped that Power’s move “looks like something I would have done back in the day.”
Like Rahal, Bourdais had to drive slowly down pit road under green for his team, KV Racing Technology, repairing his car in a period of the caution when the pits were closed.
Castroneves and rookie Carlos Huertas also were penalized for passing too early on restarts.
Colombians Carlos Munoz, a rookie, and Juan Pablo Montoya, back in the series this season for the first time since 2000, finished third and fourth, respectively, Pagenaud rallied to finish fifth.
