In a race that started with wet conditions, Sebastien Bourdais played the right fuel strategy, having enough fuel at the end and outdriving Takuma Sato to win the Chevrolet Duel in Detroit Presented by Quickens Loans Race 2.
“It was just about as nerve-racking as it gets,” he commented. “When we elected to stay out I was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s all or nothing.’ All I could hope for was the same scenario as NOLA (with) complicated conditions and one yellow after another. It was the right call again today. The difference is we obviously deserved it because the boys worked really hard and we were on the pace, we passed a bunch of cars and made the moves when it mattered. We made it stick all the way to the end.
Getting his final pit stop complete before a caution, Bourdais was able to stay on track when Conor Daly pitted under a full course yellow at lap 51. He kept the lead throughout the late stages of race, using the three cautions that followed to save enough fuel to get back to the checkered flag first.
“When we got on the Firestone red tires I was like, ‘Boy, that’s way too early.’ It just felt like it was a risky move, but I knew it was the right one just like yesterday,” he added. “I just couldn’t be any happier that we made it stick.”
Takuma Sato was finish second for his first podium of the season, after having not shown the speed so far this season. The finish came as a result of a great battle in the later stages of the event with Graham Rahal.
“It was a long race, but it was a fantastic show,” he said. “It was difficult to overtake today with the greasy conditions, but after we made a good call and the boys did a fantastic job with the pit stops. How may restarts did we do? I can’t remember. Every restart was very exciting, especially the last few. I made a couple positions up on a good move. Congratulations to Sebastien (Bourdais) on a good win. We needed a little bit more (for the win) but it was a great day for AJ Foyt Racing.”
Graham Rahal finished third to complete the podium as he continues his strong showing throughout the season thus far. It also marks a solid bounce back after finishing tail-end of the field yesterday due to an incident.
“(Today’s result) helped a lot,” he commented. “Yesterday was brutal. That’s the nice thing about this doubleheader. We reversed our roles from last year. Last year we had a good first day and a bad second day. At least this year I’m leaving here getting on the airplane on a good note.”
Tristan Vautier survived the chaos throughout the later half of the race to post his best finish of the season with a fourth, followed by Marco Andretti. Conor Daly finished sixth, subbing for the injured James Hinchcliffe with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Jack Hawksworth bounced back from a spin at lap 55 to finish seventh, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Gabby Chaves and Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya dominated the event, leading the most laps, but ran out of fuel on the last lap.
“We had a really good Verizon Chevy today,” Montoya said. “It was really good in the rain as we jumped out to a big lead. It looked to be a nice day for the team. I don’t really agree with what happened on the next-to-last restart, but that’s a conversation I will have. We gained points on Will (Power) with a 10th-place finish so it’s not a terrible day.”
Montoya’s day, though, allowed him to continue leading the series points, 21 points over Will Power, as none of the championship front runners had good days.
Power finished 18th following contact from Vautier. Vautier clipped Power, sending him for a trip across the track and into teammate Helio Castroneves. Castroenves would finish 19th due to the damage.
“I’m proud of the Verizon Chevy team and we were in good shape, despite the weather conditions,” Power said. “We had a bit of a steering problem and went toward a different strategy, then made good ground on the restarts. But going into the wall toward the end was a bad way to finish and I’m obviously disappointed. But we will look toward a better result in Texas.”
“The Hitachi Chevrolet was really good today, especially in the dry,” Castroneves commented. “We made some different strategy calls, which were actually starting to pay off there at the end of the race. Unfortunately, we got caught up in an incident between Will (Power) and another car and it ended our race. We were easily going to crack the top five or top six, so it’s frustrating to not be able to finish. But it’s racing and you have to move on.”
Scott Dixon, meanwhile, was at the bad end of an incident that involved Power earlier in the race, resulting in a 19th place finish. Power would get sideways with 12 to go, causing Charlie Kimball behind to duck out of line. Kimball would try to get back in line before the upcoming corner, but instead hit Dixon, causing Dixon to hit the tire barrier.
“There were a ton of different strategies and the race seemed to change every lap there after halfway,” he said. “We just kept trying to make something happen in the Target car. Someone made a lunge at Charlie’s (Kimball) car, Charlie tried to cross over and then I guess he just didn’t see me and we got into the wall. Overall, I think our car was really good. We had a top-three car. It was just a crazy race out there today for sure.”
Race 1 winner Carlos Munoz fell out of the race early due to mechanical issues.
1. (9) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 68, Running
2. (15) Takuma Sato, Honda, 68, Running
3. (5) Graham Rahal, Honda, 68, Running
4. (23) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 68, Running
5. (7) Marco Andretti, Honda, 68, Running
6. (10) Conor Daly, Honda, 68, Running
7. (19) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 68, Running
8. (14) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 68, Running
9. (18) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 68, Running
10. (1) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 68, Running
11. (12) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 68, Running
12. (20) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 68, Running
13. (13) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 68, Running
14. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 68, Running
15. (16) James Jakes, Honda, 67, Running
16. (21) Stefano Coletti, Chevrolet, 67, Running
17. (17) Luca Filippi, Chevrolet, 66, Running
18. (2) Will Power, Chevrolet, 64, Contact
19. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 64, Contact
20. (4) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 58, Contact
21. (6) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 49, Contact
22. (22) Rodolfo Gonzalez, Honda, 35, Contact
23. (11) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 5, Mechanical
