Drivers with two of the most recognizable surnames in Indy car racing shared the podium following the exciting MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway on June 27, when Graham Rahal won and Marco Andretti finished third.
“You don’t know how good this feels. It’s been so long coming; it’s awesome! Went we went back to 16th I was definitely a little worried there. I knew my car was really good. It wasn’t the quickest up front, I struggled when I got to the front to be as fast as the Chevy’s but those last couple of laps worked. I hung onto the bottom line. I’m just proud of these guys."
Battling for every position in the late stages of the race, the jocking back and forth for each position in the three, four-wide racing pack was full of action for the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers. Though sometimes, everything doesn't go according to plan.
With his seventh top-five finish of the season in the 11 races thus far in 2015, Juan Pablo Montoya was able to stretch his points lead out some more ahead of Team Penske teammate Will Power. With only a couple months remaining of the season, Montoya now leads Power by 46 points.
After posting a one-two finish in the Honda Indy Toronto, CFH Racing was hoping to carry the momentum through the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway, posting a strong finish for both of their cars. However, that wouldn't be the case as a crash at lap 158 took both cars out of contention.
Racing three, four and sometimes five-wide for the lead, the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers put on a show at Auto Club Speedway in Saturday afternoon. In the end, Graham Rahal got to take his first trip to victory lane since winning in his rookie season at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
During one of his scheduled pit stops, Tristan Vautier would make contact with front tire changer Owen Trower upon leaving his stall, hitting the crewmen's leg.
“I’m happy with the speed we ran which was way, way better than I expected based on the speeds I did earlier today. I knew qualifying was going to be our weakness but I think the race car is pretty good. I don’t want to start too far back obviously but I told my guys I thought we would qualify between 15th and 18th. Everyone adds so much downforce back on the cars for the race."
In a one-two sweep for Team Penske, Simon Pagenaud would top the charts in qualifying with a lap of one minute and 5.7679 seconds. Pagenaud is searching for his first win of the season since leaving Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to join Penske during the off-season.
Blaney will be right where he wants to be. Being able to put his drafting skills with his strong finishes gives him a great chance of finding his way to the front.
As the organization did in the January Pre-Race Practice, Nitro Motorsports swept the top six positions in the running order in practice for the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200 at Daytona International Speedway.
