Pagenaud takes race, series title
On a day when temperatures hit the 90s, Simon Pagenaud coolly controlled the last race of the season. To completely cool off, though, he took a Champagne shower in the winner’s circle.
The 32-year-old Frenchman clinched his first IndyCar Series championship Sunday by winning the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma in his No. 22 Chevrolet for Team Penske. Along with the title come the Astor Cup and a $1 million prize.
“These (Penske) cars are unbelievable,” Pagenaud
said. “I’ve always said they’re a piece of jewelry.”
He was never in trouble, and his title was assured when teammate Will Power was victimized by a gearbox problem less than halfway through the 85-lap race at Sonoma Raceway.
Power, who entered the day 44 points behind Pagenaud, was the only other driver with a mathematical chance of stealing the title from him in the final race of the season, when the points counted double. Pagenaud merely needed to finish in the top five to clinch the title. When Power’s car malfunctioned and stopped, the rest of the race was anticlimactic.
Pagenaud’s fifth win of the season and series championship gave Team Penske another reason to celebrate its 50th season in racing. Power limped home eight laps off the pace but finished second in the season series. Another Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, took third. It was the first time since 1994 that one team had the top three finishers in the points race. Penske did it that year, too.
Thanks to the doublepoints finale, Pagenaud beat Power by 127 points (659 to 532), the largest margin of victory since Alex Zanardi beat Jimmy Vasser by 119 points in 1998.
“My whole career has been about this, about today and getting to this point and to this level,” Pagenaud said. “When you can perform 100 percent under pressure like this, it is amazing.”
The winner’s average speed was 101.181 mph. He beat runner-up Graham Rahal by 3.3 seconds. Juan Carlos Montoya, who also races for Penske, was third.
In a series dominated by foreign drivers, Americans took six of the top nine spots in the 22-car field. After Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth, Nevada City native Alexander Rossi fifth, Josef Newgarden sixth, Marco Andretti eighth and Charlie Kimball ninth.
It was a three-stop race for Pagenaud, who took the lead for good on lap 69 when Castroneves, who was leading, pitted. Pagenaud led for 76 of the laps.
“I’ve raced him 10 years, and I’m happy to see him win a championship even though I came in second to him,” Power said.
“It was obviously disappointing to have the cable problem,” he said. “Maybe we could have beaten him for the title, but I doubt it.” Power said he has had “much more frustrating ends to the season than this, believe me. It was still a great year.”
It was the 14th championship for Team Penske.
“It was a great run,” owner Roger Penske said of his four-car team. “I just take my hat off to the whole team and what they’ve done all season long. To cap it off here with another win, 10 wins for these guys. Certainly Pagenaud dug deep all year and came up with a win for the team. I think you see how good we are.”