IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016 Photos and Stories.

Photos provided by Keig Cunningham: Keig Cunningham Photography Contact Photographer for Information.

IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016 Gallery 2

IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016 Gallery 3

IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

Verizon IndyCar Series GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma IndyCar Race 2016-09-16 - 2016-09-18 Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California, US

Recap
Race through Turn 1 and 2 was clean but in Turn 7 Car #7 and Car #10 got caught up with one spinning off.

Simon Pagenaud car #22 runs from the Pole and leads first lap. Will Power makes his first move past Helio Castroneves to move into second place in an early charge

On lap 36 Will Power's car comes to a rolling stop in turn 7 with gear box problems.

Lap 38 first yellow flag as Power towed off the track and Car #30 stops under the bridge between Turn 1 and 2. #30 is able to roll off the track.

At lap 42 restart Simon Pagenaud leads with Helio Castroneves a close second.

At lap 44 Power's Team is able to reattach a loose connector and send him back onto the track, but his race for the championship is over at this point being 7 laps down.

Charlie Kimball shows strong performance and gains 8 spots by lap 46

Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power all Penske drivers were fast and in font of the pack at the start. Simon Pagenaud, and Juan Pablo Montoya mostly remained so. Helio who, as far as I was able to see, was fast and made no errors and even was leading at one point but then fell back to 7th where he finished. Power just had very bad luck with the connector and finished 20.

The pace was fast ((101.181MPH AV.)with only 3 cautions. Simon Pagenaud was smooth without errors finishing with no one even close.

Simon Pagenaud IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

Simon Pagenaud 1st

Juan Pablo Montoya IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

Juan Pablo Montoya 2nd

Graham Rahal IndyCar GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma 2016

Graham Rahal 3 rd

Series finale to the 2016 racing schedule

FINISHING ORDER
POS - DRIVER - CAR # - MANUFACTURER
• 1 Simon Pagenaud #22 Chevrolet • 2 Graham Rahal #15 Honda • 3 Juan Pablo Montoya #2 Chevrolet • 4 Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Honda • 5 Alexander Rossi #98 Honda • 6 Josef Newgarden #21 Chevrolet • 7 Helio Castroneves #3 Chevrolet • 8 Marco Andretti #27 Honda • 9 Charlie Kimball #83 Chevrolet • 10 Sebastien Bourdais #11 Chevrolet • 11 Mikhail Aleshin #7 Honda • 12 James Hinchcliffe #5 Honda • 13 Tony Kanaan #10 Chevrolet • 14 Takuma Sato #14 Honda • 15 Carlos Munoz #26 Honda • 16 Max Chilton #8 Chevrolet • 17 Scott Dixon #9 Chevrolet • 18 Jack Hawksworth #41 Honda • 19 RC Enerson #19 Honda • 20 Will Power #12 Chevrolet • 21 Conor Daly #18 Honda • 22 Spencer Pigot #20 Chevrolet

SONOMA, Calif. (Sept. 18, 2016) - With a dominating drive from the pole position, Simon Pagenaud won the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma and earned his first Verizon IndyCar Series championship at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday.

Pagenaud led 76 of the 85 laps in the No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet) to score his fifth win of the season and wrap up the title. It secured Team Penske's 14th Indy car championship in its 50th year of operation.

"It's unbelievable. I think I will realize it more tomorrow," Pagenaud said. "What a race! There is so much emotion right now, to be honest, I don't know if you can see it. I can't find the words. My whole career has been about this, about today and getting to this point and to this level." Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal (No. 15 Steak 'n Shake Honda) crossed the finish line 3.2523 seconds adrift of Pagenaud, with Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet), Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 DHL Andretti Autosport Honda), and Sunoco Rookie of the Year Alexander Rossi (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Andretti Herta Autosport Honda) rounding out the top five in the 2016 season finale on Sonoma Raceway's 2.385-mile permanent road course.

Pagenaud held a 43-point advantage over teammate Will Power heading into the weekend and added a point by winning the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying Saturday. Power started fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and moved into second place behind Pagenaud after the first round of pit stops. But a clutch malfunction on Lap 36 forced Power to stop on track and bring out a full-course caution. The Australian finished the race in 20th place to secure second in the championship for the fourth time in his career, 127 points behind Pagenaud.

"I've raced him for 10 years and I'm happy to see him win a championship," Power said, "even though I finished second to him." Helio Castroneves finished the race in seventh place in the No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet to wind up third in the championship. It gave Team Penske its second 1-2-3 sweep in the standings, after also accomplishing the feat in 1994 (Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy). Meanwhile, it was all Pagenaud all race long, as the Frenchman put on a championship drive en route to stamping his name in the history books as the champion. Rahal pushed him over the closing laps but was never able to attempt a pass for the lead.

"Good day, good way to end it," Rahal said. "I wanted to get Pagenaud , but when I'd get behind him, I'd get massively loose. I thought at one point it was best I salvage a second place rather than do something stupid." Josef Newgarden (No. 21 Fuzzy's Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) finished sixth in the race to claim fourth in the championship. Rahal's runner-up result in the race scores him a fifth-place championship finish, tops among the Honda drivers. Chevrolet clinched the manufacturers' championship for the fifth straight year - each season since engine competition resumed in 2012. Rossi ran out of fuel coming out of the last turn of the last lap, allowing teammate Hunter-Reay to overtake him for fourth place in the race. Still, Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner clinched Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. The 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season - a total of 17 races with all the same venues as this year with the addition of Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis - kicks off March 12 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Source:Sonoma Raceway Medial Release; 2016