ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Joe Skibinski/IndyCar photo —
Juan Pablo Montoya kicked off his quest to avenge a bitter Verizon IndyCar Series title defeat in thrilling fashion Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, winning his second straight race in the south Florida suburbs and leading a sweep of the top two finishing positions for team owner Roger Penske.
Montoya assumed the top spot for good with 26 laps to go, after a final round of green flag pit stops, and held off teammate Simon Pagenaud for his 15th career Indy car victory by 2.3306 seconds despite a major problem with the steering of his No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet in the final laps.
“The steering arm was broken,” Montoya said as he gestured to the steering wheel. “There was play (movement) in my steering wheel — like play, play, play completely. It was kind of turning things … like it would lag, lag and then finally it would turn … but I think it was okay (laughs). We won the race.”
With the headline of the morning being Will Power’s absence from the field after winning the pole, the 110-lap event was blown wide open with Oriol Servia taking the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon Dallara/Chevrolet and dropping to the rear.
The change elevated Frenchman Simon Pagenaud to the front row alongside Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, and Pagenaud drove out to an easy lead over the first 23 laps, leading by nearly nine seconds by the time he finally made his first pit stop of the race.
Marco Andretti grabbed the lead for mere moments, but was never credited with leading a lap before Pagenaud reassumed control. The gap that was six seconds over Montoya was reduced to 2.5 seconds as the lead pair tried to run away from third-place Scott Dixon.
Dixon would keep pace with the top two however, all the way until the first caution at lap 46 — which flew when Marco Andretti and Luca Filippi made contact entering turn one that led to Andretti spinning and stalling at the exit of the corner. The lead lap cars returned to pit road save for rookie Conor Daly and 2004 champion Tony Kannan, who led the field back to the green flag after cleanup was complete.
Lap 57 saw the restart come followed by an immediate caution after the field piled up in turn four. Carlos Munoz tagged Graham Rahal entering the tight corner and calamity ensued, collecting Oriol Servia, Jack Hawksworth, James Hinchcliffe and others as the track became blocked.
A seven-lap slowdown would result before racing resumed again, and on the lap 64 restart Daly could do nothing to hold off the advance of defending race winner Montoya, who charged to his inside in turn one and built a one second advantage by the time the field hit the 40 to go mark.
At that point, defending series champion Scott Dixon gave up a top five running position to hit pit road, complaining of water temperature issues at the wheel of his No. 9 Target-Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet. That dropped him to 14th in the running order as Montoya, Daly and Pagenaud continued to occupy the top three spots.
Over the course of the green-flag run, Montoya’s crew reported to him that the right-rear brake rotor was “extremely cold”, with potential trouble on the horizon as he chased a second-straight victory on the Streets of St. Petersburg. That issue would not prevent Montoya from increasing the lead gap, however, as he moved the needle to 2.2 seconds before Daly relinquished the lead for his final pit stop with 30 laps to go.
A slow stop would cost the Dale Coyne Racing driver three seconds on track as Montoya and Pagenaud pitted from the top two positions three laps later. That would allow Ryan Hunter-Reay to lead laps 83 and 84 before Montoya reassumed command on the 85th time around.
Daly would have to return to pit road at that point for a front wing replacement and issues with the water temperature on his machine, ending a stellar drive for the Indiana native as his chances for victory vanished.
As the laps wound down, Montoya had to deal with heavy traffic as he lapped all the way up to 11th place before the problems with his steering arose inside of five to go. The mechanical gremlins were no match for the Colombian, who was thankful for both the buffer of traffic and the respect shown during his hard battle with teammate Pagenaud in the final third of Sunday’s race.
“It’s great to race teammates like Simon and I did there (on the lap 57 and 64 restarts), because we race each other hard but we give each other room,” Montoya said. “Everyone at Team Penske has done an amazing job and I’m glad to be back here again. We’re here to win everything and hopefully this is just the first of many this year.”
Pagenaud hung on for second to mark his best result since joining Team Penske at the beginning of the 2015 season.
“Overall it was a great day,” the Frenchman said. “If you compare (Sunday) to last year, it’s been a massive improvement on the whole 22 crew. I’m super proud to represent HPE in our first race and be here on the podium in second place, leading the race for a while. … It’s been awesome. We had so much fun this weekend. We’re just going to keep pushing and I think we’ll be strong this year.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay snuck by Helio Castroneves for the final spot on the podium with three laps left, leaving Castroneves with fourth at the twin checkers. Russian Mikhail Aleshin rounded out the top five with a brilliant drive to kick off his first full season back since a crash at the 2014 season finale (Fontana, Calif.) parked him for all but one race last year.
Of note, Dixon rallied from his issues to finish seventh, while his teammate Charlie Kimball crashed in turn one on the final lap. Kimball was credited with the 10th finishing position despite being classified with a DNF (Did Not Finish).
The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action on April 2 with the Phoenix Grand Prix, a 250-lap event from the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval in Avondale, Ariz.
RESULTS: Verizon IndyCar Series; Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg; Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.; March 12, 2016
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Simon Pagenaud
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Helio Castroneves
- Mikhail Aleshin
- Takuma Sato
- Scott Dixon
- Carlos Munoz
- Tony Kanaan
- Charlie Kimball
- Jack Hawksworth
- Alexander Rossi
- Conor Daly
- Spencer Pigot
- Marco Andretti
- Graham Rahal
- Max Chilton
- Oriol Servia
- James Hinchcliffe
- Luca Filippi
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Josef Newgarden
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: news@racechaseronline.com
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