Scott Dixon was surprised, Helio Castroneves was steaming and Will Power continues to lead the IZOD IndyCar Series championship standings though he was thwarted again in seeking his third consecutive victory.
That capsulizes the Honda Indy Edmonton at City Centre Airport, where the podium finishers on stage were subdued while Castroneves was animated on pit lane. But it’s far from the entire story.
Dixon prevailed in the 95-lap race on the 1.973-mile, 14-turn circuit courtesy of a black flag issued to race leader Castroneves for blocking on Lap 93.
Castroneves and Will Power entered Turn 1 side by side following a restart, with Castroneves hitting the apex a car length ahead. As Dixon slipped past Power into second, race chief steward Brian Barnhart immediately called Castroneves for blocking his Team Penske teammate.
The call was radioed to the No. 3 car, but Castroneves didn’t heed the drive-thru pit lane penalty. Following the race, he received a 20-second penalty, which placed him at the end of the lead lap (10th). A black flag cannot be appealed, according to Indy Racing League rules.
Dixon, who started third, was running third after pitting for the final time on Lap 74 along with Castroneves and Power. He said he thought that because Castroneves and Power were far right of the racing line that they would be in the marbles and he could slip past both. IndyCar.com
Dixon captured his second victory of the season and the 23rd of his IndyCar career. He has won two of the first three races at Edmonton. Power won here last year.
“All in all, it’s not what I expected to happen at the end,” Dixon said. “In some ways, I knew Will and Helio were fighting pretty hard. You could see that the first time Helio passed Will…I just continued on with the regular line where it’s nice and clean and figured or hoped that they picked up a lot of debris and were going to make it tough through [turns] one and two. That’s kind of what happened. Pretty strange to not lead a lap and actually win the race.”
Dixon’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Dario Franchitti, finished third, with Ryan Briscoe from Penske and Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding out the top-five.
Canadian Paul Tracy finished sixth, while his fellow countryman Alex Tagliani crashed just past the half-way point and wound up 23rd in the 25-car field. MiamiHerald.com
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