Ryan Briscoe qualified second yesterday. This morning during practice, Will Power elected to start the race on driver’s left. Throughout the race the lead hardly changed and Power always seemed to get back out in front. Power headed into the pits on lap 64 for four tires and fuel. Ryan Briscoe in The No. 2 became the new leader.
“FULL COURSE YELLOW!” rang out over the radio as the No. 67 of Josef Newgarden and #7 Sebastian Bourdais made contact with the tire wall between Turns 8 and 9 in a MASSIVE WRECK. Newgarden went on the inside of Bourdais in an attempt to overtake him. Bourdais cut the corner in the dirt causing him to not be able to steer, then veered back across the race surface. Newgarden was left with nowhere to go and like a carbon fiber missile, slammed into the wall at speed. “It was a very bad impact the tub is broken in two and the gear box pretty much went through my shoulder so it was a really bad hit. It’s a shame. I feel very bad because at first I don’t know what happened the car just refused to turn and it’s my mistake for sure, it’s me turning the wheel. I have no idea what happened.” (About race):”Yeah everything was working out great because then we were going to finish with the better tires. We had a brand new set of tires. The problem is we were in the mix of all these lapped cars that were racing us pretty hard and I wanted to stay ahead and I guess I should have just given up.” Bourdais said after the wreck.
“Pretty much every body panel, the tub and the engine will need to be repaired,” Mike O’Gara, team manager for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, said. “The first six inches of the tub are basically crushed. Every piece of suspension was damaged, so the car is pretty much a write-off at the moment.”
On lap 65 Briscoe pitted for four new tires and fuel. When he left the pits he beat Will Power to the blend line and managed to hold off the Penske Powerhouse for the remainder of the race!.
Credit: LAT USA courtesy of IndyCar
Credit: LAT USA courtesy of IndyCar
