Rahal sweeps IndyCar Detroit double-header
Dixon retains points lead
WASHINGTON, June 5, (AFP): Graham Rahal completed a sweep of IndyCar’s Detroit double-header on Sunday winning his second race in as many days with another dominant performance.
Rahal was leading when a breakdown for Spencer Pigot spewed oil and prompted organizers to red-flag the race.
It resumed with three laps to go and Rahal survived the dash to the finish, easily holding off Penske driver Josef Newgarden to win by 1.1772sec on the 2.35-mile (3.78 Km) temporary street circuit on Belle Isle.
Rahal, whose win on Saturday for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing came 25 years after his father Bobby Rahal won in Detroit in 1992, became the first driver to sweep an IndyCar double-header since Kiwi Scott Dixon won both races in Toronto in 2013.
The two victories vaulted Rahal nine spots in the series standings to sixth place after eight of 17 races.
Rahal led 41 of 70 laps in a race that ran without a caution until Canadian James Hinchcliffe’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda stopped on the course on lap 66.
As the cars backed up behind the pace car under caution, Pigot pulled off with smoke billowing and officials stopped the race complete to clean up.
“To me, a race is a race — we drove the race if the engine blows up it blows up. It should have been a yellow flag,” Rahal said.
But the decision did him no harm as he had plenty to hold off Newgarden.
“I didn’t think he had anything for us as long as we had clear traffic,” Rahal said. “I knew it was going to be tough, but I thought I could hold him off.”
Australia’s Will Power finished third in his Penske.
Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato, who had seized pole position Sunday morning with the fastest lap ever on the circuit, finished fourth for Andretti Autosport ahead of France’s Simon Pagenaud.
Dixon, who walked away from a harrowing crash at the Indianapolis 500 last week, was sixth. Dixon, a fourtime IndyCar series champion retained the points lead he seized on Saturday. His 303 points are eight more than second-placed Helio Castroneves with Sato third on 292 points.