Pagenaud delivers defiant IndyCar GP win
“I’m still here.”
A month ago in Long Beach, California, after reaching the Fast 6 Shootout for the first time this season, Simon Pagenaud sat down in the post-qualifying news conference and defiantly declared that he hadn’t gone anywhere.
“I was never gone,” he said.
No, he admitted, the 2018 campaign hadn’t gone as planned. Zero wins and a sixth-place finish in the championship isn’t what’s expected of him at Team Penske. He struggled, particularly on the road and street courses, to adapt to the intricacies of the universal aero kit. But he hadn’t forgotten how to drive.
He was still Simon Pagenaud, still the guy who ran roughshod through the NTT IndyCar Series in 2016, dominating races and racking up five wins en route to a series championship.
“People can forget pretty quickly,” Graham Rahal chimed in that day at Long Beach.
If people had indeed forgotten just how good Pagenaud can be, Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway served as a potent reminder. Once the rain started to fall heavy on an already damp track, the world was treated to what Conor Daly would later call a “vintage Pagenaud” display.
The sixth annual IndyCar Grand Prix had been chaotic until then, but Pagenaud managed to keep out of the early fracas that crippled Alexander Rossi’s car and ended Colton Herta’s day prematurely. Once the rain grew stronger and the remainder of the field was forced to finally slap on rain tires to deal with the wet track, none were a match for the Frenchman.
With a car that was clearly superior to that of his competitors, Pagneaud started making quick work of his foes, masterfully darting up from sixth to third with little trouble as he employed a career’s worth of experience of racing in the rain. His pass of Jack Harvey, who would finish third, was a thing of beauty.
He deked outside and charged hard inside into Turn 1, slipping past Harvey with five laps to go. It would have been the highlight of the race if not for what he did next. With five laps left, he trailed Scott Dixon, the living legend and reigning champion, by six seconds. With no push to pass remaining, it seemed to most that despite already earning the right to call himself the star of the race, Pagenaud would have to settle for second.
Nope.
It turned out Dixon was struggling to turn his car. Pagenaud, meanwhile, was making up ground quickly, chewing up the five-second gap until he was right on top of Dixon with two laps to go.
Dixon had a feeling he was sunk much earlier.
“With 10 laps to go, I kind of knew I was in trouble,” he said. “And then the gap actually started to get a bit bigger. I think Harvey was having a similar issue with his balance and struggling, and
that was kind of holding Pagenaud back. But they were giving me lap times, and you could see that the 22 just had some pretty immense pace. Once I knew he got some clear track and once he got past Harvey, I think it only took two laps before he was on top of us.”
Pagenaud made the pass and forced Dixon to settle for second for a frustrating third consecutive time in the Grand Prix.
The victory was Pagenaud’s third in the IndyCar Grand Prix, keeping he and teammate Will Power as the races only winners. The triumph also was his first since the 2017 season finale at Sonoma, ending a 21-race winless drought. It also was Roger Penske’s fourth straight victory of significance at the Racing Capital of the World. Between Will Power’s May sweep last year and Brad Keselowski’s triumph at the Brickyard 400, Penske is dominating at a place that has already brought him so much glory.
Penske, however, wasn’t much interested in talking about himself or his accomplishments. He knows how badly Pagenaud wanted a win. The world knows after Pagenaud let out screams of joy as he crossed the finished line.
“It’s good to see him back in victory lane,” Dixon said. “You saw the emotion. It’s not easy to get a win here in these days.”
Later in the Long Beach news conference, Pagenaud said his “I’m still here” comments weren’t about a perceived lack of respect. He said it was just about having confidence in himself. But there’s little doubt he’s caught wind of the whispers about his job security that seemed to have grown louder of late.
Some have wondered if Pagenaud continued to struggle as he did in 2018, if this would be his final season in a Penske car — if he was just keeping the seat warm as Penske chased the next hot, young driver.
Some had written him off entirely. But as Pagenaud said at Long Beach and declared with vigor Saturday, he’s still here, and Roger Penske is pleased to have him racing under his banner.
“I tell you what, I didn’t write him off,” Penske said of Pagenaud. “People who have won for you, you hang with them and help them. Today, Simon showed just how good he is.”