Pagenaud continues IndyCar domination
INDIANAPOLIS — Simon Pagenaud pulled away to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on Saturday for his third consecutive victory and second in three years on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The French driver inherited the lead when Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves pitted with 20 laps to go and beat the Brazilian by 4.4748 seconds on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn course. Pagenaud is the first IndyCar driver to win three in a row since Scott Dixon in 2013.
Pagenaud started from the pole and led 57 of the 82 laps. He kept the lead despite making his final pit stop one lap after Castroneves.
Pagenaud extended his points lead over Dixon to 76. Dixon, the defending series champion, finished seventh for Target Chip Ganassi.
Canadian James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports was third.
In other motor sports news:
• Erik Jones won the Xfinity Series race at Dover International Speedway, where he earned a $100,000 bonus from the series’ Dash-4-Cash program. Four drivers were eligible for the bonus, and Jones won it for the second time this season. Jones led a race-high 76 laps in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and he was cruising to the win until a caution came out with 11 laps remaining because Brendan Gaughan spun. The yellow flag ate up Jones’ lead over Alex Bowman, who pitted under the caution for four tires. Jones was the leader on the restart with five to go, and Bowman was fourth. Bowman ended up finishing third.
• Lewis Hamilton picked qualifying to edge Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time this week and earn the pole position for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. Hamilton qualified nearly threetenths of a second faster than Rosberg.