Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix 2018-04-07

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Event
Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix

Date
Sat 7th April 2018 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
IndyCar Series

Season
2018

Round
2

Status

Location
ISM Raceway

Video Highlights

Description

The Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix is a Verizon IndyCar Series race held at the ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Open wheel racing in the Phoenix area dates back to 1915 on a dirt oval at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. The race was revived in 1950 by the AAA, and then passed to the United States Auto Club in 1956. USAC moved the race to the newly built Phoenix International Raceway in 1964. The race became a CART event in 1979, and joined the Indy Racing League in 1996. It was held continuously through 2005.
After a hiatus of eleven years, the race was revived by the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2016. It is currently held on Saturday night under the lights. Long considered a popular Indy car track, Phoenix has a rich history of open wheel races, including a spectacular crash involving Johnny Rutherford (1980), and the final career victory for Indy legend Mario Andretti (1993).

AVONDALE, Arizona – Josef Newgarden benefited from fresh tires on a late pit stop and charged from fourth place in the final seven laps to win the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway.
The reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Newgarden took the lead for the first time on Lap 206 of 250 on the 1.022-mile oval. A caution flag on Lap 230, when driver Ed Jones hit the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4, forced teams to decide whether to pit for a new set of Firestone tires or make it to the finish with what they had.
Rookie Robert Wickens, who nearly won the season opener last month at St. Petersburg, Florida, before being involved in a late-race incident, was the leader on the Lap 243 restart, with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate James Hinchcliffe and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi directly behind.
Newgarden, among eight lead-lap cars that stopped for new tires, bolted immediately past Rossi and Hinchcliffe on the outside through Turns 1 and 2 on the restart. He then sized up Wickens, in the No. 6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda, and made the winning pass – again on the outside in Turn 1 – on Lap 247.

Reports

Result List

Result Description
Pos/ Driver/ Team/ Laps/ Points

1 /Josef Newgarden /Team Penske /250 /51
2 /Robert Wickens /Schmidt Peterson Motorsports /250 /41
3 /Alexander Rossi /Andretti Autosport /250 /36
4 /Scott Dixon /Chip Ganassi Racing /250 /32
5 /Ryan Hunter-Reay /Andretti Autosport /250 /31
6 /James Hinchcliffe /Schmidt Peterson Motorsports /250 /29
7 /Ed Carpenter /Ed Carpenter Racing /250 /26
8 /Tony Kanaan /A.J. Foyt Enterprises /250 /24
9 /Graham Rahal /Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing /250 /23
10 /Simon Pagenaud /Team Penske /250 /21
11 /Takuma Sato /Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing /250 /19
12 /Marco Andretti /Andretti Autosport /249 /18
13 /Sebastien Bourdais /Dale Coyne Racing / 249 /19
14 /Spencer Pigot /Ed Carpenter Racing /249 /16
15 /Gabby Chaves /Harding Racing /249 /15
16 /Zach Veach /Andretti Autosport /249 /14
17 /Charlie Kimball /Carlin /248 /13
18 /Max Chilton /Carlin /247 /12
19 /Matheus Leist /A.J. Foyt Enterprises /241 /11
20 /Ed Jones /Chip Ganassi Racing /228 /10
21 /Kyle Kaiser /Juncos Racing /174 /9
22 /Will Power /Team Penske /153 /11
23 /Pietro Fittipaldi /Dale Coyne Racing / 40 /7

Points standings after this race:
Rank Driver Points

1 Josef Newgarden 77
2 Alexander Rossi 72
3 Sebastien Bourdais 70
4 Graham Rahal 63
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay 62
6 James Hinchcliffe 61
7 Scott Dixon 60
8 Robert Wickens 57
9 Tony Kanaan 43
10 Marco Andretti 40
11 Simon Pagenaud 38
12 Takuma Sato 37
13 Ed Jones 34
14 Gabby Chaves 31
14 Will Power 31
14 Spencer Pigot 31
17 Zach Veach 28
18 Ed Carpenter 26
19 Max Chilton 23
19 Charlie Kimball 23

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