Simon Pagenaud takes virtual Twin Ring Motegi for second straight IndyCar iRacing Challenge win
For the first time, IndyCar’s iRacing Challenge has a two-time winner, and back-to-back no less.
Simon Pagenaud picked up another victory Saturday afternoon at virtual Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, taking advantage of carnage suffered by two of his teammates with under 10 laps to go.
Lapped Arrow McLaren SP rookie Oliver Askew got into the side of race leader Will Power on lap 106 with Power and his teammate Scott McLaughlin driving close for the lead. Power slid over, catching the front wing of his teammate and sent him careening into the fence and ending McLaughlin’s day.
Just moments later, Power and Pagenaud bumped side-by-side, after which the No. 12 car had lost his wing. The damage allowed Chip Ganassi Racing veteran Scott Dixon to slide into second, where he and Pagenaud dueled to the finish. The race-winner snaked down the straights, just as he did to help secure his 2019 Indy 500 victory nearly a year ago.
“Man, we worked hard all week to be competitive, and I think I’m catching up,” Pagenaud said on the NBC Sports broadcast after the race. “We’re getting there, learning another way to race.”
For yet another week, patience and fuel strategy made the difference, as the victor was plenty happy to sit in the middle of the field for the first half of the race as Power led 37 consecutive laps from Lap 13 to 50 before his first pit stop after qualifying second. McLaughlin, who qualified fifth, and Dixon (seventh) were never far behind.
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After the field cycled through the pits, the trio again took over, though Pagenaud eventually snuck up to make it a four-car race with 30 laps to go. All four pitted on Lap 87, eventually handing the lead to Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden and giving him a double-digit advantage over the four-car caravan. But with a 115-lap race that had a fuel window of just over 50 laps, Newgarden wasn’t going to be able to conserve gas to the finish and dipped into the pits on lap 101 and finished 15th.
And when the opportunity presented itself, it was Pagenaud ready to take advantage of late-race mayhem.
“(During the race), I’m wanting to go to the front. I know I can, but I’m taking care of the tires and fuel, trying to understand how the cars around me are evolving. I knew if we were a bit patient, we could get them.
“Will (Power) ran a great race, and Scott (Dixon) was strong as well, but the strategy put us in front, and we finished there. That’s all that matters.”
Power took third, more than three seconds back from his winning teammate, with Marcus Ericsson (fourth), pole-sitting Robert Wickens (fifth), Jack Harvey (sixth), Sage Karam (seventh), Zach Veach (eighth), Santino Ferrucci (ninth) and Graham Rahal (10th) rounding out the top 10.
As has been consistent for each of the four IndyCar iRacing Challenge events, chaos derailed some teams’ chances early-on. James Hinchcliffe suffered technical issues and wasn’t able to enter his car into the field of 33 – the second time that’s happened to the Andretti Autosport driver this series.
After qualifying sixth, Tony Kanaan’s car went soaring on Lap 1 in an early incident, while veteran IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves spun on the fourth lap of his first iRacing Challenge start, taking out multiple cars in the back of the field. That incident forced the race to turn yellow for five laps before going back to green five laps later.
Both Carlin Racing cars failed to make it to the finish line. Max Chilton’s car suffered early damage that wasn’t able to be repaired, while internet connection issues caused Felipe Nasr’s car to glitch and race control to park his car. They finished 32nd and 31st, respectively. Kanaan was forced to retire on Lap 90 after he failed to replace his tires during his original pit stop and fell back to an eventual DNF in 30th.
Castroneves finished 29th, three laps down in his first IndyCar iRacing Challenge event, with other first-timers Rinus VeeKay (23rd), Kyle Busch (13th) and Takuma Sato (12th) up a bit ahead.
Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.