ELKHART LAKE – Felix Rosenqvist claimed his first IndyCar victory on Sunday, taking credit for traffic and larger tires to deny O’Ward Duck the same honor.
First patiently, then aggressively, the 28-year-old Swedish driver chased O’Ward after the last pit stop and made his move on the penultimate lap, crossing the five tight left of Road America and Turn 6.
“Duck, when he caught the traffic, he just turned around and we won a lot,” said Rosenqvist, who scored two rookies in second place last season.
“You never trust too much, but when I saw the hole with Duck narrow the last 4 or five laps, I only had one thing in mind and I think my team had one thing in mind: winning the race.” »»
O’Ward, powerless to defend, finished 2,8699 moments at the time of the REV Group Grand Prix after leading 43 of 55 pole laps.
“As everyone saw, he caught up with me and left me, ” said O’Ward. “It wasn’t like I could stay awake.”
Alexander Rossi, the 2019 Road America winner who had finished the first three depressing races of the season, recorded his first podium, 8,615 seconds. Marcus Ericcson, Rosenqvuist’s compatriot and teammate, fourth and Colton Herta fifth.
Rosenqvist kept Chip Ganassi Racing undefeed after Scott Dixon won the first three races of the season. Five-time champion Dixon 12th.
Aleven, though the race in chaos, the last four laps ended up under the green flag, establishing a variety of methods that kept him attractive even though O’Ward took a lead of more than nine seconds.
His Chevrolet with the stickiest but less durable tires of choice, which didn’t make a difference with Rosenqvist’s Honda in the primaries. O’Ward also had to deal with cars that were spinning in the final relay with Dalton Kellett at the helm and Conor Daly, who pressured O’Ward and then advanced him four laps to the end.
KALLMANN: Road America IndyCar weekend goes as expected
“Today we conducted and we probably gave everything we had in us to win this race,” said O’Ward, who the day he won his first pole in the rating less than 2:30 before the race.
“We knew we had the rhythm, yet we took a picture in the dark for the long relays. We made some adjustments in the hope that it would help, however, it would damage us in the life of the rear tires and those Ganassi cars were so, so quickly the relay, especially the last five laps.
Mayhem reigned during the first round.
First, a tangle at the back of the box at the start of the delayed schedule caused the frame to fly. Then Ryan Hunter-Reay spun on the left side of the track on Turn 1 after a touch of Will Power. And despite everything, Graham Rahal crashed on Turn 3 after being hit in the right way through Power and then Rosenqvist.
After the precautionary races in 2018 and 19, on Saturday he had 3 yellow flags in seven laps, a trend that continued.
This weekend marked the return of enthusiasts to IndyCar’s races, after the first two took a position in a bubble to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus at the start of a season already delayed by the pandemic.
Although Road America does not percentage attendance figures, control is visibly satisfied with participation over two sunny and temperate days.
On Saturday, Dixon was the first driving force in fashion history to win the first 3 races of the season, following victories at Texas Motor Speedway and The Indianapolis Motor Speedway. J. Foyt won the first 3 in 1964 and Al Unser in 1971 at USAC, and Sébastien Bourdais won the first 4 of the 2006 Champ Car season. They all won the championship that season.
Road America is the first of the 3 double program weekends under a schedule made in response to restrictions and considerations on the cononavirus pandemic. The track originally scheduled to host the series last month, but replaced the dates to create the most productive opportunity to have enthusiasts on the site, and the moment the race was added.
IndyCar advances to his double program on Fridays and Saturdays at Iowa Speedway, a short oval.