THE
STREETS OF LONG BEACH, CA
Sunday,
April 13, 2014 on NBC Sports Network
Starts,
stops on streets: Conway a surprise winner at Toyota Long
Beach of Grand Prix
|
| Photo
credit: INDYCAR.com |
Conway
celebrates his win on the podium
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LONG
BEACH, Calif. -- The door was open for Andretti
Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe, who
were running 1-2 (the way they started the 80-lap race),
to battle for the victory in the 40th Toyota Grand Prix
of Long Beach. Until Lap 56.
That's
when the door swung wide open for others -- the result
of a multi-car pile-up triggered by the front-ru nner
-- to challenge over the final 24 laps on the 1.968-mile,
11-turn street course.
The
chief beneficiaries were Scott Dixon, Justin Wilson, Will
Power and Mike Conway – all of whom squeezed through
the Turn 4 incident – and the intrigue continued
on the single-file restart. Wilson’s No. 19 Dale
Coyne Racing car was summarily punted into the runoff
in Turn 8 and Dixon had to simultaneously fend off the
challenges while attempting to conserve the E85 left in
the 18.5-gallon tank aboard the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi
Racing car.
Calculations showed that the reigning Verizon IndyCar
Series champion would be a half-lap short following a
Lap 71 restart (the caution because of the stranded car
driven by Graham Rahal in Turn 11), and he pitted on Lap
78 for a splash that enabled him to secure 12th place.
Conway
inherited the point on worn Firestone alternate tires
and no push-to-pass availability to hold off Power, who
had won the past three races dating to last season.
“Somehow,
I got it done,” said Conway, who earned his second
victory on the street course and won in his second race
driving for Ed Carpenter Racing. “It can’t
believe I’m actually (in Victory Circle).”
Power,
driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, was .9005
of a second back and series rookie Carlos Munoz finished
third. Web traffic from Colombia was at an all-time high
as Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the 1999 Long Beach race
and was competing in his second Verizon IndyCar Series
race in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske car, picked up 12
positions relative to his starting spot to place fourth.
“Just
an awesome job by the team,” said Conway, who started
17th in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car
that sustained front wing damage early on. “You
never know where you’re going to be, so you just
have to push as hard as you can all the time. I pushed
because I knew Will was going to be close and he was good
off the last corner. I knew I had to keep it clean there.
I wasn’t sure Scott was going to pull in there.
I couldn’t see he was saving fuel where he should
have been saving. Second would have been good, but this
is awesome.”
In
total, the top four finishers gained 48 positions, partially
because of the incident that eliminated Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe,
Josef Newgarden, Jack Hawksworth and Tony Kanaan –
the first three starting in the top five – and other
misadventures on the circuit by Sebastien Bourdais and
Simon Pagenaud.
The
front wing of Hunter-Reay's No. 28 DHL car clipped the
right-rear tire of the Newgarden’s No. 67 Sarah
Fisher Hartman Racing car as he attempted to complete
the pass in Turn 4. Newgarden’s car was pushed to
the left-side barrier and Hinchcliffe had nowhere to turn
while the others also were collected. Hinchcliffe suffered
a sprained wrist that will be evaluated by INDYCAR’s
medical team this week.
Newgarden
had pitted for what was to be his final time on Lap 55.
“We
had a strong car and Newgarden came out of pit lane and
I knew he was on cold tires,” Hunter-Reay said.
“He was really struggling to get up to speed through
Turn 1, and then through Turn 3 he had some wheel spin
so I went for it. I started to back out because he was
closing the door. I could have waited a little later.
Maybe that’s my fault, but at the same time I had
at least a half a car up along sides of him so I went
for it. If we had given each other a little bit of room
we both maybe would have gotten through there.
“I
made the decision at that split second, when he had some
wheel spin, to go for it knowing that I was on hot tires.
That’s the type of driver I am, I go for it. I feel
bad for everybody involved. A racing driver, when he’s
in the moment and he sees a chance to go for it…
I went for it because I want to win the race.”
Power, three times a series championship runner-up, has
a sizable points lead (93-66 over Conway) heading to the
April 27 race at Barber Motorsports Park, where he's won
twice and started on the pole twice. Hunter-Reay is the
defending race winner.
|
| Graphic
credit: INDYCAR.com |
Mike
Conway's Long Beach stats
Logo
credit: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
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