IndyCar: 2018 IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis results – Will Power wins
By Asher Fair
Will Power won the fifth race of the 2018 IndyCar season, the IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the third time in the last four years.
Team Penske’s Will Power took the checkered flag in his #12 Chevrolet for his first victory of the 2018 IndyCar season by winning the IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. He has now won the race three times in the last four years and is now the fourth different winner through five races so far this season.
Power held off Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, the highest finishing Honda driver in the race in his #9 Honda, by 2.2443 seconds to claim his 33rd career IndyCar victory and 30th as a driver for Team Penske.
The win was the third of the season for a Chevrolet driver and second in a row after Power’s teammate Josef Newgarden won the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park three weeks ago.
It was also the third winner in a row for a race polesitter, as Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi started from the pole position in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on the streets of Long Beach, California four weeks ago.
The race featured a total of nine lead changes among seven different drivers. Power led more laps than anybody in the field, as he led 56 of the 85 laps around the 13-turn, 2.439-mile road course. Other drivers who led at least one lap of the race aside of Power included Sebastien Bourdais, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Kyle Kaiser, Robert Wickens and Graham Rahal.
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The race also featured a total of two caution flag periods for eight laps. The first caution flag period of the race began on the first lap after Graham Rahal got into the grass in turn one, thus causing Helio Castroneves to hit Simon Pagenaud, sending Pagenaud into Jordan King. Both Pagenaud and King ended up off the course.
In turns five and six on the same lap, Spencer Pigot got airborne after hitting the curb, sending him into Takuma Sato. That is when the caution flag period officially began.
The second and final caution flag period of the race began on lap 56 when Josef Newgarden attempted to take third place away from Sebastien Bourdais going into turn 12. He hit the curb and spun out, but he was able to maintain his lead in the championship standings after rebounding to finish the race in 11th place.
During that caution flag period, the field pitted for fuel. It was unknown as to whether or not they could make that fuel last until the end of the race with 27 laps to go, but they did, and Power prevailed after beating Wickens out of the pits by a nose and then holding off Dixon once the race went back to green.
Here are the full results of the 2018 IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Engine |
| 1 | Will Power | #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 2 | Scott Dixon | #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 3 | Robert Wickens | #6, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 4 | Sebastien Bourdais | #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 5 | Alexander Rossi | #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 6 | Helio Castroneves | #3, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 7 | James Hinchcliffe | #5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 10 | Takuma Sato | #30, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 11 | Josef Newgarden | #1, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 12 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 13 | Marco Andretti | #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda |
| 14 | Tony Kanaan | #14, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 15 | Spencer Pigot | #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 16 | Max Chilton | #59, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 17 | Gabby Chaves | #88, Harding Racing, Chevrolet |
| 18 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 19 | Kyle Kaiser | #32, Juncos Racing, Chevrolet |
| 20 | Charlie Kimball | #23, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 21 | Matheus Leist | #4, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 22 | Ed Jones | #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 23 | Zach Veach | #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 24 | Jordan King | #20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
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The next race on the 2018 IndyCar schedule is the Indianapolis 500, which is set to take place on Sunday, May 27 after the live broadcast of it begins at 11:00 a.m. ET on that date. Tune in to qualifying for the race next weekend on both Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20 starting at 11:00 a.m. ET on Saturday and 2:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. ABC is set to broadcast qualifying on both days starting at 4:00 p.m. ET.