IndyCar: Alexander Rossi dominates 2018 ABC Supply 500

Alexander Rossi earned his third victory of the 2018 IndyCar season in the season’s 14th race, the ABC Supply 500, at Pocono Raceway.

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi earned his second consecutive victory of the 17-race 2018 IndyCar season by winning the season’s 14th race, the ABC Supply 500, at Pocono Raceway.

Rossi won the race in dominant fashion, just as he did in the previous IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the Honda Indy 200. The win is the his third of the season and the fifth of his IndyCar career.

Rossi won the 200-lap race around the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania after starting in third place in his #27 Honda. He won the race by 4.4982 seconds over Team Penske’s Will Power, the race polesitter, in second place. Power was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver of the race in his #12 Chevrolet.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden rounded out the top five finishing positions in third, fourth and fifth place in their #9 Honda, #18 Honda and #1 Chevrolet, respectively.

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The race featured a total of 11 lead changes among four drivers. Aside of Rossi, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 180 laps led, three other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Power, Dixon and Ed Carpenter.

The race also featured a total of two caution flag periods for 10 laps and a red flag period that lasted for one hour and 56 minutes. This red flag period took place following the race’s second caution flag period.

The first caution flag period of the race began right as Power took the green flag on lap one. Graham Rahal ran into the back of Spencer Pigot’s car, causing Pigot’s car to spin and make light contact with the inside retaining wall.

The race was restarted on lap seven, but lap seven did not end up being the first green flag lap of the race. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Robert Wickens both got great restarts, but Wickens had even more momentum than Hunter-Reay did. As a result, Wickens attempted to pass Hunter-Reay going into turn two.

The cars of the two drivers made contact, sending Hunter-Reay’s #28 Andretti Autosport Honda into the wall. Wickens’ #6 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda spun into Hunter-Reay’s car, and as a result, it was airlifted into the catch fence, where it was sent into a violent spin before it landed back on the track and continued spinning.

Wickens, who was reportedly awake and alert after the accident when he was attended to by the AMR IndyCar Safety Team and the IndyCar medical staff, was airlifted to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pennsylvania for further evaluation. James Hinchcliffe, Pietro Fittipaldi and Takuma Sato were also involved in this wreck as a result of a chain reaction.

Damage to the catch fence where Wickens’ car flew into prompted the lengthy red flag period, as repairs were needed in order to restore the catch fence to a safe condition.

But after the ensuing restart on lap 12, the race was caution-free. Just 14 of the 22 drivers who started the race finished it, and only four of the drivers who finished it finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results for the 2018 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway.

The next race on the 2018 IndyCar schedule is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park. That race is scheduled to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network starting at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 25.