IndyCar: Scott Dixon wins 2019 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2

Scott Dixon bounced back to earn his first victory of the 2019 IndyCar season by winning Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2 at the Raceway on Belle Isle.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon bounced back from his crash that cost him a podium finish in yesterday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 1 at the Raceway on Belle Isle by winning Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2, the eighth race on the 17-race 2019 IndyCar schedule, at the track this afternoon. This victory is his first victory of the season.

Dixon started this 70-lap race around the 14-turn, 2.35-mile (3.782-kilometer) Raceway on Belle Isle temporary street circuit on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan in sixth place in his #9 Honda, and he went on to win it by 1.9419 seconds over Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Marcus Ericsson, who finished in a career-high second in his #7 Honda.

Team Penske’s Will Power was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver of the race. In fact, he was the only Chevrolet driver who finished the race in the top 10 in the bowtie manufacturer’s backyard.

More from IndyCar

Power finished in a much-needed season-high third place in his #12 Chevrolet despite the fact that he was involved in a first-lap crash and his car basically died on the track afterwards. His third place finish was the highlight of a disastrous race for Team Penske, which won yesterday’s race with Josef Newgarden.

After Power, it was an onslaught of Honda drivers, specifically Andretti Autosport drivers. Andretti Autosport teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport) and Zach Veach finished in fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth place in their #28 Honda, #27 Honda, #98 Honda and #26 Honda, respectively.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal finished in seventh place in his #15 Honda for the second time this weekend. Dale Coyne Racing teammates Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan) and Santino Ferrucci, a rookie, rounded out the top 10 by finishing in ninth and 10th in their #18 Honda and #19 Honda, respectively.

Compared to what was a rather tame race yesterday, this race had it all.

This race featured a total of six lead changes among five drivers. Aside of Dixon, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 44 laps led, four drivers led at least one lap of the race. These four drivers were Ferrucci, Power, Ericsson and Newgarden, who started the race from the pole position.

The race also featured a total of five caution flag periods for 23 laps. Of the 22 drivers who started the race, 17 finished it, and of these 17 drivers, 15 finished on the lead lap.

Newgarden led only the race’s first lap, as a multi-car crash in turn three on the first lap of the race prompted a caution flag period during which he and several other drivers came into the pits.

Among those who did not come into the pits were Dixon, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot and Ferrucci. Dixon struggled on the red tires, as did Pigot, but when Pigot tried to make his pit stop on lap 15, he was hammered from behind by Bourdais. The nose of Bourdais’s car launched into the air and had to be repaired, but Pigot’s car was too damaged to continue.

Ferrucci appeared to be on his way to his maiden IndyCar victory before the pit stop of Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe on lap 33. Hinchcliffe came out of the pits ahead of Newgarden and Rossi, the front row starters who now effectively realized that their opening lap pit stop strategy would not send them back to the front of the pack on strategy alone.

Newgarden chopped off Rossi in an overaggressive attempt to pass Hinchcliffe in turn three, and he ended up sliding in front of Hinchcliffe’s #5 Honda into the tire barrier. Hinchcliffe’s car then hit the #2 Chevrolet of Newgarden before Rossi spun into Hinchcliffe, further damaging Hinchcliffe’s car and further damaging Newgarden’s car by shoving it further into the tire barrier.

Here is a video of this accident.

Things are heating up at the @detroitgp 😱

Points leader @josefnewgarden is forced to get out of his car while @AlexanderRossi pushes ahead 👀#INDYCAR // #DetroitGP pic.twitter.com/OO4DMn0gUR
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 2, 2019

With Ferrucci leading and still needing to make his first pit stop, he was caught out by this caution flag period and had to pit during it, which caused him to relinquish his lead.

Of the three drivers who were involved in this incident, only Rossi finished the race, although Newgarden was classified as running at the end since he did end up coming back out onto the track to log laps, albeit 21 laps off the lead lap. Hinchcliffe also continue running, but he began the race’s fourth caution flag period on lap 55 when he went off course in turn six.

The fifth and final caution flag led to a red flag period on lap 65 when Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist crashed in turn one, leading to the race’s final restart that resulted in his teammate pulling away from the rest of the field.

Here are the full race results of 2019 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Race 2 at the Raceway on Belle Isle.

Race Results
1st – Scott Dixon
2nd – Marcus Ericsson
3rd – Will Power
4th – Ryan Hunter-Reay
5th – Alexander Rossi
6th – Marco Andretti
7th – Graham Rahal
8th – Zach Veach
9th – Sebastien Bourdais
10th – Santino Ferrucci
11th – Patricio O’Ward
12th – Colton Herta
13th – Takuma Sato
14th – Ed Jones
15th – Max Chilton
16th – Felix Rosenqvist
17th – Simon Pagenaud
18th – James Hinchcliffe
19th – Josef Newgarden
20th – Matheus Leist
21st – Spencer Pigot
22nd – Tony Kanaan

Next. Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time. dark

The next race on the 2019 IndyCar schedule is the season’s ninth race, the DXC Technology 600. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 8, and it is scheduled to begin at 8:45 p.m. ET.