Rahal completes Detroit sweep

Sunday, 04 June 2017


It wasn't totally textbook like Saturday's victory but Graham Rahal withstood a two-lap shootout with Team Penske on Sunday afternoon to sweep the Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader.

After leading 55 of 70 laps in the first race from the pole, Rahal again parlayed his two-stop pit strategy and fast pace of his Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Honda to become the first driver to ever sweep the weekend at Belle Isle.

But the sixth win of his career was a lot more stressful than the fifth.

After Rahal's last pit stop on Lap 48, he was back on point at Lap 50 when Josef Newgarden, who was out in front for Laps 48 and 49, made his third and final stop. The 28-year-old American owned a 16-second lead with 19 laps left and Newgarden had knocked it down to 6.5 seconds on Lap 66 when James Hinchcliffe lost an engine and Spencer Pigot suffered some kind of turbocharger issue seconds later.

That brought out the first caution of the race, which quickly became a red flag while IndyCar cleaned up the debris and towed off the two cars.
"An engine blew and that's the race, so I would have liked to see it stay yellow but I get they want to put on a show for the fans," said Rahal, who led 41 of 70 laps.

When the green waved again on Lap 69, the leader had 57 seconds of push-to-pass, Newgarden only 36 and third place Will Power had 1m11s worth of extra horsepower. But nobody had anything for Rahal all weekend and he easily pulled away to become the first doubleheader winner since Scott Dixon in 2013 at Toronto.

"I knew it would be tough those last couple laps but I thought I could hold them off in clean air and we did," said the second generation driver who entered the weekend in 16th place in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings and is now sixth – only 52 points behind leader Dixon. "It was a great weekend for this team and for Honda and I'm proud of everyone."

Newgarden started 13th and made three pit stops but was the fastest car on the track at times and happy with second place.

"I think we were all just holding on at the end because there was so much build-up and marbles on our tires," said the Penske Chevy driver. "I wasn't real optimistic I could pass Graham but it was a good day. I've just got to do a better job of qualifying."

Starting third, Rahal trailed polesitter Takuma Sato and front-row mate Ryan Hunter-Reay for the first 10 laps before passing Hunter-Reay. When Sato pitted on Lap 23, Rahal assumed the lead, stayed out one more lap and jumped the 2017 Indy 500 winner on his pit stop.

From there, Rahal controlled the race from Sato and Newgarden, the only other two drivers to lead. With zero cautions until the end, none of the various pitting off-sequence strategies had a chance.

Power salvaged a tough weekend with third, while Sato finished fourth.

"We did everything we could and made no mistakes – we just didn't have the speed today," admitted the 2017 Indy 500 winner.

Simon Pagenaud was fifth and Dixon soldiered home sixth with his very tender left ankle from his big Indy accident.