Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar
Coming into the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Simon Pagenuad was coming off a race win at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He was able to bring that momentum in with him as he qualified his No. 22 Team Penske PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet on the pole for the race.
The Frenchman had been dominate the whole race, leading 84 laps of the 90 lap race. Although he did have to deal with some lap traffic as the leader during the race.
He also late in the race had to defend his spot as leader when Graham Rahal was making a charge at trying to take the lead. Rahal would suffer wing damage as they battled when he hit Jack Hawkworth with just a handful of laps remaining. The damage would give Pagenaud the break he would need to hold Rahal off and win the race.
“Yeah, it was interesting with Graham there,” he said. “We decided to make it exciting for the fans at the end. I guess we had a terrific race. The PPG Chevy car was just fast on the stint today. I was very comfortable on all sorts of tires. The black tires were working really well. The red tires were really good, as well.
“The pit sequence actually worked out really well for us, even though we were stuck in traffic halfway through the race, and then that was a bit of an issue because I could have really gone. But once you’re behind someone, even if that someone is eighth tenths slower than you, you really can’t pass. And you obviously have to be really careful about the tire degradation when you’re behind someone. So ultimately I couldn’t really create the gap I wanted to create.
“But in the end, Graham really caught up, and he gave me a good piece of driving that was amazing for him. I put my hat off to him for that. He got me really excited, and I wouldn’t say that – the redness came up after I went off track. I said, yeah, I’m going to get that on back no matter what. We had so much pace in the car that I could get back to him, and then it was about being aggressive. He got a little too aggressive over the curb, and that was my chance.”
This makes back-to-back wins for the Pagenaud, who is in his second year with Team Penske. Despite showing speed last season, it’s worth noting that his Long Beach win this season was his first win with Penske. Now, everybody wonders if he can stopped with having added a second one a week later.
“It feels great,” he said. I’ve got to tell you guys, the biggest thing is when your work pays off, when you work so hard and it pays off like this, it’s so rewarding. You feel so grateful. I’m very thankful for my position right now, for being in this team. They give me the best car.”
Now IndyCar moves into the month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for two events there. First the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the road course at IMS on May 14th while the second will be the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29th.
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about the Indy Grand Prix for a while because that is one of my favorite track, certainly favorite road course, and great memories from winning the inaugural Grand Prix there,” Pagenaud said. “It’s the kickoff for the month of May. Great memories from the Indy 500 last year, leading a lot of laps. I’m very excited for May.”
