Rossi Wins Pole, Second Career Race at Watkins Glen

Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts Honda, with Andretti Autosport, came into the race weekend at Watkins Glen International with good momentum. Earlier in the week, Andretti had just signed a new deal with Honda engines for the 2018 season. Then a few days later, Rossi signed a two-year deal with the team and sponsor NAPA as the main sponsor.

The weekend started out well for the California native as he had a fast car. He showed this during qualifying, making it all the way into the Fast Six. During the final seconds of the session, Rossi was out on track and laid down the fastest lap, earning him the pole position for the first time in his young IndyCar career.

When the green flag dropped for the race, Rossi again showed how fast his car was. However, partway through the race, he had fueling issues, forcing him to make an unscheduled pit stop. A few laps after he got back on track, a caution came out. This helped him and he was able to get back to the lead. He never looked back and went on to win for the first time since last year’s Indianapolis 500.

“Well, first of all, there are a lot of parallels, which is ironic or interesting,” Rossi quoted. “But I think the difference is today we had the dominant car, whereas I guess in the 100th you could argue we didn’t have a dominant car. We had a good car, but it wasn’t the dominant car. Today I was finally able to prove what I’ve been talking about the past month, two months, in terms of the step forward Andretti Autosports has taken. We have the package in the car and the people to be at the front. Just had things go wrong and we weren’t able to execute fully.”

When Rossi won his first race in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 last year, he did so with co-car owner Bryan Herta running the show behind the scenes and Rossi formed a bond with him. However, at the end of the 2016 season, Herta moved to teammate Marco Andretti’s team. Rob Edwards and Jeremy Miles took over as Rossi’s strategists. The win was crucial for their future together over the next two years.

“It’s getting another monkey off our back,” Rossi added. “Toronto was getting that podium kind of out of the way. We were able to get the pole out of the way and the race win as well. The confidence of the whole 98 team is at an all time high. It’s important to come at this time of the year. Obviously we have one race left, but as we start to look and prepare and look for 2018, to be able to end the season on such a high note is pretty special going into the off-season.”