Excitement from start to finish

This year’s Verizon Indycar Series was about to be decided in the final race on Sonoma Raceway in California.

After 16 rounds, four men still had the chance to win the title. Championship leader Scott Dixon would start the race from P2, Alexander Rossi from P6, Josef Newgarden from P3, and Will Power from P7. Rossi was the closest contender to Dixon, but he would have to gain 29 points on the New Zealander to win the championship.

Rossi’s Andretti Autosports teammate, Ryan Hunter-Reay took Pole Position ahead of Dixon, Newgarden, and Marco Andretti. On fifth place we had a sensation in the shape of Patricio O’Ward. He won Mazda Indy Lights title two weeks ago, and sat in an Indycar for the first time last week, and he delivered an impressive performance in yesterday’s qualifying.

It got dramatic quickly for Alexander Rossi at the start. He drove into the rear of Marco Andretti’s car a few metres from the start, which broke his front wing and punctured his front tire. He then chose to take a shortcut and came to the pits to get the car repaired.

Hunter-Reay kept the lead ahead of Dixon and Newgarden, so the front of the field was unaffected.

Tony Kanaan had a good first ten laps, where he went up from P18 to P13. Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato gained three places, so they were eighth and ninth respectively.

Graham Rahal managed to drive past Patricio O’Ward, when O’Ward had a tour on the gravel, while Power passed both of them in the next corner.

Simon Pagenaud and Spencer Pigot went in for their first pitstop on lap 12, and it was followed by the majority of the field in the next few laps.

Takuma Sato had a big engine damage out on the track, where the car sent smoke signals as if it was wildfire. He drove the car back to the pits, surprisingly without spilling oil, but he had to park and retire.

Chip Ganassi Racing team expected a Safety Car, so they pitted Dixon in the first chance. There was no yellow flag in the end, but Hunter-Reay and Newgarden chose to pit shortly after, not risking Dixon to win too much time.

Newgarden stalled when he was supposed to leave the pits, and it cost the defending champion several seconds.

Rossi was again involved in something on the track, when first Jordan King, and a few laps later also Charlie Kimball dived really late on him. Rossi seemed to be in a fuel saving strategy, in an attempt to win back the lost time. It meant that he would drive some laps that were slower than everyone else, but hopefully would win back some time with one less pitstop.

When Rossi pitted for the second time, he lost a lap to the cars in front, where he came out as the last man on the track.

Power was on the way forward in the field and came up to fifth, with a nice overtaking on Graham Rahal. Simon Pagenaud came up to third, ahead of Andretti with a quick first pitstop.

Rossi caught Dixon on the track and drove a few metres behind the championship leader – though with one lap difference. Rossi did a risky overtaking attempt, where he was wide over the curbs, but then he found out that he dived too late on Dixon. Luckily, there wasn’t any contact between the two.

Pagenaud came under pressure from Andretti for the third place. Pagenaud was on the softer tires, while Andretti’s black “normal” tires seemed faster.

Ed Jones came up to sixth, when he went past Graham Rahal. Rahal was also on the red tires and having problems with the grip.

Pagenaud pitted and got the black tires mounted after 35 laps, followed by Rahal.

Rossi went past Dixon and after that started chasing Hunter-Reay, to get the lap back.

Dixon was in trouble, when he was about to drive past Santino Ferrucci. The latter almost run Dixon car’s nose off, so the New Zealander wisely chose to pull back.

Rossi was just past Hunter-Reay, but he drove off the track through the gravel and lost the place again. When Hunter-Reay pitted one lap after, he was then back in the lead lap.

Hunter-Reay chose to put on the black tires, while Dixon opted for the red to try catching the leader.

After all the drivers had pitted twice, James Hinchcliffe from P15 could drive himself up to top 10, while Jordan King had won 10 places since the start of the car and was now fifteenth.

Graham Rahal stalled on the track after 44 laps, which resulted in the first yellow flag of the day. It was great for Rossi, who had gotten back to the lead lap after being ahead of Hunter-Reay.

Zach Veach, Alexander Rossi, and Santino Ferrucci used the chance to pit, getting more fuel and four new tires for Rossi.

Spencer Pigot had to retired due to technical problems in the gearbox on his Ed Carpenter Racing car.

When the race got restarted, the was a commotion right away down the field, where Carlos Muñoz spun around, and a number of cars had to avoid it by steering in different directions.

Rossi was flying on the first laps, that he was already up in P12. He continued his aggressive driving throughout the field and overtook Newgarden under braking in the final corner.

Rossi was now up in ninth place, after also driving past Pietro Fittipaldi and James Hinchcliffe.

Newgarden and Hinchcliffe brushed wheels a bit through the chicane on the back straight, but they joined the traffic again nicely.

Zach Veach had an exciting moment, where he went side by side with King, but had to brake hard so he wouldn’t fly off the track.

Rossi used the red tires to his advantage and was up to seventh, with his sight set on Sebastien Bourdais, and 30 laps left.

With 26 laps left of the race, Rossi went in for his last stop, and thus forced Dixon to do the same, so that he wouldn’t get caught behind a potential Safety Car.

On the next laps, everyone did their planned last pitstop.

The order that followed was Hunter-Reay, Dixon, Power, Pagenaud, Rossi, Andretti, and Bourdais.

It was obvious that Dixon should just drive the rest of the laps, without any intention to chase Hunter-Reay. It meant he got under pressure from Power, who had closed the distance between them.

With 12 laps left, Andretti went past Rossi again and then extended the gap.

Patricio O’Ward was the positive surprise of the day, and was driving in the solid ninth place, after starting fifth and had big problems with the tires in his first stine, but he got it solved later on. It will be exciting to follow his progress next year, where he hopefully will get a permanent Indycar seat.

Ryan Hunter-Reay won the last race of the season, and took his second victory, after also winning in Detroit earlier this year. It was his first win on the Sonoma track, in the last chance this time around, since the race isn’t in the 2019 calendar.

But the biggest winner of the day was Scott Dixon, who finished second, and thus secured the 2018 Verizon Indycar Series title, which is his fifth title in the series since 2003.

Will Power finished third, ahead of his teammate Simon Pagenaud, while Marco Andretti finished right in front of his teammate Alexander Rossi.

Rossi secured the second place in the championship, ahead of Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Josef Newgarden.

Robert Wickens won the Rookie of the year title, after having scored so many points in the first part of the season, that he had enough points before his unfortunate accident on the oval in Pocono.

This was also the last race with Verizon as the title sponsor in Indycar. The series has yet to announce any title sponsor for the upcoming season, but we expect them to do it soon.

Now Indycar will go to a winter holiday, before it will start again in St. Petersburg, Florida, on 8-10 March 2019.