the lead in the VERIZON IndyCar Series points standings for the first time in his career . Unofficially , Pagenaud has 83 points and leads Dixon by four .
“ That ’ s good news ,” Pagenaud said . “ That ’ s exactly what we want to do . This is not our strong suit , short ovals , but if we can be strong , that ’ s a good sign .” podium . We have to improve a couple of things . … It was tough racing .” Added Rahal , “ It was tough to pass . I felt like I had a really good race car . Unfortunately , our competition had about a 5 mph advantage on us , I feel like . I was just doing everything I could to get it .”
Pagenaud gave credit where it was due . “ I was loose , loose , loose at the beginning of the race ,” he said . “ But my engineer ( Ben Bretzman ) made an adjustment and my car woke up .”
Will Power , who missed the season opener two weeks ago at the Firestone Grand Prix of St . Petersburg due to an inner ear infection , finished a strong third in the No . 12 VERIZON Team Penske Chevrolet .
The highest-finishing rookie was Max Chilton , who placed seventh in his first VERIZON IndyCar Series race on an oval in the No . 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy .
“ I ’ m really happy to finish third . Missing the first race and dealing with a few health issues , I was just happy to complete the race in a great position ,” Power said . “ I got more energy as I went along . I was worried about this being my first race and how physical it was , but have to give it to the VERIZON guys and pit crew tonight . They were awesome and I had a lot of fun tonight . Congrats to Dixon .”
Tony Kanaan finished fourth in the No . 10 GE LED Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet . Graham Rahal was the top-finishing Honda driver , placing fifth in the No . 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing .
“ We charged at the end and at the end it was fun ,” Kanaan said . “ We missed an opportunity to be on the
“ Chip Ganassi gave me a fantastic car ,” Chilton said . “ Obviously , Scott won this event , TK ( Kanaan ) flew past me with about 10-15 to go , so maybe I didn ’ t have necessarily the fastest car , but I think as a team we had a very , very strong car .
“ I think there was a few mistakes I made as a rookie , just because I hadn ’ t experienced it before , where we could have been top two or three . I ’ m really happy with what we came away with this evening .”
A couple early front-runners had issues in the first half of the race . Team Penske pilots Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya both cut right-front tires that forced them to pit from the lead .
The race saw five caution periods for a total of 56 laps .
12 | American Racing News | Volume 1 , Issue 2