2018 ABC Supply 500

Last updated
Flag of the United States.svg 2018 ABC Supply 500
Race details
14th round of the 2018 IndyCar Series season
2018PoconoLogo.jpg
DateAugust 19, 2018
Official name ABC Supply 500
Location Pocono Raceway
CoursePermanent racing facility
2.5 mi / 4.0 km
Distance200 laps
500 mi / 800 km
Pole position
Driver Will Power  (Team Penske)
Time40.9198 + 41.0808 = 1:22.0006
Fastest lap
Driver Sébastien Bourdais  (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan)
Time41.6072 (on lap 174 of 200)
Podium
First Alexander Rossi  (Andretti Autosport)
Second Will Power  (Team Penske)
Third Scott Dixon  (Chip Ganassi Racing)

The 2018 ABC Supply 500 was the 14th round of the 2018 IndyCar Series season. The race was held on August 19 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race served as the 14th round of the 2018 IndyCar Series season. 2018 Indy 500 champion Will Power qualified on pole position, [1] while 2016 Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi took victory in the 200-lap race. [2]

Contents

The race was marred by a massive crash on lap 6. It happened when Ryan Hunter-Reay and rookie Robert Wickens were racing side by side for 3rd place when the two made contact in turn 2. Hunter-Reay hit the wall and Wickens' car went over the top of Hunter-Reay's car and hit the catch fence tearing the car apart. The impact sent Wickens' car spinning like a top on the straight-away. The wreck also collected James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato, and Pietro Fittipaldi. Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe, Sato, and Fittipaldi were unharmed, but Wickens sustained severe injuries and was paralyzed from the chest down as a result. [3] Wickens has since never returned to race in IndyCar but did return to racing in 2022, driving in the Michelin Pilot Challenge. [4]

Report

In 2018, IndyCar introduced new aero kits, which produced an Indianapolis 500 that was considered generally less-competitive than in previous years. With a record 42 lead changes at Pocono in 2017, drivers and teams entered the race expecting passing to be significantly harder.

On August 9, five drivers tested at Pocono. Rookies Robert Wickens, Pietro Fittipaldi, Zach Veach, Matheus Leist, and veteran Tony Kanaan completed several hours of laps at the track. [5]

On the morning of Saturday, August 18, IndyCar officials confirmed that Pocono would return to the 2019 IndyCar schedule. [6] The first, one-hour practice session for the race occurred at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Morning rain delayed the start by half an hour. As teams worked on their qualifying preparation, rookie Zach Veach posted the fastest speed with a lap of 217.393 mph. Josef Newgarden was second at 217.016 mph. Alexander Rossi was third fastest at 216.907 mph. Tony Kanaan posted the fastest speed single-car speed without a draft at 215.468 mph. [7]

Time Trials

Qualifying was held at 1:30 p.m., giving teams just an hour and a half after practice to prepare. Will Power won the pole with a speed of 219.511 mph. It was the slowest pole speed since IndyCar's return to Pocono in 2013. Power's Team Penske teammate, Josef Newgarden, qualified second at 218.802 mph. Andretti Autosport teammates, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified third and fourth.

It was the 53rd time that Power had won the pole position for an IndyCar race, moving him into a tie for second all-time, tied with A.J. Foyt. [6]

Power had won the Pocono 500 in 2016 and 2017. And by winning the 2018 Indianapolis 500, Power was looking to become the first driver since Al Unser in 1978 to win three consecutive 500 mile races if he could win at Pocono again in 2018.

An afternoon rain shower cancelled the afternoon practice session. IndyCar chose not to reschedule the final practice, meaning teams would have to start the race with no practice for their race setup.

Race

The start of the 2018 ABC Supply 500 Race start (43278915285).jpg
The start of the 2018 ABC Supply 500

As the field was approaching the green flag, the rows of cars were stacked too closely together and a crash occurred before the race began. Starting 18th, Graham Rahal accelerated and ran into the back of 16th place starter, Spencer Pigot. Pigot spun into the inside wall and suffered major damage to the rear of his car. He would only complete 17 laps before retiring from the race. Rahal suffered a broken front wing and slight damage to his suspension.

As a result of Pigot's crash, the first six laps were run at slow caution speeds. When the green flag was first shown on lap seven, Alexander Rossi passed Will Power entering turn one to take the lead. Robert Wickens passed Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden on the outside in turn one to move into fourth place.

Carrying a lot of speed, Wickens moved to the inside of Hunter-Reay and attempted a pass entering turn two. Wickens' front wheel was alongside Hunter-Reay's rear wheel as they entered turn two. The cars made contact and spun Hunter-Reay at a 90 degree angle to race traffic. Wickens' front wheels climbed over the nose of Hunter-Reay's car and impacted the outside wall roughly three feet off the ground. The car continued to climb up the wall and impacted the catchfence with the nose of the car. The car caught a fence post and rotated several times, landing back on the racing surface and spinning seven times before coming to a stop against the inside wall. Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe, and Pietro Fittipaldi were involved in the crash as well.

Robert Wickens on pit road before the 2018 ABC Supply 500 Robert wickens (29247549437).jpg
Robert Wickens on pit road before the 2018 ABC Supply 500

45 minutes after the accident, IndyCar VP of Communications, Curt Cavin, announced that Wickens was "awake and alert" and transported by helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital. Wickens list of injuries included "thoracic spinal facture, spinal cord injury, neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, fractured right forearm, fractured elbow, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion." [8]

The race was stopped for 1 hour and 56 minutes. In the aftermath of the crash, the quality of the repair work on the fence was debated. Sébastien Bourdais said, "The construction guys said thumbs-up; I’m glad nobody tried it because I’m not sure that would have been satisfactory. It’s just tough moments. When we saw the extent of the damage I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t gonna get fixed properly, and it wasn’t. The cables were loose, and it was just like, it was pretty lousy. So I wasn’t happy with it at all." [9]

Bourdais' view was disputed by IndyCar president, Jay Frye, who said, "He was not at the scene. He was doing it from a visual perspective. A couple of angles you looked at it, it was different-looking, but another angle it looked fine. It's just how you looked at it." [10]

When the race resumed, Alexander Rossi pulled away from the field. The only challenge to Rossi's domination came from Will Power. During green flag pit stops on lap 135, Power overtook Rossi. However, on lap 140, Rossi repassed Power for the lead going into turn two. Rossi led 180 laps, a new record for the Pocono 500.

Following the resumption of the race from the Wickens crash, the event was very clean with the final 189 laps run without cautions. Tony Kanaan dropped out after 16 laps with throttle issues. With 34 laps remaining, Conor Daly lightly hit the turn two wall with his right-side wheels. Daly entered pit road and the race continued without interruption.

Unlike the 42 lead changes in the 2017 Pocono 500, there were only 11 lead changes in 2018, the majority the result of green-flag pit stops.

Broadcasting

The first practice session was streamed live on IndyCar's YouTube channel with audio from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. [11] Qualifying was broadcast live on NBCSN.

The race was aired by NBCSN. The booth announcers were Leigh Diffey, Paul Tracy, and Townsend Bell. Pit reporters were Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, and Katie Hargitt, and Robin Miller.

In the United States, the race had a 0.34 TV rating and 542,000 viewers. It was the third most watched IndyCar race on NBCSN in 2018, behind only races with NASCAR as lead-in programming: a tape-delayed broadcast of Mid-Ohio, and the season-final at Sonoma. [12]

Results

KeyMeaning
RRookie
WPast winner

Qualifying

PosNo.NameLap 1 TimeLap 2 TimeTotal TimeAvg. Speed (mph)
112 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Will Power W40.919841.08081:22.0006219.511
21 Flag of the United States.svg Josef Newgarden 41.172241.09411:22.2663218.802
327 Flag of the United States.svg Alexander Rossi 41.209441.07331:22.2827218.758
428 Flag of the United States.svg Ryan Hunter-Reay W41.350441.29181:22.6422217.806
522 Flag of France.svg Simon Pagenaud 41.241641.41481:22.6564217.769
66 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Robert Wickens R41.355141.36091:22.7160217.612
726 Flag of the United States.svg Zach Veach R41.364041.36171:22.7257217.587
818 Flag of France.svg Sébastien Bourdais 41.436641.39971:22.8363217.296
95 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg James Hinchcliffe 41.438441.50761:22.9460217.009
1030 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato 41.402441.59931:23.0017216.863
1198 Flag of the United States.svg Marco Andretti 41.526241.55421:23.0804216.658
1210 Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg Ed Jones 41.619741.50301:23.1227216.547
139 Flag of New Zealand.svg Scott Dixon W41.518241.65721:23.1754216.410
1414 Flag of Brazil.svg Tony Kanaan 41.575341.63181:23.2071216.328
1520 Flag of the United States.svg Ed Carpenter 41.741141.58251:23.3236216.025
1621 Flag of the United States.svg Spencer Pigot 41.896541.75561:23.6521215.177
1719 Flag of Brazil.svg Pietro Fittipaldi R41.923042.05741:23.9804214.336
1815 Flag of the United States.svg Graham Rahal 41.988242.03581:24.0240214.225
1923 Flag of the United States.svg Charlie Kimball 42.607242.33101:24.9382211.919
204 Flag of Brazil.svg Matheus Leist R42.507042.52071:25.0277211.696
2159 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Max Chilton 42.863643.01461:25.8782209.599
2288 Flag of the United States.svg Conor Daly 42.746743.39781:26.1445208.951
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Race

PosNo.DriverTeamEngineLapsTime/RetiredPit StopsGridLaps LedPts. 1
127 Flag of the United States.svg Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda 2002:36:49.11286318053
212 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Will Power W Team Penske Chevrolet 200+4.4982611642
39 Flag of New Zealand.svg Scott Dixon W Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 200+41.3557713336
418 Flag of France.svg Sébastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda 200+42.01206832
51 Flag of the United States.svg Josef Newgarden Team Penske Chevrolet 199+1 lap6230
626 Flag of the United States.svg Zach Veach R Andretti Autosport Honda 199+1 lap6728
798 Flag of the United States.svg Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda 199+1 lap61126
822 Flag of France.svg Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Chevrolet 199+1 lap7524
923 Flag of the United States.svg Charlie Kimball Carlin Chevrolet 199+1 lap71922
1020 Flag of the United States.svg Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 198+2 laps715121
114 Flag of Brazil.svg Matheus Leist R A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 197+3 laps72019
1210 Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg Ed Jones Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 197+3 laps71218
1359 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Max Chilton Carlin Chevrolet 196+4 laps72117
1415 Flag of the United States.svg Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 196+4 laps81816
1588 Flag of the United States.svg Conor Daly Harding Racing Chevrolet 162Contact72215
1621 Flag of the United States.svg Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 17Contact01614
1714 Flag of Brazil.svg Tony Kanaan A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 16Mechanical11413
1828 Flag of the United States.svg Ryan Hunter-Reay W Andretti Autosport Honda 6Contact0412
196 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Robert Wickens R Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 6Contact0611
205 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 6Contact0910
2130 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 6Contact0109
2219 Flag of Brazil.svg Pietro Fittipaldi R Dale Coyne Racing Honda 6Contact0178
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Notes: 1 Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

Championship standings after the race

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References

  1. ↑ Malsher, David (August 18, 2018). "Pocono IndyCar: Power grabs 53rd pole position, matches Foyt". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Malsher, David (August 19, 2018). "Pocono IndyCar: Rossi dominates for third win of season". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Canadian driver Robert Wickens suffers multiple injuries in violent IndyCar crash". CBC News. CBC. August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ Pruett, Marshall (14 January 2022). "Wickens returns to racing with Hyundai and BHA". Racer.com. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "'WICKENS TESTS AT POCONO IN HOPES OF MAKING TRIANGLE OVAL LESS TRICKY'". Racer.
  6. 1 2 "'POWER REACHES RAREFIED AIR WITH 53RD CAREER POLE POSITION'". IndyCar.
  7. ↑ "'ROOKIE VEACH SPEEDS TO TOP OF POCONO PRACTICE CHART'". IndyCar.
  8. ↑ "'Wickens Medical Update'". Motorsport.
  9. ↑ "'Bourdais Hesitant to Resume Racing With Fence Repairs'". Racer.
  10. ↑ "'IndyCar Refutes Bourdais Criticism'". Autosport.
  11. ↑ Saturday at the 2018 ABC Supply 500
  12. ↑ "'Weekend Sports TV Ratings'". Showbuzzdaily.
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