The Latest: Power wins shortened Pocono race marred by wreck
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway (all times local):
6 p.m.
Will Power has the won a shortened race at Pocono Raceway, the 13th straight season he’s won an IndyCar race. The race was called with 72 laps left because of lightning and severe weather in the area. Lightning strikes at Pocono after a rain-shortened NASCAR race killed one fan in 2012.
Power was in the right position to a win a race marred by yet another horrific wreck that collected five drivers on the first lap and sent Felix Rosenqvist to the hospital.
Rosenqvist did not suffer life-threatening injuries and was cleared. Justin Wilson died in 2015 from a head injury after being struck by debris from another car. Robert Wickens was paralyzed in an early accident last year.
Power had been one of IndyCar’s most consistent winners and he won the 2014 series championship. But he’s going through his worst season and seemed poised to go winless for the first time since 2006.
IndyCar and Pocono do not have a deal for another race in 2020.
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3:35 p.m.
IndyCar driver Felix Rosenqvist has been taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening after he was involved in a five-car wreck at the start of the race at Pocono.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was taken by ambulance shortly after the wreck triggered by Takuma Sato on the first lap. Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi were treated and released from the on-site medical center.
IndyCar medical director Geoffrey Billows said Rosenqvist was walking and is expected to be fine.
Sato, the 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner, said he thought he was all clear as he tried to make an aggressive pass early in the race.
“I’m not really over-aggressive,” he said.
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3:10 p.m.
Takuma Sato triggered a dangerous wreck on the first lap of the IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway, collecting five drivers, sending cars into the fence and bringing the race to a halt.
Sato tried to dart through an opening on a three-wide start to the race, an eerily similar look to an accident early in last year’s Pocono race that paralyzed driver Robert Wickens. Sato’s move took out Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi. Hunter-Reay was involved in last year’s wreck.
“I can’t even begin to understand how after last year Takuma thinks that’s acceptable,” Rossi said. “It’s disgraceful.”
Rossi, who won Pocono last year, saw his IndyCar championship hopes take a serious blow. He entered just 16 points behind leader Josef Newgarden.
Wickens said on Twitter that IndyCar should no longer race at the 2½-mile track. IndyCar and Pocono do not have a deal for a 2020 race.
“It’s just a toxic relationship and maybe it’s time to consider a divorce,” he wrote. “I’m very relieved (to my knowledge) that everyone is OK from that scary crash.”
The race was stopped as the catchfence was repaired.
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2:45 p.m.
IndyCar points leader Josef Newgarden starts on the pole at Pocono Raceway.
Newgarden holds a 16-point lead over Alexander Rossi, who also starts Sunday’s race on the front row. With four races left in the season, Indianapolis 500 champion Simon Pagenaud is 47 points back while reigning series champion Scott Dixon trails the leader by 62 points. Rossi won last year in a race marred by the wreck that paralyzed Robert Wickens from the waist down.
Newgarden has two runner-up finishes at Pocono and has scored five top-fives overall since IndyCar returned to the track in 2013.
Pocono could be on the way out of IndyCar after the 2019 season, with the two sides yet to reach a deal on a return.
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