James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports danced his way to a win on the streets of Long Beach on Sunday. Hinchcliffe won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, his first win since his accident during Indianapolis 500 practice in 2015.
Twitter: Check out the celebration from victory circle for @Hinchtown #TGPLB #INDYCAR https://t.co/d4qMN64Gk3 (@IndyCar)
Hinchcliffe followed Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay for a majority of the race until a crucial pitstop allowed him to leapfrog the 2012 IndyCar Series champion. The Canadian came out of the last round of pitstops ahead of Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi, cycling into P6 after the first series of final pitstops.
Hinchcliffe led the last 16 laps on the sunny streets of Long Beach, keeping Hunter-Reay at a safe distance. The gap between the front runners was between 1.1s to 3.5s.
As Hinchcliffe maintained the lead, his competition encountered trouble. On lap 62, Rossi running in P3 suffered an engine problem and stopped at the beginning of T1, bringing out the day’s first caution. The reshuffling after an eight-lap caution, allowed the current points leader, Sebastien Bourdais, to jump to P3; continuing his superb drive starting from P12. With seven laps to go, Hunter-Reay was closing in on Hinchcliffe when his Andretti machine suffered a similar engine problem as Rossi and slowed to a crawl.
The issues affecting Hunter-Reay and Rossi were a pattern for Andretti cars on a miserable day at The Beach. All four Andretti cars were classified DNF.
Twitter: Disappointing end to what looked like a promising day in Long Beach. #IndyCar
1️⃣7️⃣ Hunter-Reay
1️⃣8️⃣ Sato
1️⃣9️⃣ Rossi
2️⃣0️⃣ Andretti (@FollowAndretti)
Hunter-Reay’s engine problem elevated Bourdais to P2, where he finished. After winning in St. Petersburg and coming P2 in Long Beach, Bourdais currently holds a 20 point lead over Hinchcliffe in the IndyCar Standings.
Other notes:
– Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie Ed Jones was P6, giving DCR two top-10 finishers.
– Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden salvaged the day for Chevrolet finishing P3 after pole sitter Helio Castroneves’ poor start cost him early race position.
– Mikhail Aleshin and JR Hildebrand made contact with each other on the final lap and swapped positions; finishing P11 and P12 respectively.
