Rossi dominates after horror crash interrupts Pocono race

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Alexander Rossi won his second IndyCar race in a row after a shocking crash for Robert Wickens delayed the Pocono 500 by two hours.

Wickens was launched into the fence at turn two on the seventh lap of the race following contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. He was described as being “awake and alert” by a series official following the crash, and was transferred to a local hospital. The crash also eliminated Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe and Pietro Fittipaldi.

Extensive damage to the barrier Wickens hit delayed the restart of the race. The call to resume was given despite one driver, Sebastien Bourdais, voicing his concern about the quality of the repair job.

Rossi had moved into the lead at the original restart, which followed a collision between Graham Rahal and Spencer Pigot at the original start. He held his lead at the restart and was seldom headed.

Pole sitter Will Power briefly regained the lead from Rossi in the second half of the race. But Rossi caught and re-passed the Penske driver with little difficulty, and re-established a lead of almost four-and-a-half seconds by the time the chequered flag fell on the 200-lapper.

Scott Dixon limited the damage to his closest championship rival by recovering from 13th on the grid to finish third, six-tenths of a second ahead of Bourdais. The last two cars on the lead lap crossed the line with Rossi a few seconds behind, underlining the dominance of his performance.

Zach Veach passed Marco Andretti late in the race to take sixth behind Josef Newgarden. The top 10 was completed by Simon Pagenaud, Charlie Kimball and Ed Carpenter.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “Rossi dominates after horror crash interrupts Pocono race”

  1. What an incredible day for Rossi and Dixon. Especially for Dixon after surviving that crash that would have collected him. If it did, then the lead of the chapionship would have been different. On the positive note: Wickens gave a thumbs up and is ok. And same for Pietro, who had a nasty crash, but got out in 1 piece. i wonder what is Stoeffel Vandoorne thinking about Rossi now?

    1. I think Rossi probably doesn’t mind losing to Stoffel in GP2 considering how their careers turned out so far. Maybe if Vandoorne is dropped for next year he might take a look at IndyCar as well?

    2. Andrew in Atlanta
      20th August 2018, 4:40

      Wickens most assuredly did NOT give a thumbs up. The latest reports here in the US show major surgeries likely on both ankles and his legs with orthopedic injuries reported by multiple sources within Indycar circles. Definitely not something he is walking away from but he will recover it seems. Details with confirmation are limited at best even now 8 hours later.

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