Sato, Honda Victorious In Indy Car Return To Portland
September 4, 2018 by Honda![Sato, Honda Victorious In Indy Car Return To Portland](images/articleimages/sato-honda-2018-portland-motorsports-01-400.jpg)
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Meanwhile, Rossi headed the 'three-stop' group, finishing eighth. With Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Will Power finishing 10th and 21st, respectively, the 2018 drivers' championship contest is now effectively down to Dixon and Rossi. The Verizon IndyCar Series now heads south to Sonoma Raceway, just outside San Francisco, California, for the September 18, double-points paying IndyCar Grand Prix of Sonoma. The season-ending race, to determine the 2018 Drivers' Championship, will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network starting at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Social media content and video links from this weekend's Honda IndyCar Series action at Portland International Raceway are available on HPD's Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) channels. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV. Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Started 20th, finished first; first IndyCar Series win of 2018, third career victory: 'We have had a couple of hard, difficult weekends this year. The final yellow caution flag obviously helped, but the car had pace. Since we failed to have a good qualifying, I had two new sets of tires, available for the race and our strategy worked beautifully. Look at all these fans here today. I think this is one of the most beautiful days of my life.' Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andrettti Autosport Honda) Started fifth, finished second: 'We gave that one away. The DHL car was the car to beat today – we had the right fuel strategy, but we had some miscommunication on pit lane. I was saving fuel as Takuma came out of pit lane after his final stop, and so I didn't attack. That miscommunication probably cost us the race. I'm pretty bummed right now. I know we had a car to win and all day long I tried really hard to save that fuel and made the fuel mileage the team was requesting, but couldn't pay off for it in the end.' Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) Started 11th, finished fifth, takes a 29-point drivers' championship lead into the series finale at Sonoma Raceway: 'It was a huge day for the team today, and feels like a win for us. I couldn't see anything once I got off in the dirt at the start; it was just dust everywhere. Then I kept getting hit and hit and thought, 'Oh, this isn't going to be good.' Luckily, we were able to keep the PNC Bank car running, back up from the incident and continue. What a crazy day. The points lead, whatever it is, is not a huge amount. But we'll take it going into Sonoma.' Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) Started third, finished eighth, second in the drivers' championship with one race remaining: 'It's one of those days. We had a fast car, the NAPA Auto Parts Honda was really quick out front, and we were able to build a seven-second gap over second. Our tire strategy was going to plan and everything was good, until the yellow came on Lap 56. It finishing eighth hurts a lot. Hopefully it's not something that costs us the championship. We just have to rebound and move on from it and know that it's something that's out of our control. Now it's time to refocus and be ready to attack for Sonoma.' Art St. Cyr (President, Honda Performance Development) on today's Honda Portland sweep and 10th IndyCar Series win of 2018: 'It's very gratifying to see all of our teams reach victory circle for a second consecutive year. Congratulations to Takuma and Bobby Rahal for a great win today in a very unpredictable race. It was an unusual race, which did not play out in a typical fashion, but we still swept the podium. Once again, this is a testament to the depth of our lineup and quality of our teams. It feels good to get our 10th win of the season. Now, let's get that 11th win and the Drivers' Championship at Sonoma in two weeks.' Verizon IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Portland Circuit: Portland International Raceway (1.9-mile road course) Portland, Oregon 2017 Winner: N/A (first IndyCar Series race here since 2007) Weather: Sunny, mild, 76 degrees F
posted on conceptcarz.com
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