Sato Drives to Another Win

Takuma Sato led for 72 of the 90 laps at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday afternoon and put in an almost flawless performance for his fourth career victory in IndyCar. Sato led from pole and only had small missteps through a long first pit stop due to a rear tire not attaching properly and going off the track with five laps to go. His slide off the track opened the door for Scott Dixon to close within one second of Sato as the Japanese driver suffered some damage to the floor of the car, but he was able to come home with the victory by almost 2.5 seconds. Sebastien Bourdais tried to close down on Dixon for second in the final lap after having significantly more Push to Pass remaining. However, Dixon held him off and took him his record sixth runner-up finish at Barber.

Rossi made a quick jump from eighth up to fifth in the early stages of the race, but he maintained a similar position for the rest of the day. James Hinchcliffe also put in a mistake-free drive but came home in sixth after a mostly uneventful day before Josef Newgarden slid past him in the closing stages of the race.

Winners

• Takuma Sato. A disappointing return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing last season was briefly forgotten due to his victory in the penultimate race at Portland in September of 2018. Sato’s win from pole at Barber is his second win in the last five races of the NTT IndyCar series, and both wins came at road courses for the first time in his career. RLL got it right in qualifying and all day on Sunday, and Sato was thoroughly pleased and grateful to his entire team after he got out of his car in victory lane. The 42-year-old isn’t showing any signs of slowing down after winning a race for the third consecutive season, and he now sits in third place in the championship as they head to Long Beach next week for the site of his first win in the series back in 2013.
• Scott Dixon. The five-time series champ was in fine form again on Sunday after qualifying in third place. He didn’t put a wheel wrong all day but just wasn’t quick enough to catch the speed of Sato. The runner-up finish was his sixth time in 10 years at Barber, one of the few tracks on the calendar he has yet to come away from victorious.
• Sebastien Bourdais. He was the only driver to make a two-stop pit strategy work to perfection and make his red Firestone tires last almost a full 30 laps. The caution came out at a time that was beneficial for him to make it to the end of the race on fuel, and luckily the pits didn’t close before the leaders made their way through pit lane. After suffering an engine failure early into his season opener, Bourdais has put in consecutive top-five performances to sit ahead of past champions like Hunter-Reay and Power after three races.
• Josef Newgarden. While a fourth place finish is below his recent run of three victories in four years at Barber, Newgarden will be happy to escape the weekend with a maximum result after starting the race in 16th. The Chevy driver sliced his way through the field and stayed near the front of the second pack of runners after taking one of the earlier pit stops on lap 10. His wheel-to-wheel move on Rossi at the hairpin was a decisive moment in the day, along with his pass of Hinchcliffe only moments earlier to claw his way up to his third top-five finish of the year.
• Marcus Ericsson. The Swede put in his best finish in an open wheel race since his final GP2 race in 2013 by finishing seventh at Barber. After qualifying all the way back in 20th, Ericsson was the first to stop for tires on lap six and put in quick lap times to get within the thick of things early. He was the biggest mover of the day and accomplished multiple passes on track that he rarely could attempt in his Formula 1 days with Sauber. His pace at COTA two weeks ago before an unsafe release showed the talent that fans knew was always there, and his drive from the back of the field makes me think he will be in IndyCar for years to come.
• Honda. Seven of the top eight finishers were Honda-powered cars, while the Penske’s had problems keeping pace all day. A track that has been Chevy-dominated for years finally turned around after strong performances from RLL, Ganassi, Arrow and Dale Coyne Racing.

Losers

• Colton Herta. It was going to be difficult to follow up his win at COTA in only his third career start, but he only made it a little over 30 laps before his car started to lose power and he was forced to retire from the race. Despite the 24th place finish, he is still fifth in the championship standings and is the only rookie within the top-10.
• Graham Rahal. Rahal put the car just behind his teammate Sato on Saturday for an RLL 1-2 qualifying effort for the first time in over 15 years. Rahal was running well in second during the first stint before he had to take a 27-second pit stop to attempt to fix a throttle issue that saw him fall back to 16th. He ended up bringing out the only caution of the day when his car stalled on track during lap 58.
• Ed Jones. The new driver for Ed Carpenter Racing has had a tough go of it this year, and his false start of about 10 cars was almost comical to watch on the replay. The error caused him to serve a drive through penalty at the beginning of the race from which he never fully recovered.
• Team Penske/Chevy. Despite Newgarden climbing up to fourth place, Team Penske let good results escape from them at one of their most reliable tracks this weekend. Pagenaud and Power could only come away with ninth and 11th place, while the Chevy of Spencer Pigot slid all the way back down to 17th after serving a penalty for an unsafe release while trying to make a two-stop strategy work. It’s difficult to know where to place Power after Sunday, because despite a spin out and four pit stops, he managed to almost maintain a top-10 finish in a car that wasn’t close to the Honda’s in pace all weekend.

How my picks finished

I picked a Penske podium before the weekend began, so to say Sunday’s picks were a miss would be a bit of an understatement. Let’s hope I can look a little more intelligent this Sunday when the series makes its fourth stop of the year by traveling to California for the Long Beach Grand Prix.