2016 Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix

The 2016 Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix was the second round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season and the first oval race of the season. It took place on April 2, 2016 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The race marked the return of open wheel racing to the course, as IndyCar had not visited Phoenix since 2005. Team Penske driver Hélio Castroneves grabbed pole position for the race with a two lap time of 38.2604 seconds. In the process, he set a new single lap track record with a time of 19.0997 seconds. One incident occurred in qualifying when Carlos Muñoz spun and crashed in turn one during his attempt. Two other drivers, James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato, made no qualifying attempts due to damage sustained in practice incidents.[1]

2016 Phoenix

Race details
2nd round of the 2016 IndyCar Series season
Date	April 2, 2016
Official name	Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix
Location	Phoenix International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.022 mi / 1.645 km
Distance	250 laps 255.5 mi / 411.25 km
Pole position
Driver	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)
Time	38.2604
Fastest lap
Driver	Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	19.7379 (on lap 215 of 250)
Podium
First	Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske)
Third	Will Power (Team Penske)

Hélio Castroneves led the opening 39 laps of the race before a right-front tire puncture ruined his race. Juan Pablo Montoya inherited the lead and led to lap 95 before suffering the same fate as his teammate Castroneves. From there, Scott Dixon inherited the lead and led the remaining 155 laps, giving Dixon his 39th win and tying Al Unser for 4th in most career IndyCar victories.[2] Simon Pagenaud finished second, moving him into the lead of the championship standings. Graham Rahal would prove the biggest mover in the race, charging up from a lowly 19th place start to finish in fifth place. Rahal was also the highest placed Honda in the race. Despite having little oval experience, Max Chilton surprised as the highest finishing rookie, coming across the line in 7th.

A total of six caution flags flew during the race, all due to spins or contact. The first came on lap 50 when Luca Filippi spun coming off of the first turn. He did not make contact with the barriers. The second came on lap 120, when Carlos Muñoz hit the wall at the exit of turn four. Muñoz would retire from the race due to the damage to his car. Shortly after the restart from the second yellow, the third caution came on lap 134 when Josef Newgarden and Charlie Kimball made contact in the first turn, sending Kimball into a spin. Kimball was given a drive through penalty for avoidable contact for the incident. Lap 146 saw the next caution when Sébastien Bourdais went wide in turn three and brushed the outside wall in turn four. After finally having another significant green flag period, caution waved again for the fifth time of the race on lap 198, when Ed Carpenter drifted wide and slapped the outside wall in turn four, making him the second retirement of the race. The final yellow would come out on lap 248 and force the race to finish under yellow flag conditions after Alexander Rossi brushed the wall in turn four.

Report

Key	Meaning
R	Rookie
W	Past winner

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Name	Lap 1 Time	Lap 2 Time	Total Time	Avg. Speed (mph)
1	3	Hélio Castroneves W	19.0997	19.1607	38.2604	192.324
2	10	Tony Kanaan W	19.2046	19.2182	38.4228	191.511
3	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	19.2375	19.2145	38.4520	191.366
4	83	Charlie Kimball	19.2278	19.2535	38.4813	191.220
5	20	Ed Carpenter	19.2647	19.3053	38.5700	190.780
6	9	Scott Dixon	19.3563	19.2956	38.6519	190.376
7	21	Josef Newgarden	19.3675	19.3418	38.7093	190.094
8	8	Max Chilton R	19.3636	19.3705	38.7341	189.972
9	12	Will Power	19.4637	19.3160	38.7797	189.749
10	22	Simon Pagenaud	19.4464	19.3526	38.7990	189.654
11	27	Marco Andretti	19.4680	19.4508	38.9188	189.071
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	19.4653	19.4750	38.9403	188.966
13	7	Mikhail Aleshin	19.6250	19.5159	39.1409	187.998
14	98	Alexander Rossi R	19.6821	19.6804	39.3625	186.939
15	11	Sébastien Bourdais	19.8148	19.6312	39.4460	186.544
16	19	Luca Filippi	19.8442	19.7562	39.6009	185.814
17	41	Jack Hawksworth	19.8224	19.9429	39.7653	185.046
18	18	Conor Daly R	20.0226	19.9121	39.9347	184.261
19	15	Graham Rahal	20.3621	20.5702	40.9323	179.770
20	14	Takuma Sato			No Time	No Speed
21	26	Carlos Muñoz			No Time	No Speed
22	5	James Hinchcliffe			No Time	No Speed
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Race Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired^2	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Pts.^1
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	250	1:49:38.3855	3	6	155	53
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	250	+0.6825	3	10		40
3	12	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	250	+1.7264	3	9		35
4	10	Tony Kanaan W	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	250	+1.9589	3	2		32
5	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	250	+2.5272	3	19		30
6	21	Josef Newgarden	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	250	+2.7457	5	7		28
7	8	Max Chilton R	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	250	+2.9914	3	8		26
8	11	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Chevrolet	250	+3.9491	5	15		24
9	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Chevrolet	250	+4.4548	4	3	56	23
10	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	250	+5.2143	3	12		20
11	3	Hélio Castroneves W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	250	+8.0324	4	1	39	21
12	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	250	+9.3366	5	4		18
13	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	250	+10.0918	4	11		17
14	98	Alexander Rossi R	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	250	+13.0555	4	14		16
15	14	Takuma Sato	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	249	+1 Lap	5	20		15
16	18	Conor Daly R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	249	+1 Lap	5	18		14
17	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	248	+2 Laps	4	13		13
18	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	248	+2 Laps	6	22		12
19	41	Jack Hawksworth	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	246	+4 Laps	6	17		11
20	19	Luca Filippi	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	243	+7 Laps	4	16		10
21	20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	195	Contact	2	5		9
22	26	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport	Honda	116	Contact	2	21		8
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Notes

¹ Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

² Race finished under caution

Source for time gaps:[3]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Simon Pagenaud 83 5 2 Scott Dixon 79 2 3 Juan Pablo Montoya 74 1 4 Ryan Hunter-Reay 56 4 5 Tony Kanaan 54

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

1. "Castroneves breaks track record on way to winning Phoenix pole". IndyCar Series. INDYCAR. April 1, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
2. Malsher, David (April 3, 2016). "Dixon conquers on IndyCar's return to Phoenix". Motorsport.com. Avondale, Arizona: Motorsport Network, LLC. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
3. "Indycar 2016 Phoenix". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network, LLC. Retrieved July 17, 2016.

External links

Official Pit Stop Data

Official Race Broadcast