Sunday, May 31, 2015

Morning Warm-Up: Belle Isle 2015 Race Two

Can Honda sweep in Chevrolet's backyard?
Fresh off his first career victory in race one, Carlos Muñoz looks to sweep the weekend and become the first driver since A.J. Allmendinger to score his first two victories in consecutive starts. He won from 20th on the grid yesterday. It was the third worst starting position for a road/street course winner in IndyCar history. Max Papis won from 25th on the grid at Laguna Seca in 2001. Scott Dixon won Mid-Ohio last year from 22nd. Marco Andretti made it an Andretti 1-2 in race one, the 17th 1-2 finish for Andretti Autosport and first since Barber last year, where Andretti finished second to Ryan Hunter-Reay. Simon Pagenaud finished third and in doing so picked up his 50th career top ten in IndyCar.

Will Power and Scott Dixon rounded out the top five in race one. They currently sit second and third in the championship after race one. Hélio Castroneves finished sixth and he is fourth in the championship after race one. Jack Hawksworth picked up his first top ten since the season opener with his seventh place finish in race one. CFH Racing teammates Josef Newgarden and Luca Filippi finished eighth and ninth. Newgarden finds himself sixth in the championship; exact 90 points ahead of his Italian teammate. Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top ten on Saturday and he remains the championship leader with 11 points separating him from Power.

Takuma Sato led early but broke two front wings and fell to 11th. James Jakes overcame running into the tires and contact with Tony Kanaan to finish 12th. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 13th while KV teammates Sébastien Bourdais and Stefano Coletti rounded out the top fifteen. Hunter-Reay has four consecutive finishes outside the top ten at Belle Isle. Bourdais has never finish in the top ten at Belle Isle with 13th being his best finish in six starts after yesterday.

Sage Karam finished 16th after being penalized for blocking Sato during the race. Tristan Vautier made contact with the barrier that damaged his front wing but was able to finish 17th. Gabby Chaves had a flat tire knock him to 18th. Conor Daly suffered damage on a restart while running solidly in the top five and came home 19th. Tony Kanaan rounded out the top twenty, 14 laps down after repairs for the contact from the early incident with James Jakes and Graham Rahal. Rodolfo González, Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal all retired from race one. Despite retiring, Rahal remains fifth in the championship entering today's race two.

Rain is forecasted all day in Detroit. Race two qualifying will take place at 11:20 a.m. ET. ABC's coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:50 p.m. ET.