The inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana got underway after being declared a wet race, although it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Before 20 laps were completed, the majority of the field had come in for slicks as the track continued to steadily dry out.
The first caution of the race came out for Gabby Chaves spinning out and becoming stuck in the wet, muddy grass just off the track. A fan, it seems, ran to the track and pushed the rookie back onto the race track, but his engine stalled, officially bringing out the first full course caution.
Racing was set to get restarted on lap 19 of 75, but the phrase “yellows breed yellows” came forth.
James Jakes spun on the exit of the final corner just before the green flag, and Jack Hawksworth had no where to go. Hawksworth made hard contact into the tire wall, bringing his race to an end. As the rest of the field continued down the front straight to turn one, Helio Castroneves and Francesco Dracone made contact; Dracone spun out, and both sustained some rather heavy damage to their cars. Helio came in for a wing change and rejoined the race and Dracone came in as well – and something went front that left one of his crew members on the ground visibly in pain. Apparently the crew member was hit hard by the car when Dracone was peeling out of pit lane and smacked into the pit lane wall. He was conscious and ok, and the race was restarted for the second time - but immediately went back to full course yellow.
Stefano Coletti had a scary moment near the back of the pack on the front straight. He shot from left to right across the track and began speeding backwards through the grass beside the track before making heavy contact with the wall. He made it back around to pit lane under his own power, which was surprising; his race came to an end when he made it back to pit lane and the crew was unable to replace the rear wing and the gearbox was damaged. The third restart of the race came on lap 32 but the entire lap was once again not completed as Sage Karam spun into a gravel trap, stalling his engine.
Another attempted restart came on lap 37 but a return to yellow flag conditions came immediately as Carlos Huertas spun just before the front straight and the green flag. James Hinchcliffe assumed the lead of the race with around 20 minutes remaining, but Sage Karam brought out another yellow flag as he stalled just before the front straight. Another yellow flag came out and Hinch’s team stated that they were not going to come in for fuel; the question became whether or not the No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car had enough fuel to make it to the end of the race or not.
The green flag after the caution period due to Karam stalling in the final corner came out on lap 44 with 8:18 remaining in the race – but it was then that the biggest crash of the race took place. Simon Pagenaud in the bright yellow Team Penske car was left no room by Ryan Hunter-Reay, and he exited the track and began sliding at high speed through the grass toward the apex of the upcoming corner. Pagenaud struck Hunter-Reay’s car with a massive amount of force, sending the rear end of the DHL Andretti Autosport car into the top of the No. 11 KV Racing car of Sebastien Bourdais – and sending all three cars hurling at full speed through the grass and into the tire wall. Pagenaud got out of his car to make sure that Bourdais was okay, as Hunter-Reay’s car suddenly hit Bourdais at full-speed and nearly went over the top of him; damage was evident on the area of the car that was right next to Bourdais’ shoulder.
With lots of cleanup to do, the race returned to yellow conditions with only minutes left in the race. James Hinchcliffe ended up having enough fuel to make it to the end and he won the first ever Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana. Helio Castroneves, after struggling majorly all weekend long, finished with an impressive second place while James Jakes rounded out the podium as the second SPM car on the podium.
The Verizon IndyCar Series takes to the track next for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach next weekend.