Grand Prix: Pagenaud Beats Dixon in Controversial Finish

Finally, the weight of Roger Penske’s legacy is off Simon Pagenaud’s shoulders. One of the Verizon Indycar Series’ most highly prized drivers a year ago, Pagenaud joined Penske’s stable that included Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya. But rather than enjoy the same kind of success Pagenaud had when he won two races in both 2014 and 2013 for car owner Sam Schmidt, Pagenaud went winless last season with Indycar’s most successful team.

That changed on Sunday.

Pagenaud won a controversial decision, exiting the pits just ahead of Scott Dixon and holding on for a Verizon Indycar Series victory in the 42nd -- and fastest-ever -- Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

It's the sixth victory at Long Beach for Penske, nicknamed the Captain, giving him as many wins on one of the world's marquee street courses as rival owner Chip Ganassi. Celebrating his 50th year of team ownership, the win is the 180th by a Penske driver.

But it almost didn't happen.

Dixon, who won the event for the first time in 2015, trailed Pagenaud by three-tenths of a second at the checkered flag. The defending series champion and active wins leader, Dixon was upset that Pagenaud had not been penalized for his pit exit with 24 laps remaining. By rule, Pagenaud should have had both right side wheels on the right side of the yellow acceleration blend line before going on track. Instead, Pagenaud cut across the line -- neither of the two right-side tires cleared the end of the yellow line before moving toward the racing line -- and pulled in front of Dixon by the scantest of margins.

It happened on the last pit stop, and Pagenaud received a warning from race officials: Don’t do it again.

“I thought we were done with warnings and all this sort of wish-wash stuff and we were going to stick to hard rules,” Dixon said, referring to complaints by drivers and considerable off-season discussion about the rules, which led to a three-steward system implemented to make the final judgment easier and more definitive. “If you’re only going to get a warning, that’s why everyone is going to do it. That’s why there were 40 or 50 warnings last year.

“The rules clearly say two wheels on the other side of the line and there are to be no warnings.”

Pagenaud saw it differently: “I know you can take risks. Another inch to the right wouldn’t have changed the outcome.”

The Indycar Series issued a statement that “race stewards determined his actions were not deemed sever enough to warrant a harsher penalty than the warning that was issued.” The sanctioning body also said other options were available depending on the severity of the infraction – including a drive-through or stop-and-go penalty. In the laps that Dixon followed Pagenaud before the ruling of no harm, no foul, he thought there would at least be a position swap. It didn’t happen.

Dixon was going for a victory for his team owner, Ganassi. He leaves Long Beach trailing Pagenaud for the series championship by 14 points after three of 16 events.

Pagenaud finished 11th in the championship last season -- he was third in 2013 for the smaller Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports team -- and had been dogged by questions of when he would finally deliver his first win for Penske.

"It's just a matter of finding our position within the team," Pagenaud said. "The 22 team was brand new last year. ... It's like a new job, it takes time to understand the people you work with. I knew it was coming. This is not my first win. I've been around."

The fastest race in Long Beach history with an average speed of 100.592 mph, it was green all the way – only the fourth time there hasn’t been a caution and the first since 1989. It took 1 hour 33 minutes, and all 21 cars were running at the end, including 18 on the lead lap.

Pole-sitter Castroneves, who last won at Long Beach in 2001, finished third for Penske, and teammates Montoya and Power took fourth and seventh, respectively. Ganassi driver Tony Kanaan finished sixth. Breaking up the Penske/Ganassi domination was Takuma Sato, who drove from eighth to fifth for AJ Foyt Racing; he and James Hinchliffe (eighth) were the only Hondas in a top 10 dominated by Chevrolet.

Sebastien Bourdais, in a car sponsored by Riverside’s California Baptist University, and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top 10.

Photo/Craig Takata: Simon Pagenaud leads Scott Dixon as the two finished 1-2 in the 42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.