Scott Dixon scored Ganassi’s first victory of 2018 in the opening race of the ‘Dual at Detroit’.
The four-times champion started from the front row of the grid alongside pole sitter Marco Andretti. He got ahead of his rival by running one lap longer on his first stint, but had to see off an attack from Ryan Hunter-Reay who pitted early and switched to a three-stop strategy.Hunter-Reay came home third ahead of team mates Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti, who changed places in the closing stages after a muscular pass by Rossi on the outside of turn three.
With Takuma Sato fifth ahead of Ed Jones the top six places were commanded by Honda-powered cars at a race sponsored by rival Chevrolet. Will Power was their top finisher in seventh. Robert Wickens, Josef Newgarden and Spencer Pigot completed the top 10.
Graham Rahal, who won both races in last year’s double header, crashed out heavily at turn 12 after hitting the inside kerb hard. A second caution period was triggered when Charlie Kimball ran into Santino Ferrucci, dumping the newcomer into the barriers at turn seven.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
IndyCar
- Newgarden admits he “failed my team miserably” over disqualification
- Ghiotto gets 11th hour call-up for IndyCar debut at Barber
- McLaughlin and Power accept penalties over misuse of push-to-pass system
- Pourchaire sure he’ll get more chances to join F1 after strong IndyCar debut
- Two Penskes disqualified from season-opener, O’Ward handed victory
Don
3rd June 2018, 4:03
Nice drive by Dixon! Detroit’s a tough place to pass. May have rain for the second race Sunday.
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
3rd June 2018, 11:11
Definitely tough. But though not the most thrilling race, it was encouraging to see that cars could follow fairly closely and that passing was possible. The new road course aero kit still seems to be doing its job.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
3rd June 2018, 11:41
And Cadillac took a 1-2 the IMSA race. So that’s 1-1 to Honda and GM, sort of.
dusty (@dusty)
3rd June 2018, 19:15
The 31 won (Caddy), but Penske 2nd and 3rd were the Penske cars (Acura).
kpcart
4th June 2018, 10:34
The old dogs in 1-2 in the championship. When you have talent, age doesn’t matter. If alonso goes to indycar next year with a new mclaren indycar team, Id like them also to sign kubica.