Josef Newgarden rides rain tires to IndyCar win in Alabama Read more: http://autoweek.com/article

Sebastien Bourdais knew he had Josef Newgarden beat in Monday’s conclusion of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

And then the rains came.

Bourdais had bought into team owner Dale Coyne and engineer Craig Hampson’s strategy of staying on track as long as he could on the racing slicks when rain began to fall with 22 minutes left in the race. Newgarden had to pit to put on the rain tires and that put Bourdais in a sizeable lead as long as he could navigate the 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course on the slicks.

But the rain was just too heavy, and Bourdais could no longer hang on to the race car. Bourdais drove down pit road on lap 76 with 7 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the timed race and that put Newgarden in the lead for good.

Newgarden went on to win the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama for the third time in his career and for the second year in a row.

Hunter-Reay finished second for his third podium finish at Barber. It was the 39thpodium of his Verizon IndyCar Series career. James Hinchcliffe was third.

Bourdais’ car handled even worse on the Firestone rain tires and he ultimately lost a side-by-side drag race for fourth place to four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon.

Newgarden of Team Penske defeated Andretti Autosport’s Hunter-Reay by 9.9607 seconds for his second win of 2018 and the ninth win of his Verizon IndyCar Series career. He also won at Barber Motorsports Park in 2015 and 2017 and has been on the podium four straight seasons at Barber Motorsports Park.

“I like it here,” Newgarden said. “We could do the whole series here. That would be great. Thanks to some of the fans who came back. I understand most people can’t make it. But they stuck it out yesterday. They were dealing with the wind and all the rain yesterday. They’re just great fans, so thanks for coming out everybody, and some of the people who came to watch this. It’s a good day for us at Team Penske.”

It is also the 199th IndyCar victory for cars owned by Roger Penske. Team Penske has won at Barber six times in nine races.

“It was more eventful than I would have liked,” Newgarden said. “But, everyone did a great job. How about Team Chevy today? They gave us a great engine, good fuel mileage, and good reliability; that’s what we needed to win this race. That was more eventful than I would have wanted it. It seemed like smooth sailing for the most part. We weren’t having any yellows, which we were hoping no yellows today. But then that rain crept in and I couldn’t believe how long everyone stayed out. It was really risky what they were doing, but I understand why they were doing it, and I’m glad we made the call to come in so soon.”

Hinchcliffe, who received media coverage for admitting that he went to the bathroom in his firesuit during Sunday’s Red Flag, finished third, his best finish at Barber Motorsports Park. His previous best finish was sixth in 2017.

The restart of the race began with sunny and dry conditions with just 1 hour and 15 minutes left to complete in the timed race that had begun on Sunday but was halted for heavy rain about 22 laps.

There were no incidents in Monday’s conclusion of the contest and it came down to a battle of strategy with Team Penske president Tim Cindric electing to have Newgarden race hard to build up a lead over 25 seconds. That would allow the team to make an extra pit stop.

But Newgarden made one more stop after that on lap 71 to put on rain tires. Bourdais continued to race around the course on the slicks but when the rain became too heavy, Bourdais had to pit just late in the race and give away a victory that appeared to be in his grasp.

“I knew what he was doing,” Newgarden said. “It was the same thing with (Ryan) Hunter-Reay when he came up on me, and I asked if he was still on slick tires,” Newgarden said. “At that point you could still probably manage them, but man it just kept getting worse and worse every lap; so, more and more risky. The problem is we put the rains on a little bit earlier to protect and I kind of fried the fronts because you know, these things aren’t designed to work in the dry. So, in the dry I kind of over-cooked the front end. And then I had to deal with that when the rain actually came. 

“Fortunately, we had a big gap. That’s really what I think helped us win the race was just building that gap over the beginning part.”