16th November 2024 2015 IndyCar Sonoma finale

The 2015 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, held at Sonoma Raceway, was the
final race of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series. Six drivers were
mathematically in contention to win the championship: Juan Pablo
Montoya, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon, Will Power, Hélio Castroneves, and
Josef Newgarden.

However, with excitement, a dark cloud was hanging over because the
ABC Supply 500 took place at Pocono Raceway one week prior. On lap
179, Sage Karam was leading the race, when he spun and crashed at turn
1, scattering debris. The impact was so fierce that it caused the nosecone
to fly off, bouncing along the track. Justin Wilson was struck in the head by
the nosecone, and he was knocked unconscious. Wilson’s no.25 car
continued speeding down the track, hitting the inner wall before rolling
slowly and stopping. The Brit was rushed to hospital but sadly just one day
later, Justin Wilson had died.

During that race, several #BadAssWilson t-shirts were sold in his honor,
and they sold out. The money was sent to the Wilson family in his honor.
Oriol Servia was drafted in to race the No.25 car.

Juan Pablo Montoya came into the race with a healthy 34-point lead ahead
of Graham Rahal with Scott Dixon a further 13 points adrift in 3 rd. Due to
the race having double points just like the Indy 500, six drivers were in
title contention. Helio Castroneves had a shot despite not winning a race.
Realistically, it was between Montoya, Rahal, Dixon and Power. Power
went on to grab pole position and with the bonus point for pole, he was
now 60 points behind. Montoya needed to finish in the top 4 in case Rahal
won the race to win the title.

At the start, Power held the lead from Josef Newgarden while Montoya
moved up to 4th after passing Simon Pagenaud. Meanwhile, Rahal and
Dixon banged wheels, with Rahal dropping down a few places and the
start and Dixon up to 5th, one spot behind Montoya. On lap 4, Castroneves
saw his title dreams slip from his fingers as he suffered front wing damage
forcing him to pit. At the end of lap 13, Scott Dixon came in for his first
stop, rejoining in 16th. Power and Newgarden came in for their first pit
stops one lap later. However, both would get compromised by Pagenaud,
who stopped to let teammate Power go by but compromised Newgarden,
forcing him to take avoiding action. One lap later, Montoya and Ryan
Hunter Reay made their first stops, rejoining behind Dixon, and thanks to
stopping 2 laps early, leapfrogged both, moving up to 3 rd as everyone else
at the front came in for their stops.
On lap 34, Luca Filippi suffered a throttle sensor issue, bringing out the
first caution. A huge majority of the field, including the top 5, took the
opportunity to make their second stops, whilst Tony Kanaan, Sebastian
Saavedra, Marco Andretti, and others stayed out. During the 2 nd pit stops,
Hunter Reay had issues and dropped down the field, allowing Montoya and
Rahal to gain a place, while Dixon leapfrogged both Newgarden and
Power, giving him the lead as everyone else who stayed out made their
second stops. Sebastian Saavedra led the field to the green flag on lap 39,
fending off Marco Andretti, with Tony Kanaan passing Oriol Servia for 3 rd.
Later in the lap, Newgarden passed Power into turn 4, Montoya clipped
Power, sending Power spinning and giving Montoya front wing damage.
The second caution was deployed. Montoya came in to change his front
wing whilst Power came in for a car checkup and a fresh set of tires.

The green flag came out on lap 43 with Saavedra once again chipping
away from Andretti to the front. Kanaan passed Andretti because of the
fresh tire advantage and would later pass Saavedra for the lead on the
back straight 2 laps later. On lap 49, Saavedra, Andretti, Servia, and
Takuma Sato came in for their second stops. This allowed Dixon to move
up to 4th and Rahal into 6th with Montoya in 17th, it meant that if it were to
stay like this, Montoya would win the title by 4 points ahead of Rahal with
Dixon 5 points behind Rahal. Sebastien Bourdais and Pagenaud pitted one
lap later and with Kanaan pitting soon after, Dixon was leading with Rahal
3rd, meaning as it would stand, Dixon would win by 18 points ahead of
Rahal with Montoya 2 points adrift in 3rd.

Lap 53 and Rahal’s championship dreams began to slip from his fingers as
one of Dixon’s teammates, Charlie Kimball, passed him into turn 2 and
this pushed Rahal behind Montoya in the standings, with Montoya having
made his way up to 13th place. With Dixon leading the race, getting the
bonus point for leading a lap, and fuel saving to try and win the race,
Montoya needed to finish in 6th to win the title. On lap 54, Montoya sweeps
past James Jakes after a good run into turn 6. A few corners later, Montoya
passes Carlos Munoz for P11 while Power gets overtaken round the
outside by the recently pitted Kanaan. 2 laps later and after being
overtaken by Tony Kanaan who performed a double overtake, Will Power
takes full advantage and overtakes Carlos Munoz into turn 4 whilst
Sebastian Saavedra gets swamped by Bourdais and Andretti. Power got
overtaken by Bourdais into the final corner. At the front, Kanaan caught up
to JPM, who himself was stuck behind Rodolfo Gonzalez, and after
attempting to overtake Montoya into the chicane, forcing Kanaan off the
track, he got past JPM 2 turns later to do a favor to teammate Dixon,
moving up to P11. Further ahead, Rahal overshoots the chicane after he
locked his rear brakes, allowing Ryan Hunter Reay and Ryan Briscoe to
pass him. Lap 62 saw the drivers come in for their final stops. Newgarden
was the first driver out of the title contenders to pit, but as he tried to exit,
he stalled. The car was fired up again after the mechanics pushed him
back into his stall as per the rules. As they did so, the car caught fire and
thankfully the mechanics doused the flames quickly. He got going but lost
a lap and he lost the chance for his first title. Whilst all that was going on,
Dixon and Rahal pitted. This saw Dixon rejoin in P2 behind teammate Tony
Kanaan and Rahal rejoined in P18. Hunter Reay pitted from the lead one
lap later allowing Dixon to take the lead. At the same time, Montoya made
his last stop of the day, hoping to use the fresher tires as an advantage to
climb through the order faster and finish the required 6 th place to win the
title.

On lap 65, James Jakes crashed out at turn deploying the 3 rd caution. The
next to last restart came on lap 69 with Dixon leading and Rahal P6 after
Stefano Coletti who was in front was black-flagged. Will Power was P10,
and Montoya was in P11. With Dixon getting 2 extra points for leading the
most laps, Montoya had to finish 5th to clinch the title. The fourth and final
caution came on lap 71 when Jack Hawksworth spun Carlos Muñoz in turn
7. The final restart came on lap 73, late in the race Sébastien Bourdais
spun Championship Contender Graham Rahal in turn 7 and there was no
caution for that because Graham Rahal got the car going, Bourdais got a
drive-thru penalty for avoidable contact. After the race, Rahal got out of
his car and confronted Bourdais. Dixon won his third win at Sonoma
Raceway, third of the year, and back-to-back wins at Sonoma Raceway
like Will Power did in 2010 and 2011. Scott Dixon won his 4th
championship tying Dario Franchitti, Sébastien Bourdais, and Mario
Andretti for U.S. open wheel titles. Ryan Hunter Reay and Charlie Kimball
followed Dixon. Scott Dixon won the tiebreaker over Juan Pablo Montoya
because Dixon had 3 wins to Montoya's 2.