'It's a relief': Rossi wins at IMS road course
INDIANAPOLIS -- At a track he’s historically struggled at over his seven-year IndyCar career and during a race weekend he was less than enthused over, Alexander Rossi broke a three-year IndyCar race winless streak Saturday afternoon.
To do so, he watched Andretti Autosport teammate Colton Herta drift out of the race from the lead on Lap 42 with gearing issues that appeared to have come from running over a curb just past the halfway point. Later on Twitter, the team called Herta’s race-ending issue a “terminal mechanical failure.”
So one week after what he called on his podcast the most uncompetitive racing weekend he’s had during his tenure at Andretti Autosport (13th and 18th during the Iowa doubleheader), Rossi finally made his way back to Victory Lane.
After taking control of the lead from Herta, Rossi led the final 44 laps of the race without incident. His initial race lead stood around 2.5 seconds over 2nd-place finisher Christian Lundgaard when Herta bowed out. It grew to just over four seconds at times, and after falling back to just 2.5 seconds following the leaders’ final pitstop on Lap 62, Rossi pushed it back up to 3.9 seconds by Lap 70, and the 2016 Indy 500 winner never looked back.
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