Rain washes out ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway until Monday
LONG POND, Pa. -- The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway has been postponed by rain and will be run beginning at noon ET Monday. The race will be telecast live on NBCSN with the green flag scheduled to wave at 12:09 p.m.
The 500-mile race on the 2.5-mile "Tricky Triangle" oval is scheduled to be the 13th race to be completed on the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. It was scheduled for a 3:10 p.m. ET start, but light rain moved into the area shortly after noon and became heavier as race time approached. With a stronger storm front moving through the area later in the afternoon, INDYCAR and track officials made the decision to postpone the race.
Mikhail Aleshin, in the No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Honda, won the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying Saturday at the track with a two-lap speed average of 220.445 mph. It was the first pole of the Russian driver's Indy car career.
Josef Newgarden will start second in the No. 21 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka/ECR Chevrolet, missing out on winning the pole by less than a tenth of a second over the 5-mile qualifying run. Newgarden's two-lap average speed was 220.195 mph.
Eighteen drivers remain mathematically alive in the hunt for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series championship, led by Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud. The driver of the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet has collected 484 points through the first 12 completed races of the season, building a 58-point lead over teammate Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Power will start eighth and Pagenaud 14th when the green flag waves.
Three past Pocono race winners start farther back in the 22-car field. Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2014 race winner, starts on the inside of Row 7 in the No. 2 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet. Scott Dixon, the 2013 race winner and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion, will be on the inside of Row 10 in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Ryan Hunter-Reay, last year's Pocono winner, starts last in the Andretti Autosport No. 28 DHL Honda after crashing his primary car in practice and not making a qualifying attempt in the backup car.
Indy cars have raced 22 times in the past at Pocono, annually from 1971-89 and again starting in 2013. All of the races have been 500-mile distances except two shortened by rain in 1975 (420 miles) and 1981 (305 miles). Both of the rain-shortened races were won by A.J. Foyt, whose four wins at Pocono are the most in Indy car history.
This is the second Verizon IndyCar Series race this season to be delayed by rain. The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway was scheduled for the night of June 11 but pushed back to the following afternoon by rain and wet track conditions. Seventy-one laps were completed on June 12 before rain returned. The race was suspended at that point and will be completed Aug. 27.