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2017 Road America
Race details
10th round of the 2017 IndyCar Series season
Date	June 25, 2017
Official name	Kohler Grand Prix
Location	Road America
Course	Permanent racing facility; 4.048 mi / 6.458 km
Distance	55 laps; 222.64 mi / 358.304 km
Pole position
Driver	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)
Time	1:41.3007
Fastest lap
Driver	Josef Newgarden (Team Penske)
Time	1:43.4651 (on lap 52 of 55)
Podium
First	Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Josef Newgarden (Team Penske)
Third	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske)

The 2017 Kohler Grand Prix was an IndyCar Series event held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race served as the 10th round of the 2017 IndyCar Series season. Hélio Castroneves qualified on pole position for the race, while Scott Dixon took victory.

Background

For the 2017 event, the length of the race was extended by five laps.

Just prior to the race, Mikhail Aleshin ran into issues with his visa that temporarily prevented him from entering the United States following his participation in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. DTM driver Robert Wickens was placed on stand-by to fill in for Aleshin if his issues were unable to be cleared in time for the race.^[1] Wickens completed practice in the No. 7 car, but Aleshin's visa issued were resolved shortly, allowing him to arrive at the track on Friday night and compete in all remaining sessions during the race weekend.^[2]

Qualifying

Qualifying for the race took place on Saturday, June 24. Hélio Castroneves secured his 50th career pole position at an average speed of 143.85 mph (231.52 km/h) as Team Penske locked out the front two rows of the field, with Will Power starting second, Josef Newgarden third, and Simon Pagenaud fourth. Scott Dixon qualified fifth, making him fastest of cars outside of the Penske stable.^[3]

Race

The race was held on Sunday, June 25. The start of the race saw Hélio Castroneves hold his lead, while Josef Newgarden managed to get around Will Power for second. Scott Dixon managed to get around Simon Pagenaud during the opening lap as well, while further back, Spencer Pigot suffered a broken front-wing after making contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. This order remained intact for several laps, though Dixon pressured Power for the third position for several laps. On lap 6, some drivers, including Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal, and Mikhail Aleshin began stops for what would be a four-stop strategy for them. The leaders, electing to use a three-stop strategy, did not pit until around lap 13. After the first stops, Castroneves held a narrow lead over Newgarden, while Dixon and Rossi both leapfrogged Power to take third and fourth place, respectively. Shortly thereafter, Pagenaud moved by Power, dropping Power out of the top five.

On lap 20, Newgarden was able to move around Castroneves and pull away, placing himself solidly in the lead. Castroneves soon began falling into the clutches of Dixon and Pagenaud when the second round of stops for the leaders came at lap 27. During the stops, Newgarden maintained his lead, but now was ahead of Dixon in second. Nearly immediately after the completion of the first round of stops came the race's first caution period as Takuma Sato spun and made contact with the wall in turn 11 on lap 29, though was able to continue after getting a bump start from the safety team.^[4] During the caution, the drivers on the four-stop strategy elected to pit.

The restart saw Dixon swing around the outside of Newgarden through turn 1 and successfully grab the lead, with Castroneves moving past Newgarden a few turns later.^[5] The top five remained the same until the final round of stops on around lap 41. Dixon maintained his lead of the race, while Newgarden successfully moved back around his teammate to put him back in second. Castroneves, Pagenaud, and Power rounded out the top five. On lap 45, the race saw its second caution period, as Tony Kanaan crashed heavily in turn 11 after breaking his front wing in an attempt to pass Alexander Rossi.

The restart came at lap 48 with the front runners remaining in the same order. Further back, Rossi, dealing with damage from the previous incident, was pushed off course and dropped down to 12th. Up front, no one was able to challenge Dixon for the remainder of the race, allowing him to secure his 41st career IndyCar victory, but his first of the 2017 season. Newgarden came across the line in second, while Castroneves came across the line third. Pagenaud and Power rounded out the top five. Dixon's victory allowed him to extend his lead in the championship, placing him 34 points ahead of Pagenaud.^[6]^[7]

Report

Key	Meaning
R	Rookie
W	Past winner

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Name	Grp.	Round 1	Round 2	Firestone Fast 6
1	3	Hélio Castroneves	2	1:42.0758	1:41.8260	1:41.3007
2	12	Will Power W	1	1:41.5032	1:42.1811	1:41.3611
3	2	Josef Newgarden	1	1:42.2200	1:42.0044	1:41.6608
4	1	Simon Pagenaud	2	1:41.9478	1:42.2853	1:42.0385
5	9	Scott Dixon	2	1:42.0824	1:42.6584	1:42.9308
6	15	Graham Rahal	1	1:42.6474	1:42.6954	1:45.0464
7	8	Max Chilton	1	1:42.6074	1:42.7566
8	27	Marco Andretti	1	1:42.7931	1:42.8614
9	5	James Hinchcliffe	2	1:42.7941	1:43.2105
10	83	Charlie Kimball	2	1:42.4088	1:43.3221
11	19	Ed Jones R	2	1:42.7865	1:43.7959
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1	1:42.5181	1:43.9786
13	14	Carlos Muñoz	1	1:42.9039
14	20	Spencer Pigot	2	1:42.8875
15	98	Alexander Rossi	1	1:43.0171
16	10	Tony Kanaan	2	1:42.9077
17	18	Esteban Gutiérrez R	1	1:43.1652
18	21	J. R. Hildebrand	2	1:42.9132
19	7	Mikhail Aleshin	1	1:43.8891
20	26	Takuma Sato	2	1:43.4111
21	4	Conor Daly	2	1:44.1579
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Source for individual rounds:^[8]

Race

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Pit Stops	Grid	Laps Led	Pts.¹
1	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	55	1:47:18.9870	3	5	24	53
2	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet	55	+0.5779	3	3	13	41
3	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	55	+4.1918	3	1	17	37
4	1	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	55	+4.9721	3	4		32
5	12	Will Power W	Team Penske	Chevrolet	55	+5.7227	3	2		30
6	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	55	+14.7178	3	10	1	29
7	19	Ed Jones R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	55	+21.6338	3	11		26
8	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	55	+22.2273	4	6		24
9	8	Max Chilton	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	55	+23.3076	3	7		22
10	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	55	+24.3586	4	19		20
11	14	Carlos Muñoz	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	55	+26.1402	4	13		19
12	20	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	55	+33.4983	5	14		18
13	98	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	55	+38.1370	4	15		17
14	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	55	+39.8433	3	12		16
15	4	Conor Daly	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	55	+43.1988	4	21		15
16	21	J. R. Hildebrand	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	55	+1:16.5039	4	18		14
17	18	Esteban Gutiérrez R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	55	+1:28.4634	5	17		13
18	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	54	+1 Lap	5	8		12
19	26	Takuma Sato	Andretti Autosport	Honda	54	+1 Lap	4	20		11
20	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	53	+2 Laps	5	9		10
21	10	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	44	Contact	4	16		9
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

¹ Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position.

Source for time gaps:^[9]

Championship standings

Driver standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Scott Dixon	379
	2	Simon Pagenaud	345
1	3	Hélio Castroneves	342
1	4	Takuma Sato	323
2	5	Josef Newgarden	318

Manufacturer standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Honda	820
	2	Chevrolet	774

Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

^ Weaver, Matt (June 22, 2017). "Robert Wickens to replace Mikhail Aleshin at Schmidt Peterson IndyCar team". Autoweek. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ Robinson, Mark (June 24, 2017). "Aleshin returns to seat of no. 7 Honda at Road America". IndyCar.com. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Brickyard Trademarks, Inc. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ Malsher, David (June 24, 2017). "Road America IndyCar: Castroneves grabs 50th career pole". Motorsport.com. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Motorsport Network. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ Ayello, Jim (June 25, 2017). "Insider: IndyCar parity? It was fun while it lasted". The Indianapolis Star. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Gannett Company. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
^ Kallmann, Dave (June 25, 2017). "Scott Dixon ruins Penske party by winning Kohler Grand Prix". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Gannett Company. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
^ Malhser, David (June 25, 2017). "Road America IndyCar: Dixon holds off Penskes for first win of 2017". Motorsport.com. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Motorsport Network. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ Robinson, Mark (June 25, 2017). "Dixon captures prized win at Road America, adds to career lore". IndyCar.com. Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin: Brickyard Trademarks, Inc. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ "Race Report: 2017 Kohler Grand Prix". theapexracing.co. TheApex.racing LLC. June 20, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
^ "Indycar 2017 Road America". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved July 9, 2017.

External links

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Previous race: 2016 Kohler Grand Prix	Kohler Grand Prix	Next race: 2018 Kohler Grand Prix