Alexander Rossi has stormed to victory at the ABC Supply 500 in Pocono with an exemplary display of driving to cut the points gap down to just 29 points to championship leader to Scott Dixon.
Rossi jumped to the front of the pack at the start of the race prior to the first caution and then initial red-flag period for Robert Wickens' crash, and was only troubled by erstwhile polesitter Will Power through the 200 laps.
The Californian was able to romp away from the pack at a canter with the Penske driver always trying to chase him down and the pace was so frantic that only the top four drivers finished on the lead lap.
Power came close toppling Rossi in the latter half of the race but his charge was halted after getting caught up behind Carlin's Max Chilton in Turn 3 and had to check up behind the British driver losing vital seconds to Rossi.
Dixon was able to recover from starting 13th on the grid in his Chip Ganassi #9 machine to cross the finish line in third place and minimise the damage to his championship lead against Rossi.
Sebastien Bourdais was the last driver on the lead lap in fourth place and found it hard to pass his fellow four-time champion despite appearing to have a better car in managing lapped traffic.
Reigning champion Josef Newgarden had to settle for fifth place after struggling all race long with a lot of understeer in his car and was unable to maximise his opportunities despite starting on the front row with Power.
Andretti Autosport's rookie Zach Veach put an impressive display in all weekend long to bring his Group1001 car home in sixth place, the result in Pocono is his second best result of the season after his fourth-place in Long Beach.
Marco Andretti ran as high as third at one point in the race, however, the local driver who is from Nazareth just a short drive away from Pocono Raceway fell back into the midfield as the race wore and had to settle for seventh place overall.
Simon Pagenaud was unable to extract much pace from his #22 Penske machine through the race, crossing the line to finish all the way down in eighth place at the chequered flag.
Carlin's Charlie Kimball led a quiet race and held his own to creep up through the order to finish in ninth place at the end of the proceedings, especially after starting all the way down in 19th place.
Team boss Ed Carpenter rounded the top 10 with subdued drive in the Fuzzys #20 machine, taking over the car from Jordan King.
IndyCar's next race is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday, Aug. 25.
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