Race Report: ABC Supply Pocono 500

LONG POND, Pa. August 22, 2016—Gratitude. That was the feeling of the ABC Supply Racing team when Takuma Sato walked away from a horrific accident after spinning and hitting the SAFER barrier hard in Turn 3 on lap 2 of the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Sato had started third in the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda and was running in that position when his car unexpectedly swapped ends on him causing him to hit the wall exiting Turn 3.

“It was pretty hard (hit) but thanks to the safety of IndyCar and Pocono Raceway I was able to walk away,” Sato said after exiting the infield care center at the track. “I may have some bruises but I’m perfectly fine. I’m not sure (what happened). Obviously the conditions we have (for the race) are different from what we had for the last practice. We thought we needed more downforce on the ABC Supply car and we discussed the wind. The conditions were a little tricky, but I’m not sure what happened exactly. I went into Turn 3 and it just went free so quickly and I simply lost the back end.”

The team is examining the data to see what went so wrong after such a strong qualifying effort.

Jack Hawksworth, who started 12th in the No. 41 ABC Supply Honda, had a couple of issues on pit stops  but he soldiered on to finish 14th which is his best finish on a superspeedway to date.

“It was a difficult race, we weren’t that competitive,” Hawksworth said afterwards. “We struggled on the straight, it seemed when I pulled out [to pass], it felt like I hit a brick wall. Not a great race for us.”

Will Power won the race while pole winner Mikhail Aleshin tied his career best finish of second after leading 87 laps. Ryan Hunter-Reay stole the show with his charge from 12th to third in the final 20 laps of the race. Josef Newgarden and Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the top five.

The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Texas this Saturday to complete the Firestone 600 which was cut short by torrential downpours in June. Sato will restart 17th and Hawksworth will restart in 20th in the race which will be 177 laps long. The race will be televised live on NBC Sports Network starting at 9 p.m. ET.