Chicago Update: Red Flag comes out for rain at Lap 110; Kenseth leads

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More than an hour after its scheduled start time, the first race of the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup got underway at Chicagoland Speedway after rain showers had delayed the drop of the green flag.

Pole sitter Joey Logano quickly shot out to an early lead, leaving Brad Keselowski and Juan Pablo Montoya to dice for second place behind him. While Logano paced the field, five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson – who went into the Chase with four straight finishes outside the Top 25 – quickly moved into the Top 5 after starting ninth on the grid.

When the previously announced competition caution came out at Lap 30, Logano was leading, followed by Keselowski in second, Johnson in third, Juan Pablo Montoya in fourth, and Greg Biffle in fifth.

The leaders then came down for their first stops of the day, and the race off pit road went to Johnson, who took two tires. Following him was Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Aric Almirola, who also all took two. Logano, who grabbed four, dropped back to sixth.

Busch actually managed to beat Johnson to the start/finish line on the Lap 38 restart, which is now permitted thanks to NASCAR’s new restart rules. That enabled Busch to lead Lap 37 under the yellow flag and earn a bonus point, but Johnson was able to take the lead back one lap later.

Johnson held the lead up to his next stop under green on Lap 75, but fell back after losing precious time when an official told them that a lugnut was loose on the right rear. The 48 crew frantically indicated otherwise before their driver was allowed back out. Additional problems were suffered in the green cycle by Kurt Busch, who was tagged for speeding on pit road.

Fox Sports’ Bob Dillner caught this bit of radio transmission between Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus after the stop:

When the cycle ended, Matt Kenseth came away with the lead, while Johnson fell back to fifth behind Kenseth, Keselowski, Logano and Kyle Busch. As for Kurt Busch, he found himself a lap down in 29th after his penalty.

Kenseth, who has claimed three of his five victories this season on 1.5-mile ovals such as Chicagoland, quickly built a sizable gap over Keselowski, Logano and Johnson, who proceeded to fight among each other for the runner-up spot shortly after the Lap 100 mark.

But on Lap 108, the rains returned just as Cole Whitt and Juan Pablo Montoya made contact in Turn 4, which caused the former to go skidding into the infield grass.  The caution came back out with 27 laps left before the race crossed the halfway point at Lap 134.

Three laps later, at Lap 110, the red flag came out and the cars went back to pit road to be quickly covered by teams.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.