The 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships Presented by Lucas Oil was an Izod IndyCar Series open-wheel race that was held on September 15, 2012, in Fontana, California at Auto Club Speedway. Contested over 250 laps, it was the 15th and final round of the 2012 Izod IndyCar Series. Ed Carpenter Racing driver Ed Carpenter won the race; Dario Franchitti of Chip Ganassi Racing finished second and Franchitti's teammate Scott Dixon came in third.
Marco Andretti earned his first pole position since 2008 by posting the fastest lap of qualifying. J. R. Hildebrand was the most dominant driver of the early portions of the race before contacting the wall on lap 74, placing him out of contention. As Carpenter and Dixon battled for the first position, Tony Kanaan passed them both and led throughout the middle stages; however, he was relegated down the running order because of a lengthy pit stop. Alex Tagliani then joined the battle for the win with Carpenter and Dixon before his engine blew late in the race. After the final restart with less than 10 laps remaining, Dixon was mired to third, while Carpenter chased down and passed Franchitti for the win on the final lap. The win was Carpenter's second of his IndyCar Series career and first as a team owner for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Meanwhile, Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay were the only drivers who had a mathematical shot of winning the Drivers' Championship prior to the race, with Power leading over Hunter-Reay by 17 points. Both drivers started deep in the grid due to penalties imposed for changing engines, but quickly made their way into the top-15. As Power passed Hunter-Reay on lap 56, his car broke loose in turn two and crashed. Power's team made extensive repairs to his car and he eventually completed 12 laps, passing the previously-retired E. J. Viso in the process, before retiring in order to defend his championship lead. However, by virtue of Tagliani's blown engine and Takuma Sato's last-lap crash, Hunter-Reay finished fourth and earned his first and only IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship by three points over Power.
Background
The MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships was the 15th and final round of the 2012 Izod IndyCar Series and was held at Auto Club Speedway, a four-turn tri-oval circuit with 14-degree banking in the turns, 11-degree banking in the front stretch, and 3-degree banking in the back stretch, in Fontana, California, United States on September 15, 2012. The race was first announced by IndyCar chief executive officer Randy Bernard and track president Gillian Zucker in July 2011. It marked the IndyCar Series' first race at the track since 2005. While initially scheduled to be and 200 laps, the race was later lengthened to its original distance of and 250 laps, becoming the first 500-mile American open-wheel car race outside of the Indianapolis 500 since the 2002 The 500, which was also held at Auto Club Speedway.
Heading into the race, Will Power held the lead in the Drivers' Championship with 453 points, while Ryan Hunter-Reay stood second on 436. Hélio Castroneves was third with 401 points, one more than Scott Dixon in fourth and 29 more than Simon Pagenaud in fifth. Power and Hunter-Reay were the only drivers who had a mathematical shot of winning the championship; Power would be able to clinch the title if he won or finished second, while Hunter-Reay's most direct scenario of securing the championship was if he earned the maximum of 53 points and Power finished fourth or worse. Chevrolet had already clinched the Manufacturers' Championship in the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma and led with 114 points, ahead of Honda on 96 and Lotus with 56.
IndyCar mandated a new aerodynamic package that was utilized in this race and that year's Indianapolis 500. Each car was required to feature rear-wheel guards, a rear-wing mainplane, and rear-wing end caps in order to dematerialize drag and create more downforce. Unlike the Indianapolis 500, the rear-wing wicker bill was removed from every car. Eight drivers tested the new package at Auto Club Speedway on September 6, and Dario Franchitti topped the speed charts at . Dixon's lap of was fastest of the 22 drivers who participated in an eight-hour testing session at the track on September 12. Hunter-Reay, E. J. Viso, and Ryan Briscoe were all involved in separate crashes during the session.
One driver change occurred between the 26 cars that were entered for the race. Mike Conway of A. J. Foyt Racing was uncomfortable with racing on oval tracks and opted to sit out of the MAVTV 500; he was replaced by 2005 Infiniti Pro Series champion Wade Cunningham. Conway suffered injuries to his legs and back in a crash during the 2010 Indianapolis 500, and the IndyCar community remained uneased by high-speed oval racing in the aftermath of Dan Wheldon's death at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the year prior. Many drivers supported Conway's decision to back out of the race, with Tony Kanaan calling it "the most sincere thing a race-car driver has ever said."
Practice and qualifying Two practice sessions on Friday preceded the race on Saturday. The first lasted for 90 minutes and the second for 45 minutes. Briscoe led the first practice session on Friday afternoon with a time of 33.1008 seconds, beating second-quickest driver Ed Carpenter by eight hundredths of a second. Franchitti was third-quickest, ahead of Power and Castroneves. The session featured two stoppages, one for debris and one for Justin Wilson crashing into the turn-one SAFER barrier.
During the qualifying session later that day, each driver was required to complete two timed laps and the cumulative time of those laps would determine their starting position. Amidst gusty and humid conditions, Marco Andretti earned his second career pole position and his first since the 2008 ABC Supply Company A. J. Foyt 225 with a time of 1 minute and 6.6455 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Briscoe, whose laps were 0.0032 seconds slower than Andretti's. Power qualified third, but was assessed a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change (his sixth of the season) along with Josef Newgarden, Dixon, Alex Tagliani, Castroneves, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe, Pagenaud, Takuma Sato, Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball, Cunningham, Wilson, and Simona de Silvestro, the latter two of whom did not make qualifying attempts because of Wilson's crash and de Silvestro's failing engine in the first practice session. With the penalties imposed, Kanaan was bumped up to third place, with J. R. Hildebrand in fourth and Carpenter in fifth. Rubens Barrichello, Katherine Legge, Oriol Servià, Franchitti, Sebastián Saavedra, Viso, and James Jakes occupied the next seven positions, ahead of the 14 penalized drivers.
In the second practice session on Friday evening, Carpenter set the fastest time at 33.3691 seconds, ahead of Castroneves, Briscoe, Kanaan, and Newgarden. Cunningham slammed the wall in turn two with five minutes remaining in the session, though he was uninjured.
Qualifying classification Driver Team Time 1 26 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 1:06.6455 216.0691 2 2 Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 1:06.6487 216.0582 3 12 Will Power Team Penske 1:06.6851 215.940 13 467 Josef Newgarden Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing 1:06.6918 215.919 14 59 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:06.8553 215.39115 6 98 Alex Tagliani Barracuda Racing 1:06.9065 215.22616 711 Tony Kanaan KV Racing Technology 1:07.0151 214.8773 84 J. R. Hildebrand Panther Racing 1:07.0549 214.7494 920 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 1:07.0753 214.6845 103 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 1:07.1615 214.40917 1138 Graham Rahal Chip Ganassi Racing 1:07.2851 214.01518 1227 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport 1:07.3760 213.72619 138 Rubens Barrichello KV Racing Technology 1:07.4389 213.5276 146 Katherine Legge Dragon Racing 1:07.5080 213.3087 1577 Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports 1:07.5164 213.28220 1615 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1:07.5354 213.22221 1728 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 1:07.6778 212.77322 1822 Oriol Servià Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:07.7541 212.5338 1910 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 1:07.9247 211.9999 2083 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing 1:08.0751 211.53123 2117 Sebastián Saavedra AFS Racing-Andretti Autosport 1:08.3699 210.61910 225 E. J. Viso KV Racing Technology 1:08.5276 210.13411 2314 Wade Cunningham A. J. Foyt Racing 1:08.7265 209.52624 2419 James Jakes Dale Coyne Racing 1:09.2120 208.05612 2518 Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing — —25 2678 Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing — —26 Sources:
Notes – Issued a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the series' quota of five engines for the season. – Issued a ten-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. – Issued a ten-place grid penalty for both aforementioned infractions.
Race
Weather conditions at the start of the race were clear and muggy, with air temperatures at and track temperatures at . Approximately 25,000 people attended the race. Actress Melora Hardin of The Office sang the national anthem and Dish Network general manager Nate Block commanded the drivers to start their engines. The green flag was waved at 5:50 p.m. local time (UTC−07:00) to begin the race. Kanaan drove to Andretti's right side and passed him to take the lead on lap 1. Andretti reclaimed the position a lap later, but again lost the lead to Hildebrand on the third lap. Hildebrand and Andretti remained alongside each other until Hildebrand pulled ahead on lap 6. Over the next 25 laps, Hildebrand grew his lead over Andretti to 3.6 seconds. The first round of green-flag pit stops commenced on lap 31 with Andretti making a stop; Hildebrand entered pit road five laps later, handing the lead to Briscoe for two laps. Sato led before he made a stop on the 40th lap, and after Newgarden made his stop a lap later, Hildebrand regained the lead.
On lap 56, Power engaged in a battle with fellow championship frontrunner Hunter-Reay for 12th place when his car suddenly spun backwards into the wall in turn two, prompting the first caution flag of the race. Hunter-Reay barely escaped the incident without damage, though he still was not assured to win the championship. All the leaders elected to make pit stops under the caution period. Hildebrand led the field back up to speed at the restart on lap 65, followed by Carpenter and Barrichello. Carpenter drove to the inside line and overtook Hildebrand a lap later. On the 74th lap, Hildebrand lost control of his car as he chased Carpenter for the lead and nudged the turn-two wall with his right-rear tire, triggering the second caution. Most of the leaders made stops during the caution for fresh tires and fuel. As the drivers prepared for the upcoming restart, Legge hit the rear of Wilson's car and spun him out in the third turn on lap 81, lengthening the caution period. Jakes remained on the track and led at the lap-85 restart, though he was quickly passed by Carpenter and Dixon in turn three a lap later.