The 2018 ABC Supply 500 was the 14th round of the 2018 IndyCar Series season. The race was held on August 19 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race served as the 14th round of the 2018 IndyCar Series season. 2018 Indy 500 champion Will Power qualified on pole position, while 2016 Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi took victory in the 200-lap race.
The race was marred by a massive crash on lap 6. It happened when Ryan Hunter-Reay and rookie Robert Wickens were racing side by side for 3rd place when the two made contact in turn 2. Hunter-Reay hit the wall and Wickens' car went over the top of Hunter-Reay's car and hit the catch fence tearing the car apart. The impact sent Wickens' car spinning like a top on the straight-away. The wreck also collected James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato, and Pietro Fittipaldi. Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe, Sato, and Fittipaldi were unharmed, but Wickens sustained severe injuries and was paralyzed from the chest down as a result. Wickens has since never returned to race in IndyCar but did return to racing in 2022, driving in the Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Report In 2018, IndyCar introduced new aero kits, which produced an Indianapolis 500 that was considered generally less-competitive than in previous years. With a record 42 lead changes at Pocono in 2017, drivers and teams entered the race expecting passing to be significantly harder.
On August 9, five drivers tested at Pocono. Rookies Robert Wickens, Pietro Fittipaldi, Zach Veach, Matheus Leist, and veteran Tony Kanaan completed several hours of laps at the track.
On the morning of Saturday, August 18, IndyCar officials confirmed that Pocono would return to the 2019 IndyCar schedule. The first, one-hour practice session for the race occurred at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Morning rain delayed the start by half an hour. As teams worked on their qualifying preparation, rookie Zach Veach posted the fastest speed with a lap of 217.393 mph. Josef Newgarden was second at 217.016 mph. Alexander Rossi was third fastest at 216.907 mph. Tony Kanaan posted the fastest speed single-car speed without a draft at 215.468 mph.
Time Trials Qualifying was held at 1:30 p.m., giving teams just an hour and a half after practice to prepare. Will Power won the pole with a speed of 219.511 mph. It was the slowest pole speed since IndyCar's return to Pocono in 2013. Power's Team Penske teammate, Josef Newgarden, qualified second at 218.802 mph. Andretti Autosport teammates, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified third and fourth.
It was the 53rd time that Power had won the pole position for an IndyCar race, moving him into a tie for second all-time, tied with A.J. Foyt.
Power had won the Pocono 500 in 2016 and 2017. And by winning the 2018 Indianapolis 500, Power was looking to become the first driver since Al Unser in 1978 to win three consecutive 500 mile races if he could win at Pocono again in 2018.
An afternoon rain shower cancelled the afternoon practice session. IndyCar chose not to reschedule the final practice, meaning teams would have to start the race with no practice for their race setup.
Race
As the field was approaching the green flag, the rows of cars were stacked too closely together and a crash occurred before the race began. Starting 18th, Graham Rahal accelerated and ran into the back of 16th place starter, Spencer Pigot. Pigot spun into the inside wall and suffered major damage to the rear of his car. He would only complete 17 laps before retiring from the race. Rahal suffered a broken front wing and slight damage to his suspension.
As a result of Pigot's crash, the first six laps were run at slow caution speeds. When the green flag was first shown on lap seven, Alexander Rossi passed Will Power entering turn one to take the lead. Robert Wickens passed Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden on the outside in turn one to move into fourth place.
Carrying a lot of speed, Wickens moved to the inside of Hunter-Reay and attempted a pass entering turn two. Wickens' front wheel was alongside Hunter-Reay's rear wheel as they entered turn two. The cars made contact and spun Hunter-Reay at a 90 degree angle to race traffic. Wickens' front wheels climbed over the nose of Hunter-Reay's car and impacted the outside wall roughly three feet off the ground. The car continued to climb up the wall and impacted the catchfence with the nose of the car. The car caught a fence post and rotated several times, landing back on the racing surface and spinning seven times before coming to a stop against the inside wall. Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe, and Pietro Fittipaldi were involved in the crash as well.
45 minutes after the accident, IndyCar VP of Communications, Curt Cavin, announced that Wickens was "awake and alert" and transported by helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital. Wickens list of injuries included "thoracic spinal fracture, spinal cord injury, neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, fractured right forearm, fractured elbow, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion."
The race was stopped for 1 hour and 56 minutes. In the aftermath of the crash, the quality of the repair work on the fence was debated. Sébastien Bourdais said, "The construction guys said thumbs-up; I’m glad nobody tried it because I’m not sure that would have been satisfactory. It’s just tough moments. When we saw the extent of the damage I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t gonna get fixed properly, and it wasn’t. The cables were loose, and it was just like, it was pretty lousy. So I wasn’t happy with it at all."
Bourdais' view was disputed by IndyCar president, Jay Frye, who said, "He was not at the scene. He was doing it from a visual perspective. A couple of angles you looked at it, it was different-looking, but another angle it looked fine. It's just how you looked at it."
When the race resumed, Alexander Rossi pulled away from the field. The only challenge to Rossi's domination came from Will Power. During green flag pit stops on lap 135, Power overtook Rossi. However, on lap 140, Rossi repassed Power for the lead going into turn two. Rossi led 180 laps, a new record for the Pocono 500.
Following the resumption of the race from the Wickens crash, the event was very clean with the final 189 laps run without cautions. Tony Kanaan dropped out after 16 laps with throttle issues. With 34 laps remaining, Conor Daly lightly hit the turn two wall with his right-side wheels. Daly entered pit road and the race continued without interruption.
Unlike the 42 lead changes in the 2017 Pocono 500, there were only 11 lead changes in 2018, the majority the result of green-flag pit stops.
Broadcasting The first practice session was streamed live on IndyCar's YouTube channel with audio from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.Saturday at the 2018 ABC Supply 500 Qualifying was broadcast live on NBCSN.
The race was aired by NBCSN. The booth announcers were Leigh Diffey, Paul Tracy, and Townsend Bell. Pit reporters were Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, and Katie Hargitt, and Robin Miller.
In the United States, the race had a 0.34 TV rating and 542,000 viewers. It was the third most watched IndyCar race on NBCSN in 2018, behind only races with NASCAR as lead-in programming: a tape-delayed broadcast of Mid-Ohio, and the season-final at Sonoma.
Results KeyMeaningRRookieWPast winner
Qualifying PosNo.NameLap 1 TimeLap 2 TimeTotal TimeAvg. Speed (mph)112 Will Power W40.919841.08081:22.0006219.51121 Josef Newgarden41.172241.09411:22.2663218.802327 Alexander Rossi41.209441.07331:22.2827218.758428 Ryan Hunter-Reay W41.350441.29181:22.6422217.806522 Simon Pagenaud41.241641.41481:22.6564217.76966 Robert Wickens R41.355141.36091:22.7160217.612726 Zach Veach R41.364041.36171:22.7257217.587818 Sébastien Bourdais41.436641.39971:22.8363217.29695 James Hinchcliffe41.438441.50761:22.9460217.0091030 Takuma Sato41.402441.59931:23.0017216.8631198 Marco Andretti41.526241.55421:23.0804216.6581210 Ed Jones41.619741.50301:23.1227216.547139 Scott Dixon W41.518241.65721:23.1754216.4101414 Tony Kanaan41.575341.63181:23.2071216.3281520 Ed Carpenter41.741141.58251:23.3236216.0251621 Spencer Pigot41.896541.75561:23.6521215.1771719 Pietro Fittipaldi R41.923042.05741:23.9804214.3361815 Graham Rahal41.988242.03581:24.0240214.2251923 Charlie Kimball42.607242.33101:24.9382211.919204 Matheus Leist R42.507042.52071:25.0277211.6962159 Max Chilton42.863643.01461:25.8782209.5992288 Conor Daly42.746743.39781:26.1445208.951OFFICIAL BOX SCORE
Race DriverTeamEngineLapsTime/RetiredPit StopsGridLaps Led127 Alexander RossiAndretti AutosportHonda2002:36:49.11286318053212 Will Power WTeam PenskeChevrolet200 +4.498261164239 Scott Dixon WChip Ganassi RacingHonda200 +41.3557713336418 Sébastien BourdaisDale Coyne Racing with Vasser-SullivanHonda200 +42.0120683251 Josef NewgardenTeam PenskeChevrolet199 +1 lap6230626 Zach Veach RAndretti AutosportHonda199 +1 lap6728798 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Curb-AgajanianHonda199 +1 lap61126822 Simon PagenaudTeam PenskeChevrolet199 +1 lap7524923 Charlie KimballCarlinChevrolet199 +1 lap719221020 Ed CarpenterEd Carpenter RacingChevrolet198 +2 laps715121114 Matheus Leist RA. J. Foyt EnterprisesChevrolet197 +3 laps720191210 Ed JonesChip Ganassi RacingHonda197 +3 laps712181359 Max ChiltonCarlinChevrolet196 +4 laps721171415 Graham RahalRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda196 +4 laps818161588 Conor DalyHarding RacingChevrolet162Contact722151621 Spencer PigotEd Carpenter RacingChevrolet17Contact016141714 Tony KanaanA. J. Foyt EnterprisesChevrolet16Mechanical114131828 Ryan Hunter-Reay WAndretti AutosportHonda6Contact0412196 Robert Wickens RSchmidt Peterson MotorsportsHonda6Contact0611205 James HinchcliffeSchmidt Peterson MotorsportsHonda6Contact09102130 Takuma SatoRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda6Contact01092219 Pietro Fittipaldi RDale Coyne RacingHonda6Contact0178OFFICIAL BOX SCORE Notes: 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.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Scott Dixon 530 2 Alexander Rossi 501 3 Josef Newgarden 464 4 Will Power 449 5 Ryan Hunter-Reay 411
Manufacturer standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 1,199 2 Chevrolet 988
Note: Only the top five positions are included.
References