Verizon IndyCar Series standings after Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix
Defending IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud is back on top with his first win. Here are the Verizon IndyCar Series standings after the Phoenix Grand Prix.
The Verizon IndyCar Series has a new championship leader in 2017, and it’s the old championship winner. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud won Saturday night’s Phoenix Grand Prix and in so doing put himself back atop the points standings.
Pagenaud and former championship leader Sebastien Bourdais swapped places in the standings after Bourdais was one of five cars involved in a first-lap accident at Phoenix and was immediately knocked out of the event.
The rest of the Top 5 remained the same, albeit with a much larger gap now between the top three drivers as Scott Dixon finished fifth and Josef Newgarden tenth in the Phoenix Grand Prix.
This week’s biggest gainer was 2014 IndyCar champion Will Power, who vaulted himself into sixth place from 14th by virtue of his runner-up finish on Saturday night. Takuma Sato fell out of the Top 10 with his crash while Dixon’s teammate Tony Kanaan is now inside the Top 10.
Below are the updated Verizon IndyCar Series standings after the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix:
1 – Simon Pagenaud – 159 pts
2 – Scott Dixon – 141 pts
3 – Josef Newgarden – 133 pts
4 – Sebastien Bourdais – 128 pts
5 – James Hinchcliffe – 120 pts
6 – Helio Castroneves – 118 pts
7 – Will Power – 91 pts
8 – Tony Kanaan – 87 pts
9 – Ryan Hunter-Reay – 82 pts
10 – Ed Jones – 81 pts
11 – Takuma Sato – 79 pts
12 – Alexander Rossi – 75 pts
13 – JR Hildebrand – 71 pts
14 – Carlos Munoz – 68 pts
15 – Mikhail Aleshin – 67 pts
16 – Charlie Kimball – 61 pts
17 – Graham Rahal – 59 pts
18 – Max Chilton – 58 pts
19 – Marco Andretti – 57 pts
20 – Conor Daly – 57 pts
21 – Spencer Pigot – 44 pts
22 – Ed Carpenter – 26 pts
23 – Zach Veach – 11 pts
Next: Complete IndyCar Phoenix Grand Prix results
The Verizon IndyCar Series now takes a brief break as action returns to Indianapolis for the two races in the month of May. Who do you think will leave Indianapolis with the points lead? Make your predictions in the comments, and follow along with all the IndyCar news in the Motor Sports category at FanSided here.