Helio Castroneves used a strategy similar to Bourdais' to go from 24th on the grid to finish second, while Graham Rahal continued his 2015 form and finished third. Juan Montoya and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top five.
Polesitter Newgarden immediately jumped into the lead off the initial start, while Castroneves slowly began working his way forward. By the end of the first stint, the Penske driver was up to 17th, while Newgarden fought off a challenge from Ryan Briscoe as the first round pit stops approached.
Newgarden maintained his lead after opening pit stops, while Briscoe's race began falling apart. The Australian suffered an airjack failure, while delayed his pit stop by around seven seconds. Up front, Scott Dixon moved up to second while Montoya moved to third, a result of pitting earlier than most for fresh tires. Bourdais, too, ran in top five as the race neared the 100-lap mark, and he eventually ran as high as third during this second stint.
The second round of stops shuffled the ordered significantly. Dixon emerged ahead of Newgarden to take the lead, while Montoya incurred a speeding penalty, which cost him a lap and dropped him outside the top 15.
A lap 114 caution for James Jakes' engine failure again shuffled the order, this time a result of strategy. Dixon, Newgarden, and Kanaan led Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Helio Castroneves, and Will Power, among others, onto pit road. Meanwhile, Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson, and Ryan Briscoe stayed out to assume the top five spots. Newgarden, who led much of the race, suffered a slow pit stop and restarted outside the top 10.
The race ran under green briefly after a lap 129 restart before Briscoe broke loose in turn four and spun back into Power, with both impacting the turn four wall. Neither was hurt, but both fell out on the spot.
A lap 142 restart saw Newgarden rebound from his earlier pit stop and rocket from the middle of the pack to third. He then quickly passed Kanaan to run second. However, Bourdais was gapping the field, leading by nearly 20 seconds when he entered his pit stop window.
In fact, Bourdais' lead was large enough that he completed a lap 171 pit stop without losing a lap and passed Kanaan on lap 188 to retake the lead. By the time everyone cycled through this round stops, Bourdais had lapped the field, and even though he still had one stop to make, he spent the next several laps on cruise control.
Behind him, Castroneves had worked his way up to second via pit strategy similar to Bourdais, but lacked the pace to stay with the Frenchman and couldn't overtake him after Bourdais made his final stop on lap 213. Kanaan, Newgarden, and Rahal ran third, fourth, and fifth at the time, but were saving fuel to make it to the finish without stopping.
Strategy changed again on lap 223 when Justin Wilson suffered and engine failure on the front straight away, allowing everyone behind Bourdais to pit for tires. However, Montoya and Ed Carpenter stayed out with him. Castroneves the first of the drivers off pit road, followed by Rahal, Dixon, Kanaan, Newgarden, Andretti, and Pagenaud.
A restart with 19 laps to go saw Bourdais streak away as the pack behind shuffled in a mad dash. Castroneves emerged in second, with Rahal right behind in third. Newgarden too was coming through the pack, but washed out in Montoya's wake, allowing Dixon through into fifth.
Up front, Castroneves and Rahal closed on Bourdais, but neither could make enough of a run to seriously challenge him. The win is Bourdais' second of the season and his first on an oval since he won at The Milwaukee Mile in 2006. Behind the top three, Montoya held off the field to finish fourth, while Newgarden rallied to finish fifth.
In the championship, Montoya added to his lead, which now stands at 54 points. Dixon now sits second, while Rahal is tied with Castroneves for third, only one point ahead of Power.
Scott James / OpenWheelWorld.net
