A race filled with crashes and chaos came down to a late-race duel for the lead between the likes of Gabby Chaves, Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden, and Juan Montoya. In the Hunter-Reay surged to the lead inside of five laps remaining ahead of Newgarden. Behind them, Chaves blew an engine entering turn three, bringing out a final caution and assuring Hunter-Reay of the victory."This team has given my great race cars over the years and this was one of them," Hunter-Reay said afterward. "We came through the field many times today. I hope the fans enjoyed the show because it was fun in the race car."

Newgarden was second, with Montoya third, Will Power fourth, and Carlos Munoz fifth. Montoya's third is couple with a crash by Graham Rahal, who hit the wall in turn 3 on lap 93 after contact with Tristan Vautier. The incident extends his points lead over Rahal, who remains second ahead of Dixon, Power, and Castroneves, with Castroneves also crashing during the race on lap 167.

The race was marred by a host of crashes, particularly in the second 100 laps. However, the most serious came on lap 180. Then leader Sage Karam crashed hard in the middle of turn one. Behind him, Justin Wilson drove through the debris field and hit a large piece of Karam's car. Wilson subsequently nosed into the inside wall. Karam emerge from his car and walked, albeit with some help, to the ambulance, but Wilson had to extracted from his car and was airlifted to a local hospital with a head injury.

The race's initial start was waved off twice with Castroneves jumping early. When the green flag waved, the frantic action immediately picked up, with the lead four going four-wide into turn one. Josef Newgarden emerged with the lead ahead of Pagenaud and Castroneves, while Wilson made a big charge up to fourth. Other early movers were Chaves (16th to 12th), Ryan Brisce (18th to 11th), and Sage Karam (20th to 14th).

The running order stabilized late in the stint until pit stops began on lap 28, with leader Newgarden the first to peel off and Wilson, Carlos Munoz, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, and Graham Rahal following him one lap later. The first caution then flew in the middle of cycle when Jack Hawksworth lost a left-rear tire exiting the pits, his crew not getting the wheel tight. The rest of the leaders, including Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, and Will Power, were forced to pit under caution, dropping them behind the others who already stopped and outside the top ten.

Racing only briefly resumed on lap 35 before Sebastien Bourdais brought out a second caution, drifting high in turn one and spinning into the outside wall.

A lap 42 restart saw Wilson battle Newgarden for the lead, but CFH driver held him on the backstretch, while Montoya took Power, Pagenaud, jakes, and Andretti five-wide on the front straight away to make up ground.

Newgarden kept the lead until lap 54, when Kanaan charged around him to hold the top spot. The Chip Ganassi driver held the lead until the next round stops began and he and Newgarden were the first to pit on lap 64, with Hunter-Reay, Wilson, Dixon, and Rahal pitting the next laps. A number of drivers extended the window, however, including Pagenaud, Power and Castroneves. Extending their run shuffled the order around, with Pagenaud holding the lead from Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, Montoya, and Wilson. Newgarden fell out of the top ten, but the big loser was Rahal, whose team had trouble getting fuel in the car and endured a stop more than 30 seconds long, dropping him to the tail end of the lead lap.

Up front, Castroneves asserted his strength on lap 78, ripping through the top five over a two-lap span to seize control of the lead from Pagenaud. Racing continued until lap 85, when Jack Hawksworth bumped Charlie Kimball and spun in front on the Chip Gansssi driver. Kimball suffered only a damaged nose while Hawksworth contact the wall exiting turn one, ending his day on the spot. Subsequent pit stops saw Castroneves retain the lead from Pagenaud, Kanaan, Karam, and Montoya, while Power nearly spun on pit exit. He recovered though and rejoined at the back of the field.

Tony Kanaan charged back into the lead on a lap 93 restart, but it quickly went back yellow when Rahal came together with Tristan Vautier and crashed in turn three. A visibly upset Rahal voiced displeasure with the Dale Coyne driver, who made a three-wide move into turn three inside of Rahal and Wilson. "We're already two wide, (Vautier) knows that, he sees that. It just hurts us," said a frustrated Rahal. "As I said to him 'You know I'm in the championship hunt for Honda. Why would you do something like that?' He has no answers. We didn't have the best of days going with the error in the pits, but I knew my guys had gotten a good stop and we were going to fight our way back into this. We were only 90 laps into a 200-lap race. We're down but we're not out. We've had a good year, nothing to be ashamed about. We'll go to Sonoma in attack mode."

Pagenad and Karam overtook Kanaan to lead him on a lap 103 restart, with Karam quickly taking the lead himself soon after. However, he needed an unscheduled on lap 107. But, it proved fortuitous when a yellow waved one lap later for debris off of Ed Carpenter's car. Karam stayed out when the leaders, but did not reassume the lead, with Chaves, Wilson, and Power staying out. Karam restarted fourth, while Pagenaud restarted fifth after leading the field off pit road.

Power went three-wide into turn one on a lap 114 restart to take the lead, but Chaves hung tough and retook the lead two laps later. Castroneves soon joined the fight for the lead, which continued until Chaves became the first to begin the next round of stops on lap 129. Again a caution interrupted the sequence, this time with Kanaan spinning in turn two and impacting the inside wall. Pagenaud led Karam, Munoz, Castroneves, and Power off pit road, but Chaves stayed out to reassume the lead.

Pagenaud and Karam swamped Chaves on a lap 139 restart, but a caution flew again that lap for a Marco Andretti crash in turn two. Andretti limped to the ambulance, but appeared okay afterward.

Racing resumed on lap 149, with Hunter-Reay surging around Karam and Pagenaud to take the lead two laps later. The most bizarre caution of the day came out two laps later, when a fox sprinted across the front straight away on lap 162. The leaders pitted, but Briscoe, Wilson, and Kimball stayed out, thinking no one would make the finish on fuel.

The wildest restart of the day came on lap 167, as the field went seven-wide behind Briscoe, but Castroneves quickly brought the next caution when he spun and crashed in turn one. Montoya, Briscoe, Munoz, Pagenaud, Power, and Dixon all topped off under the caution.

A lap 172 restart saw Karam charge through the field to retake the lead, which he grabbed on lap 174. However, he gave it up on lap 180 in the scariest incident of the day. Karam spun and crashed n the middle of turn one, and debris from his car hit Justin Wilson, who then nosed into the inside wall exiting turn one. Karam walked to the ambulance with some help, but Wilson was unconscious and extracted from the car before being airlifted to the hospital.

Racing did not resume until lap 194, at which point Hunter-Reay, who was previously shuffled back to fourth, quickly carved back through the field to lead Newgarden and Montoya. Chaves was in the mix as well, but suffered an engine failure with four laps to go, ending an otherwise strong day.

Racing never resumed, allowing Hunter-Reay to take his second win of the year ahead of Newgarden, Montoya, Power, and Munoz. Still, all thoughts were on Wilson after the race. "Obviously, first and foremost, we're thinking about Justin Wilson," said Hunter-Reay. "With heads exposed and when you get flying debris, it's a bad luck deal. Our thoughts are with him. I know him and his family well, they're great friends of ours. Really, really just thinking about Justin right now."

Newgarden echoed similar sentiments. "It was a long, tough day in the car. CFH Racing did a great job working on the thing, tuning it, making it better. Happy with our result, but I'm just thinking about Justin (Wilson) right now and hoping he's OK," said the CFH driver.

Montoya, as a result of Rahal's crash, increased his points and lead detailed how Rahal's troubles impacted his strategy. "Our Verizon Chevy was pretty good all day. We took our time and were smart. I think we had a car that could win the race, but it wasn't worth risking it (with title contenders running behind him). We did what we needed to do today," he asserted.

As the Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Sonoma for the season finale, Montoya leads Rahal by 34 points, with Dixon, Power, Castroneves, and Newgarden also mathematically eligible for the championship.

Pocono