The 2015 MAVTV 500 was an IndyCar Series motor race held on June 27, 2015, at the Auto Club Speedway, in Fontana, California. It was the eleventh round of the 2015 IndyCar Series season and the fourteenth and final Indy car race held at the speedway. The race, which was contested over 250 laps, was won by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Graham Rahal, his first win since 2008. Tony Kanaan, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, finished second, and Marco Andretti finished third driving for Andretti Autosport.

Simon Pagenaud was awarded the pole position by posting the fastest average cumulative speed in qualifying. He was immediately passed for the race lead by his Team Penske teammates, Hélio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya, the former of whom dominated the early portions of the race, leading 43 laps. However, Castroneves was taken out just past the midway point of the race due a crash. Due to the aero package for this race, many drivers, such as Sage Karam, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Takuma Sato, would content for the race lead. Will Power soon became the strong contender for the win, leading a race-high 62 laps. However, Power was taken out in a crash with 9 laps to go. Graham Rahal led the final ten laps and held off Kanaan to grab his second IndyCar win. On the final lap, Ryan Briscoe suffered a violent flip, but walked out unhurt.

Six caution flags were issued for 46 laps, and 80 lead changes were recorded, which broke the record for the most lead changes in an IndyCar race. The final result saw Montoya increase his Drivers' Championship lead over teammate Power. Scott Dixon remained in third, and Rahal had passed Castroneves for fourth. Despite Honda's victory, Chevrolet continued enlarging their Manufacturers' Championship lead with five races remaining in the 2015 season.

Background

The MAVTV 500 was confirmed to be on the 2015 IndyCar schedule in October 2014, alongside the rest of the 2015 schedule. It was the fourth consecutive year the race was held in the series, and the fourteenth overall American open-wheel race at Auto Club Speedway, a superspeedway in Fontana, California. However, unlike the past three IndyCar races at Auto Club, this race was not the season finale and was rescheduled to be held on the afternoon of June 27. The event marked the 11th of 16 scheduled races for the 2015 season. Tony Kanaan was the defending race winner.

Entering the event, Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya held the Drivers' Championship points lead with 374 points, 27 ahead of teammate Will Power. Scott Dixon sat third in the standings, 45 points behind Montoya. Hélio Castroneves was fourth with 322 points, while Graham Rahal was fifth with 283 points. Chevrolet was also leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 1003 points. Honda trailed behind in second with 840 points. Montoya, who had won the Indianapolis 500 the month prior, spoke on the possibility of becoming the first driver since Al Unser in 1978 to complete the Triple Crown: "The Triple Crown is not something that I really focus on, but it's something cool that the Verizon IndyCar Series brought back a few years ago and we are proud to be competing for it. Only one team is able to win the Triple Crown this year and it's ours, so that is a cool feeling."

IndyCar implemented a rule surrounding the aero kits that was exclusive to this race. The rear wing mainplane angle was required to be set between 0 and -10.5 degrees, a large difference from the required mainplane angle at Texas earlier that year (-6 to -10.5 degrees). This was done in order to add more downforce to compensate with the higher track temperatures and the forecasted climate at the track. Ed Carpenter commented on the rule change: “It’s hard to get your car to work well in all the lanes, but that’s part of the challenge and what I like about the track. In 2012, not many people were running the high groove like I was. The past couple of years people have settled in so you have to get your car to work in other grooves to be able to avoid traffic. It presents you with options if you can figure it out."

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were held prior to the race on Friday, June 26: the first session was held at 9:30 AM local time and lasted for 45 minutes, while the second session was held at 12:45 PM local time and lasted for 75 minutes. A preliminary practice session was also held at 8:30 AM local time for the rookie drivers. It lasted for 60 minutes, and was led by Gabby Chaves with a speed of . Ryan Briscoe lapped fastest in the first practice session with a time of 33.1109 seconds, ahead of Marco Andretti and Simon Pagenaud. Scott Dixon set the fastest lap of the final practice session with a time of 33.0839 seconds, with Pagenaud and Ed Carpenter in second and third, respectively. During the session, James Jakes suffered an engine issue and stopped on-track, which led to the only caution flag of either practice session. As a result, Jakes was not able to make a qualifying attempt.

The qualifying session was held on Friday, June 26, at 4:45 PM local time. The session permitted each driver to run two laps, and the starting lineup would be determined by the aggregate times and average speed of the two laps. Conditions for the sessions were reportedly very hot, as temperatures exceeded , though nearby wildfires caused smoke to slightly cover the track. Pagenaud was awarded the pole position, the second of his Indy car career and his first on an oval track, with an overall time of 1:05.7679. His teammate, Hélio Castroneves, joined him on the front row, marking the fifth straight IndyCar race in which a Team Penske entry occupied the front row. Andretti was the fastest Honda entry of the field, qualifying third. Carpenter and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top five, while Tony Kanaan, Dixon, Will Power, Takuma Sato, and Sage Karam took positions six through ten. Kanaan and Dixon's two-lap times were tied (1:06.3033), but Kanaan started one position ahead of Dixon because he qualified before Dixon. Carlos Muñoz, Josef Newgarden, Charlie Kimball, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sébastien Bourdais, Briscoe, Jack Hawksworth, Chaves, Graham Rahal, and Tristan Vautier nabbed the rest of the top 20 positions. Stefano Coletti, Pippa Mann, and Jakes completed the starting grid.

Following qualifying, Pagenaud said: "Thanks to my crew for the preparations and it's exciting to get a superspeedway pole. Qualifying is one thing. It's a reward for performance. We have a 500-mile race and hopefully I can reward the team for its hard work. It's a brand new team that is gelling really well. This (pole) is nice, but frankly, you can win from the back in a 500-mile race like (Juan Pablo) Montoya did (in the Indianapolis 500). Being able to run in different lanes and being smart in traffic is going to be key." Andretti, who qualified third, said: "We maximized everything in qualifying, and I'm really happy with the race car for the long race. That's the important thing."

Several drivers, including all four Team Penske drivers, held a meeting with IndyCar officials to voice their concerns over the type of racing that the aero package would cause. After qualifying, Montoya expressed apprehension for the aero package: "I don't feel it's the right (aerodynamic) approach to come here to be close to a pack race, to be two (or) three wide in the corners like this, it makes no sense. We're hoping IndyCar does something about it. They're putting themselves in a pretty bad spot." However, IndyCar president Derrick Walker announced no changes would be made to the aero package because the complaints were not consensual among most IndyCar teams and drivers.

Qualifying classification KeyMeaningRookiePast winner

Driver Team Engine Lap 1 Lap 2 Total Time Finalgrid 1 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Chevrolet 32.8599 32.9080 1:05.7679 1 2 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 32.9164 32.9171 1:05.8335 2 3 27 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Honda 33.0378 33.0788 1:06.1166 3 4 20 Ed Carpenter CFH Racing Chevrolet 32.9883 33.1680 1:06.1563 4 5 2 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Chevrolet 33.1160 33.1670 1:06.2830 5 6 10 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 33.1022 33.2011 1:06.3033 6 7 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 33.1371 33.1662 1:06.3033 7 8 1 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 33.0502 33.2555 1:06.3057 8 9 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 33.0883 33.2378 1:06.3261 9 10 8 Sage Karam Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 33.1253 33.2159 1:06.3412 10 11 26 Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport Honda 33.1895 33.2072 1:06.3967 11 12 67 Josef Newgarden CFH Racing Chevrolet 33.3031 33.2128 1:06.5159 12 13 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 33.2668 33.3253 1:06.5921 13 14 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda 33.3422 33.3296 1:06.6718 14 15 11 Sébastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Chevrolet 33.3614 33.3920 1:06.7534 15 16 5 Ryan Briscoe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 33.4218 33.3914 1:06.8132 16 17 41 Jack Hawksworth A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 33.3911 33.4781 1:06.8692 17 18 98 Gabby Chaves Bryan Herta Autosport Honda 33.6946 33.6832 1:07.3778 18 19 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 33.6841 33.7193 1:07.4034 19 20 19 Tristan Vautier Dale Coyne Racing Honda 33.7516 33.7536 1:07.5052 20 21 4 Stefano Coletti KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 33.6009 34.1179 1:07.7188 21 22 18 Pippa Mann Dale Coyne Racing Honda 34.2066 34.1928 1:08.3994 22 23 7 James Jakes Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda — — — 23Qualifying results Notes Bold text indicates fastest time set in session.

Race

The live broadcast of the race began at 1:00 PM local time, and was televised in the United States by NBCSN. Leigh Diffey was the lead announcer, and Steve Matchett and Paul Tracy were the race analysts. Motorsports journalist Dave Despain gave the command for drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Gabby Chaves experienced a radio issue and was late to arrive to the grid.

The race began at 1:36 PM local time with a rolling start. Heading into the first turn, pole sitter Simon Pagenaud was quickly passed by Marco Andretti for the race lead. Pagenaud fell to third, and Hélio Castroneves got by Andretti in turn three. Castroneves led the first lap of the race; however, he was soon challenged by Andretti and Juan Pablo Montoya, the former of whom took back the lead in the first two corners. For the next few laps, Castroneves, Montoya, and Andretti traded the race lead several times as Tony Kanaan steadily maintained his position inside the top five. Montoya and Andretti gradually lost positions as Castroneves led laps four through seven. Andretti gained ground on Castroneves and took back the race lead, commanding the field for the next seven laps. On lap 15, Tony Kanaan led his first lap of the race, though he was simultaneously told by IndyCar officials to hold his line. Kanaan also lost the lead to his former teammate Andretti a lap later. Andretti led the next six laps with Kanaan in hot pursuit, and on lap 22, Kanaan finally passed Andretti to lead two more laps. As Kanaan and Andretti battled for the lead, rookie driver Sage Karam suddenly emerged into contention for the race lead and led the first lap of his young IndyCar career on lap 24. From laps 24 through 33, Karam and Kanaan traded the lead four times.