The 2015 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma was an IndyCar motor race held on August 30, 2015, at the Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. It was the 16th and final round of the 2015 IndyCar season and the 11th annual edition of the event. Contested over 85 laps, the race was won by Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon. Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport finished second and Charlie Kimball, Dixon's teammate, finished third.
Will Power, who was fastest in two of the three pre-race practice sessions and won the pole position, was the dominant factor of the early portion of the race, leading 26 of the first 34 laps. However, Power was taken out of contention after he was hit by his Team Penske teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, shortly before the halfway point of the race. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Sebastián Saavedra and Tony Kanaan stayed out for multiple laps and traded the lead, but after they both pitted, Dixon maintained as much fuel as he could and scored the win. There were two caution flags for fourteen laps, and ten lead changes amongst seven drivers.
With his win, Dixon earned his fourth IndyCar Drivers' Championship on account of a tiebreaker with Montoya, who finished sixth. Following a late-race spin, Graham Rahal fell from second to fourth in points. Power recovered to finish seventh in the race, and overtook third in championship standings. Hélio Castroneves, who set the fastest lap of the race, maintained fifth. Chevrolet had also won the Manufacturers' Championship over Honda.
Background The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma was first announced alongside the rest of IndyCar's 2015 schedule in October 2014. It was the eleventh consecutive year the IndyCar Series had raced at the track, the first time that the track hosted the series' championship-deciding race, and the first time since the 2007 Champ Car World Series that an Indy car season finale was held on a road course.
This was the first IndyCar race held after the death of Justin Wilson, which occurred during the ABC Supply 500 the weekend prior. Despite the heavy mood surrounding the sport, IndyCar officials decided to contest the race and the Championship Celebration in San Francisco as scheduled. To honor Wilson, Andretti Autosport announced on August 27 that Oriol Servià would drive the team's #25 Honda entry, which was primarily driven by Wilson before his death. This race also marked the return of Mikhail Aleshin, who drove Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' one-off #77 Honda entry. Aleshin had spent the entire 2015 season recovering from several injuries that he suffered from a major crash during practice for the 2014 MAVTV 500. He also tested the car on August 20 as a warmup.
Championship standings before the race
Following the ABC Supply 500, Juan Pablo Montoya had earned 500 points. He extended his Drivers' Championship points lead from 9 points to 34 points over Graham Rahal, who crashed and finished twentieth. Scott Dixon maintained third, 47 points back. Will Power, the defending IndyCar champion and three-time winner of the event, was in fourth, 61 points behind. Hélio Castroneves rounded out the top five in points, 77 points behind. Meanwhile, Chevrolet was leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 1429 points; Honda trailed in second with 1083 points.
Montoya was on pace to earning his second overall Indy car championship, following his 1999 CART title. However, IndyCar made a rule change for the 2015 season and beyond, which awarded drivers double points in the Indianapolis 500 and the season finale. This meant the maximum amount of points that could be earned in this race was 104 (100 points for 1st place, 1 point for winning the pole, 1 point for leading a lap, and 2 points for leading the most laps). Thus, the top six drivers in points (Montoya, Rahal, Dixon, Power, Castroneves, and Josef Newgarden, who was 87 points behind Montoya) were all mathematically eligible to win the championship. The 2015 season was the tenth consecutive season of IndyCar in which the championship was decided in the final round.
Entry list 25 cars and drivers were entered for the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. All entries used the spec Dallara DW12 chassis, manufacturer aero kits, and Firestone tires. Of the 25 drivers, six of them had previously won at Sonoma: Tony Kanaan (2005), Marco Andretti (2006), Scott Dixon (2007, 2014), Hélio Castroneves (2008), Will Power (2010, 2011, 2013), and Ryan Briscoe (2012). KeyMeaningRookiePast winner
Driver Team Engine 1 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 2 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Chevrolet 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 4 Stefano Coletti KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 5 Ryan Briscoe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 7 James Jakes Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 8 Sebastián Saavedra Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 10 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 11 Sébastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Chevrolet 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 18 Rodolfo González Dale Coyne Racing Honda 19 Tristan Vautier Dale Coyne Racing Honda 20 Luca Filippi CFH Racing Chevrolet 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Chevrolet 25 Oriol Servià Andretti Autosport Honda 26 Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport Honda 27 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Honda 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda 41 Jack Hawksworth A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 67 Josef Newgarden CFH Racing Chevrolet 77 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 98 Gabby Chaves Bryan Herta Autosport Honda
Practice and qualifying Two practice sessions preceded the race on Sunday, August 30. The first, a 210-minute session, was held at 2:30 PM PDT on Friday, August 28, while the second, a 45-minute session, was held at 10:45 AM PDT on Saturday, August 29, a few hours prior to qualifying.
Will Power, one of the favorites to win the race, set the fastest lap in the first practice session on Friday afternoon with a time of 1 minute and 17.4858 seconds. Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay trailed him in second and third, respectively. After the session, Power commented on Firestone's primary tires, noting its ability to degrade in a long run and predicting that the tires will "create good racing". Tristan Vautier was forced to miss the first two hours of the session because of his crash with Graham Rahal in the ABC Supply 500, which IndyCar officials deemed avoidable contact. Hunter-Reay led the second practice session on Saturday morning with a time of 1 minute and 16.8702 seconds, with championship contenders Rahal and Josef Newgarden setting the second and third fastest laps. Ten drivers in the session broke Power's track record that he set in qualifying in 2014.
Qualifying was held at 3:05 PM PDT on Saturday, August 29, and took place over three rounds. The drivers were split into two groups in the first round, and the top six fastest drivers from each group advance to the next round. Simon Pagenaud was fastest in the first group. He and Rahal, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball, and Juan Pablo Montoya advanced to the next round. Power was fastest in the second group and the fastest overall driver in the first round. He and Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Hunter-Reay, Sebastián Saavedra, and Carlos Muñoz advanced to the next round. In the second round, Power set the fastest lap again, advancing him to the final round along with Hunter-Reay, Pagenaud, Newgarden, Rahal, and Montoya. The final round, the "Firestone Fast Six", saw Power set the fastest lap yet again, winning him the pole for the sixth time in 2015, a feat that had not been done since Scott Dixon in 2008. Power's lap of 1 minute and 16.2597 seconds also broke his own track record that he set the year prior. The top two drivers in points, Montoya and Rahal, qualified alongside each other in 5th and 6th.
Qualifying classification Driver Team Engine Time Round 1 Group 1 Group 2 1 1 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 1:16.5702 1:16.5571 1:16.2597 1 2 67 Josef Newgarden CFH Racing Chevrolet 1:16.5982 1:16.6215 1:16.3964 2 3 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda 1:16.9712 1:16.5620 1:16.5254 3 4 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Chevrolet 1:16.8419 1:16.5859 1:16.6683 4 5 2 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Chevrolet 1:17.0588 1:16.6631 1:16.8437 5 6 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 1:16.8616 1:16.6435 1:17.1769 6 7 83 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 1:16.9622 1:16.6669 7 8 27 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Honda 1:16.9153 1:16.8710 8 9 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 1:16.7365 1:16.9677 9 10 8 Sebastián Saavedra Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 1:17.2631 1:17.1596 10 11 10 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 1:16.8719 1:17.2899 11 12 26 Carlos Muñoz Andretti Autosport Honda 1:17.3713 1:17.3302 12 13 20 Luca Filippi CFH Racing Chevrolet 1:17.1077 13 14 77 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 1:17.3885 14 15 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 1:17.2550 15 16 11 Sébastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Chevrolet 1:17.4310 16 17 5 Ryan Briscoe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 1:17.4886 17 18 14 Takuma Sato A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 1:17.5599 18 19 25 Oriol Servià Andretti Autosport Honda 1:17.5724 19 20 4 Stefano Coletti KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 1:17.8293 20 21 98 Gabby Chaves Bryan Herta Autosport Honda 1:17.7994 21 22 7 James Jakes Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 1:17.8968 22 23 19 Tristan Vautier Dale Coyne Racing Honda 1:17.9876 23 24 18 Rodolfo González Dale Coyne Racing Honda 1:18.3867 24 25 41 Jack Hawksworth A. J. Foyt Racing Honda 1:19.0408 25 Qualifying results Notes Bold text indicates fastest time set in session.
Warm-up All 25 drivers took to the track at 10:00 AM PDT for a thirty-minute warm-up session on Sunday, August 30, only a few hours prior to the race. Will Power again topped the speed charts during the session with a time of 1 minute and 17.8107 seconds. Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud were second and third-quickest in the session respectively.
Race The race began at 2:07 PM PDT on Sunday, August 30. Prior to the race, Justin Wilson was honored with a tribute video, a moment of silence, and a playing of "God Save the Queen", the national anthem of Great Britain, where Wilson was born. Despite the somber mood, the skies were sunny, and the race began with a rolling start. Unlike the 2014 Sonoma race, this race got going without any incidents. Pole sitter Will Power immediately ran off with the race lead as the cars bunched up behind him. Rahal came close to spinning around in turn four as Marco Andretti hit him from behind. On lap 3, Hélio Castroneves was forced to pit early for nose damage and new tires, and several other drivers towards the rear of the field, such as Sébastien Bourdais, Tristan Vautier, Jack Hawksworth, and James Jakes, would follow not long after. With not much to lose, these drivers pitted early in hopes for a caution so that they may have a strategic advantage, though their strategy failed as the race remained green.