Rossi wins, Newgarden crashes in pits at The Glen

The 2017 IndyCar Series will go to down to the wire after Josef Newgarden’s lead fell to three points with a race remaining, while Alexander Rossi won at Watkins Glen.

Newgarden hit the wall at pit exit during the final round of pit stops and was shunted by Sebastien Bourdais as a result, damaging the rear suspension of the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet.

The necessary repairs left Newgarden two laps off the pace, while his nearest challenger in Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Honda) finished just behind Rossi in second.

Polesitter Rossi dominated much of the race despite the disruption of a fuel pump problem and the whole field pitting for slicks at the end of Lap 1, having started on wets on what turned out to be a nearly dry track.

Rossi received just a fraction of the fuel required when he pitted under a Caution caused by Andretti Autosport Honda team-mate Takuma Sato slowing with a turbo problem on Lap 15 of the 60-lap race.

Andretti brought Rossi in again from the lead nine laps later for a full fuel load, putting him out of sequence and down the field.

However, he cycled back to the front within three laps when Sato’s delayed car spun and triggered another Caution under which everyone else pitted.

Once back in first place, Rossi turned up the wick and led by as much as 12 seconds during the next stint.

Newgarden was back in eighth in the middle of the race, demoted by drivers out of sequence benefiting from yellow timing as Rossi had.

He moved into a temporary lead by staying out late for his final stop, only to crash in the pit exit.

Bourdais (Dale Coyne Honda) and Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Honda) were also caught out in the resulting shunt, which triggered the final yellow.

Rossi was able to keep Dixon at bay for the subsequent 11-lap run to the flag and cap a weekend that had begun with a new Andretti Autosport deal with his first IndyCar win on a road course.

Ryan Hunter-Reay made it two Andretti cars on the podium after a strong race that included some assertive moves in the opening laps.

Helio Castroneves (Team Penske Chevrolet) kept his own title hopes alive with fourth, having out-duelled Rossi to lead for a spell in the first part of the race before a slow pitstop dropped him back.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda) had a quiet race to fifth.

Sixth kept Will Power (Team Penske Chevrolet) mathematically in the title hunt but he struggled with a semi-wet set-up all race and just fended off Charlie Kimball, who salvaged seventh despite two off-road excursions.

Kimball’s Ganassi team-mate Max Chilton resisted reigning champion Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske Chevrolet) and AJ Foyt Honda duo Carlos Muñoz and Conor Daly for eighth.

The final race of the season is the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on September 15-17.

VIDEO: Grand Prix at The Glen: Sunday highlights

Results: Grand Prix at The Glen

Pos	Driver	Grid	C/A/E/T	Laps	Race time, gap	Laps led	Status	Pit stops
1	Alexander Rossi	1	D/H/H/F	60	1:42:03.9024	32	Running	4
2	Scott Dixon	2	D/H/H/F	60	+0.9514	2	Running	4
3	Ryan Hunter-Reay	7	D/H/H/F	60	+7.1592	4	Running	4
4	Helio Castroneves	6	D/C/C/F	60	+8.8938	13	Running	4
5	Graham Rahal	10	D/H/H/F	60	+11.8863	–	Running	4
6	Will Power	8	D/C/C/F	60	+15.3787	–	Running	4
7	Charlie Kimball	5	D/H/H/F	60	+16.1639	–	Running	4
8	Max Chilton	19	D/H/H/F	60	+28.0410	–	Running	4
9	Simon Pagenaud	12	D/C/C/F	60	+28.2941	–	Running	4
10	Carlos Muñoz	11	D/C/C/F	60	+29.4972	–	Running	4
11	Conor Daly	14	D/C/C/F	60	+30.2436	–	Running	4
12	Spencer Pigot	13	D/C/C/F	60	+32.3478	8	Running	5
13	Ed Jones (R)	15	D/H/H/F	60	+33.1533	–	Running	4
14	Jack Harvey (R)	18	D/H/H/F	60	+35.6826	–	Running	5
15	JR Hildebrand	21	D/C/C/F	60	+41.5905	–	Running	5
16	Marco Andretti	20	D/H/H/F	60	+52.7948	–	Running	4
17	Sebastien Bourdais	9	D/H/H/F	60	+54.0444	–	Running	6
18	Josef Newgarden	3	D/C/C/F	58	+2 laps	1	Running	7
19	Takuma Sato	4	D/H/H/F	56	+4 laps	–	Running	6
20	Tony Kanaan	17	D/H/H/F	46	+14 laps	–	Contact	4
21	James Hinchcliffe	16	D/H/H/F	5	+55 laps	–	Mechanical	1

(C)hassis: D=Dallara | (A)erokit: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)yre: F=Firestone

Championship points

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Josef Newgarden	560
2	Scott Dixon	557
3	Helio Castroneves	538
4	Simon Pagenaud	526
5	Will Power	492
6	Alexander Rossi	476
7	Graham Rahal	466
8	Takuma Sato	421
9	Tony Kanaan	375
10	Ryan Hunter-Reay	373
11	James Hinchcliffe	360
12	Max Chilton	360
13	Marco Andretti	336
14	Ed Jones	332
15	JR Hildebrand	315
16	Carlos Muñoz	298
17	Charlie Kimball	289
18	Conor Daly	264
19	Mikhail Aleshin	237
20	Spencer Pigot	184
21	Sebastien Bourdais	170
22	Ed Carpenter	169
23	Gabby Chaves	98
24	Juan Pablo Montoya	93
25	Esteban Gutierrez	91
26	Sebastian Saavedra	80
27	Oriol Servia	61
28	Fernando Alonso	47
29	Jack Harvey	33
30	Pippa Mann	32
31	Jay Howard	24
32	Zach Veach	23
33	Sage Karam	23
34	James Davison	21
35	Tristan Vautier	15
36	Buddy Lazier	14