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2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships

Race details
Race 15 of 15 in the 2012 IndyCar Series season
Date	September 15, 2012
Official name	MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships
Location	Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi / 3.219 km
Distance	250 laps 500.000 mi / 804.672 km
Weather	98 °F (37 °C), fair skies
Pole position
Driver	Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport)
Time	216.069 mph (347.729 km/h)
Podium
First	Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing)
Second	Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Third	Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing)

The 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships was the 15th and final showdown of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. The event took place on September 15, at the 2.000-mile (3.219 km) Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. It was the first IndyCar race at this facility since 2005, the first 500-mile open-wheel race outside Indianapolis since the CART-sanctioned 2002 The 500 at Fontana (the planned 2003 CART race was canceled due to wildfires in the area), and the first 500-mile IndyCar Series race outside Indianapolis.

The race, originally scheduled for 400 miles (200 laps), as was the case for the 2002–05 IndyCar races at Auto Club Speedway, reverted to the classic 500 mile, 250-lap distance used at the Ontario Motor Speedway for major races and both the six CART FedEx Championship Series races (1997–2002) and the first 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup races (1997–2010) held at Auto Club Speedway. Attendance at the event was estimated to be 25,000 to 30,000 people.

Report

Qualifying

Marco Andretti took his first pole position since Milwaukee in 2008 with a two lap average speed of 216.069 mph (347.729 km/h). Over half the field incurred 10-place grid penalties for engine changes, most for an unapproved engine change – engines must clock 1850 miles before they be changed without penalty – however both championship contenders Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay incurred a penalty for exceeding the five engine limit for the year, both of whom fit their sixth Chevrolet engine.

Classification

Starting grid

Row	Inside			Outside
1	26	Marco Andretti	216.069	2	Ryan Briscoe	216.058
2	11	Tony Kanaan	214.877	4	J. R. Hildebrand	214.719
3	20	Ed Carpenter	214.684	8	Rubens Barrichello	213.527
4	6	Katherine Legge (R)	213.308	22	Oriol Servià	212.533
5	10	Dario Franchitti	211.999	17	Sebastián Saavedra	210.619
6	5	E. J. Viso	210.134	19	James Jakes	208.056
7	12	Will Power	215.940	67	Josef Newgarden (R)	215.919
8	9	Scott Dixon	215.391	98	Alex Tagliani	215.226
9	3	Hélio Castroneves	214.409	38	Graham Rahal	214.015
10	27	James Hinchcliffe	213.726	77	Simon Pagenaud (R)	213.282
11	15	Takuma Sato	213.222	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	212.773
12	83	Charlie Kimball	211.531	14	Wade Cunningham (R)	209.526
13	18	Justin Wilson	No Speed	78	Simona de Silvestro	No Speed
Newgarden, Dixon, Tagliani, Rahal, Hinchcliffe, Pagenaud, Sato, Kimball, Cunningham, Wilson and de Silvestro penalized 10 places for unapproved engine change Power, Castroneves and Hunter-Reay penalized 10 places for exceeding five-engine limit

Race results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	250	2:57:34.7433	5	62	52
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	250	+ 1.9 s	9	15	40
3	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	250	+ 2.6 s	15	25	35
4	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	250	+ 3.0 s	22	0	32
5	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	250	+ 4.2 s	17	2	30
6	38	Graham Rahal	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	250	+ 5.4 s	18	0	28
7	15	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	249	Contact	21	6	26
8	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	249	+ 1 lap	1	3	25
9	6	Katherine Legge (R)	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet	249	+ 1 lap	7	0	22
10	83	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	249	+ 1 lap	23	0	20
11	4	J. R. Hildebrand	Panther Racing	Chevrolet	248	+ 2 laps	4	56	19
12	19	James Jakes	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	248	+ 2 laps	12	10	18
13	27	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	247	+ 3 laps	19	0	17
14	14	Wade Cunningham	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Honda	246	+ 4 laps	24	0	16
15	77	Simon Pagenaud (R)	Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports	Honda	246	+ 4 laps	20	0	15
16	67	Josef Newgarden (R)	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda	244	+ 6 laps	14	1	14
17	2	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Chevrolet	244	+ 6 laps	2	2	13
18	11	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	240	Contact	3	47	12
19	22	Oriol Servià	Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	231	+ 19 laps	6	0	12
20	98	Alex Tagliani	Team Barracuda – BHA	Honda	229	Contact	16	21	12
21	17	Sebastián Saavedra	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	118	Electrical	10	0	12
22	8	Rubens Barrichello	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	107	Mechanical	6	0	12
23	18	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	80	Mechanical	25	0	12
24	12	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	66	Contact	13	0	12
25	5	E. J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	65	Mechanical	11	0	10
26	78	Simona de Silvestro	HVM Racing	Lotus	16	Mechanical	26	0	10
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

Notes

Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.

References

1. "Hunter-Reay Wins IZOD IndyCar Series Title as Carpenter Wins MAVTV 500". Auto Club Speedway. September 15, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
2. "MAVTV - IZOD IndyCar Series Finale Now: MAVTV 500". August 10, 2012. Archived from the original on September 20, 2013. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
3. Miller, Robin (1 October 2011). "INDYCAR: 2012 Schedule Revealed". Speed Channel, Inc. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
4. Peltz, Jim (September 17, 2012). "IndyCar Series finale makes for great show in Fontana". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
5. Lewandowski, Dave (September 14, 2012). "Hunter-Reay to start near rear of field in title race". IndyCar Series. IndyCar. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
6. Lewandowski, Dave (September 14, 2012). "More than half of the field to incure grid penalty". IndyCar Series. IndyCar. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
7. "Official Box Score" (PDF). indycar.com. Indycar. 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2012-09-17.

• MAVTV 500
• 2012 in IndyCar
• 2012 in sports in California
• September 2012 sports events in the United States