Spencer Pigot Fights to Eighth at Road America

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Spencer Pigot had a hard fought battle during Sunday’s Kohler Grand Prix at Road America but in his first full season in Verizon IndyCar Series competition, the Floridian would have to settle for eighth at the track where he made his Skip Barber national debut.

Starting tenth, Pigot was shuffled back a few positions following front row starter Will Power’s mechanical trouble on the first lap. Pigot was stuck behind the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner’s car on the main straight and several cars got around him including Zach Veach, Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Jordan King, Simon Pagenaud and Tony Kanaan.

“It started really tough, you know Will [Power] obviously had an issue there at the start and [I] kind of got boxed in behind him and the rest of the field and really didn’t have anywhere to go.”

“So it was pretty painful watching everyone fly by me on the inside but we were able to pass a lot of guys there and recover a lot of spots.”

The 2015 Indy Lights champion had to charge before his opening stop on Lap 13, moving from 14th on the first lap to 12th after passing Kanaan and King. The No. 21 Direct Supply Chevrolet went to tenth on the third lap after getting around Pagenaud and Veach before settling into eight by Lap 9.

“So that was nice and it was fun,” said the 2014 Pro Mazda champion. “After that I think the car was pretty good, we just tried to settle in and kind of race in there from seventh to 10th for most of the time and the guys did a really good job on the last stop to get me out in seventh.”

Despite getting out of his last pit stop in seventh place, Pigot was racing on used alternate red sidewall Firestone tires while Pagenaud was on newer reds. Pagenaud’s newer, grippier tires outlasted Pigot’s and Pigot fell to eighth on the last lap.

Pigot’s result is his best of the season so far and his best finish since the 2016 Mid-Ohio race where he finished seventh but there will be hope for a continuation of this form at the remaining natural terrain road courses.

“Hopefully we can kind of unload and be a little bit better out of the box and have three good practice sessions leading into qualifying,” said Pigot. “I think that’ll make a big difference for us going into qualifying and the race but overall I think we had a good weekend, we made some good changes and we found some things that worked for us so hopefully that works at all the other road courses.”

After the first few laps, Pigot’s race was largely uneventful and problem free, which is a welcome change given the problems he’s dealt with despite having front-running pace. Pigot will have an opportunity at the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday July 8th.