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INDYCAR: Engine Change Penalties Will Shuffle Fontana Starting Grid
The greater portion of the 26-car IndyCar Series field has fitted fresh engines for the 500-mile season finale Saturday night at Fontana.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted September 14, 2012  
Graham Rahal was one of nine Honda drivers to get a fresh engine for the Fontana finale. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
With the final race of the season set to roll off Saturday night and most drivers jockeying to improve their championship positions, the greater portion of the 26-car field has fitted fresh engines for the 500-mile season finale.

Honda-powered teams comprised the majority of the engine changes, with nine drivers (Scott Dixon, Wade Cunningham, Takuma Sato, Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden, Charlie Kimball, Simon Pagenaud, Alex Tagliani) installing the latest single-turbo 2.2-liter V6 powerplant from HPD.

Four Chevy drivers (Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe) will start the race with the best twin-turbo 2.2-liter V6s Ilmor builds, and Lotus' Simona de Silvestro not only has a penalty for changing her engine before practice, but will have to fit another engine after the first one blew nine laps into the first practice session.

Per the rules, de Silvestro will only lose the 10 spots from the initial change, but with limited time to install a new engine for qualifying, the Swiss driver will start at the back of the grid by default.

Justin Wilson, who crashed in practice, will also start at the back of the grid due to missing qualifying.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
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