Simon Pagenaud issued warning, earns controversial Long Beach win

— -- LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Simon Pagenaud finally got his first win for Team Penske. But Scott Dixon isn't sure Pagenaud should have been in victory lane.

Pagenaud picked up a controversial win Sunday, with Dixon and his Chip Ganassi Racing team believing Pagenaud should have been penalized for crossing a blend line as he returned to the track after a pit stop. The Dixon camp interpreted the rule as a clear violation, but IndyCar gave Pagenaud only a warning.

The lack of penalty irked Dixon for two reasons.

"We have two drivers' meetings a weekend, and it was clearly stated ... by all means, any time you could not put more than two wheels over the line, and that was my understanding," Dixon said.

The reigning IndyCar champion was also irked that Pagenaud got off with a warning.

"I thought we had outlawed warnings,'' he said. "This was the problem we had in the offseason, with people getting warnings all the time, especially when you're using it to your advantage when it's the last pit stop sequence or anything like that. If you're just going to get a warning every time you're going to do it ... that's why this was discussed so deeply in the offseason and why there was about 40 or 50 warning zones in the rule book removed.

"I don't even know why we discussed the pit lane exit if we're not going to stick to rules. Everybody else abided by it."

IndyCar issued a statement that Pagenaud did indeed cross the blend line, but "the penalty for this infraction ranges from a warning [minimum], putting the driver to the back of the field [middle], and drive-through or stop and go/hold [maximum]. IndyCar race stewards determined his actions were not severe enough to warrant a harsher penalty than the warning that was issued."

Pagenaud didn't think he did anything wrong, though video did show his wheels over the yellow blend line as he came off pit road.

"It was an inch on the race track there, so I'm good," Pagenaud said. "The left side's on the right side of the dots, which it is, so I'm good."

When told IndyCar had issued him a warning, the Frenchman said, "I don't care."

Indeed, it didn't matter to him when he was in victory lane for the first time since he joined the Penske group last year. He failed to win a race in 2015, his worst season in IndyCar.

But he's off to a strong start to 2016, with a pair of second-place finishes to start the season, which has put him atop the points standings headed into Long Beach. He said on the first day of track activity that he knew his first win for Penske was coming, and he was correct.

He was also pleased to earn his win by holding off Dixon, the reigning series champion.

"When you have Scott Dixon behind you, you always need to push it," Pagenaud said. "You push it as hard as you can. He was really, really pushing."

Dixon admitted he was angry as he chased Pagenaud over the final 15 laps.

"I was pretty mad once I got out of the car," he said. "I was even a little mad at Simon after the race, but it's not his fault. You've got to try to take advantage whenever you can, but he doesn't make the rules or put the rules forward. Huge credit, obviously, to Simon. I can't be mad at him, so I'll direct my anger some other direction."

Dixon was second, while Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya finished third and fourth in a sweep for Chevrolet. The manufacturer has won all three races this season, and those in the Honda camp have been complaining that they are at a disadvantage.

Takuma Sato was the top-finishing Honda driver, in fifth. Dixon teammate Tony Kanaan was sixth, and Penske driver Will Power seventh. James Hinchcliffe was eighth and the only other Honda driver in the top 11.