In 2018, IndyCar introduced new aero kits, which produced an
Indianapolis 500 that was considered generally less-competitive than in previous years. With a record 42 lead changes at Pocono in
2017, drivers and teams entered the race expecting passing to be significantly harder. On August 9, five drivers tested at Pocono. Rookies
Robert Wickens,
Pietro Fittipaldi,
Zach Veach,
Matheus Leist, and veteran
Tony Kanaan completed several hours of laps at the track. On the morning of Saturday, August 18, IndyCar officials confirmed that Pocono would return to the 2019 IndyCar schedule. The first, one-hour practice session for the race occurred at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Morning rain delayed the start by half an hour. As teams worked on their qualifying preparation, rookie Zach Veach posted the fastest speed with a lap of 217.393 mph.
Josef Newgarden was second at 217.016 mph.
Alexander Rossi was third fastest at 216.907 mph.
Tony Kanaan posted the fastest speed single-car speed without a draft at 215.468 mph.
Time Trials Qualifying was held at 1:30 p.m., giving teams just an hour and a half after practice to prepare. Will Power won the pole with a speed of 219.511 mph. It was the slowest pole speed since IndyCar's return to Pocono in 2013. Power's Team Penske teammate, Josef Newgarden, qualified second at 218.802 mph. Andretti Autosport teammates, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified third and fourth. It was the 53rd time that Power had won the pole position for an IndyCar race, moving him into a tie for second all-time, tied with
A.J. Foyt. The race was stopped for 1 hour and 56 minutes. In the aftermath of the crash, the quality of the repair work on the fence was debated. Sébastien Bourdais said, "The construction guys said thumbs-up; I’m glad nobody tried it because I’m not sure that would have been satisfactory. It’s just tough moments. When we saw the extent of the damage I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t gonna get fixed properly, and it wasn’t. The cables were loose, and it was just like, it was pretty lousy. So I wasn’t happy with it at all." Bourdais' view was disputed by IndyCar president,
Jay Frye, who said, "He was not at the scene. He was doing it from a visual perspective. A couple of angles you looked at it, it was different-looking, but another angle it looked fine. It's just how you looked at it." When the race resumed, Alexander Rossi pulled away from the field. The only challenge to Rossi's domination came from Will Power. During green flag pit stops on lap 135, Power overtook Rossi. However, on lap 140, Rossi repassed Power for the lead going into turn two. Rossi led 180 laps, a new record for the Pocono 500. Following the resumption of the race from the Wickens crash, the event was very clean with the final 189 laps run without cautions. Tony Kanaan dropped out after 16 laps with throttle issues. With 34 laps remaining, Conor Daly lightly hit the turn two wall with his right-side wheels. Daly entered pit road and the race continued without interruption. Unlike the 42 lead changes in the
2017 Pocono 500, there were only 11 lead changes in 2018, the majority the result of green-flag pit stops. ==Broadcasting==