Power returns to victory lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway · RaceFans

Will Power put a rough weekend of racing on the streets of Nashville behind him with a dominant victory in the IndyCar Series’ mid-summer return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Power started the race in second place, doing the first stint on the harder primary compound tyres, behind polesitter Patricio O’Ward, who started on the alternate compound rubber.

After the first round of routine pit stops, Power took the net lead of the race from O’Ward on lap 17, and continued to pull out a margin – at one point leading by nearly ten seconds. He then found himself stuck behind James Hinchcliffe, which allowed Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean to close in by the final round of pit stops.

With seventeen laps remaining, championship leader Álex Palou’s engine failed while the Spaniard was running in fourth place – a moment that had huge championship implications – which brought out the first yellow flag of the race. When the race restarted, Grosjean dove past Herta for second position into turn one. Rinus VeeKay, the winner at the IMS road course back in May, spun at turn seven to bring out the second caution, and set up a restart with six laps remaining.

Power was able to maintain his lead after both restarts, and Grosjean had run out of push to pass well before the final restart – which paved the way for Power to take his first win of the season, leading 56 out of 85 laps. Grosjean matched his best career finish of his IndyCar career in second, and Herta bounced back admirably from his late crash in Nashville by finishing third.

Alexander Rossi finished in fourth for his best finish of the season, ahead of O’Ward in fifth. Jack Harvey scored his best finish since St. Petersburg in sixth. Graham Rahal gained nine positions to finish seventh, while Josef Newgarden gained twelve positions en route to an eighth place finish – Marcus Ericsson, and Takuma Sato, completed the top ten. Alpine Academy driver prospect Christian Lundgaard finished twelfth in his IndyCar debut, while Scott Dixon could only fight his way up to sixteenth place after starting 26th.

Palou’s retirement means that he now leads O’Ward by just 21 points with four races left in the season. Dixon is now third place, 34 points behind, with Newgarden and Ericsson closing to within 55 and 62 points of the championship lead, respectively.

Some statistical analysis of Power’s victory today – this Power’s fifth win on the IMS road course, and the 40th win of his career – moving him ahead of Al Unser Jnr for fourth on IndyCar’s all-time wins list. In addition, Power maintains his streak of 15 consecutive winning seasons, which dates back to the 2007 Champ Car World Series.

Next week, the IndyCar Series ventures to Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis, Missouri, for the final oval race of the season.

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Race result

Position	Car	Driver	Team	Engine
1	12	Will Power	Penske	Chevrolet
2	51	Romain Grosjean	Coyne/RWR	Honda
3	26	Colton Herta	Andretti	Honda
4	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti	Honda
5	5	Patricio O’Ward	McLaren SP	Chevrolet
6	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank	Honda
7	15	Graham Rahal	RLL	Honda
8	2	Josef Newgarden	Penske	Chevrolet
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	Ganassi	Honda
10	30	Takuma Sato	RLL	Honda
11	20	Conor Daly	Carpenter	Chevrolet
12	45	Christian Lundgaard	RLL	Honda
13	7	Felix Rosenqvist	McLaren SP	Chevrolet
14	18	Ed Jones	Coyne/Vasser	Honda
15	14	Sebastien Bourdais	Foyt	Chevrolet
16	22	Simon Pagenaud	Penske	Chevrolet
17	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi	Honda
18	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti	Honda
19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Ganassi	Honda
20	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	Chevrolet
21	6	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank	Honda
22	29	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner	Honda
23	3	Scott McLaughlin	Penske	Chevrolet
24	21	Rinus VeeKay	Carpenter	Chevrolet
25	52	Cody Ware	Coyne/RWR	Honda
26	4	Dalton Kellett	Foyt	Chevrolet
27	10	Alex Palou	Ganassi	Honda
28	75	RC Enerson	Top Gun	Chevrolet

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