Charlie Kimball has blamed Will Power for their opening lap shunt at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Despite a relatively competitive qualifying session which saw Kimball start the race from seventh, the Chip Ganassi racer immediately failed to capitalise after making light contact with Tony Kanaan on the run down to Turn 1.
Kimball’s poor start to the race continued through Turns 2 and 3 as he found himself under strong pressure from the Penske of Power.
Eventually the duo’s battle ended with contact as they tried to negotiate Turn 4 side-by-side, with Kimball leaving Power absolutely no room.
The resulting contact shunted Kimball heavily into the wall, forcing him into retirement despite being able to limp back to the pits.
"To say I am frustrated with how today's race went is an understatement,” explained Kimball after the race.
“I thought I was clear of the 12 [Power] but I obviously wasn't. He turned me and put me in the wall pretty heavy.
“I am really disappointed for the guys – they worked so hard to get the car to a good place.
“The No. 83 Honda was fast and I thought we had a lot of potential for a solid result.”
While Kimball was forced to retire from the race with significant damage to rear of his car, Power miraculously managed to return to the pits for a new front-wing before continuing to eventually finish a respectable P13.
"It was a tough day for the No. 12 Chevy,” said Power, who struggled in qualifying and started from P9.
“We were caught up in an incident early in the race and I feel like it really ruined my day.
“It was an awful situation to be put in since we had nowhere to go when we made contact with the wall.
“Still, we battled. I'm really proud of my guys for working as hard as they did to try and come back from the incident.”
