Team Penske’s Will Power had a disappointing result in the second race of the NTT IndyCar season. The polesitter held the lead for much of the first half of the GMR Grand Prix, but a poorly-timed caution for the wrecked car of Oliver Askew stuck the 2014 champion back in the pack and he ended the day in 20th position.
Before his day fell apart, Power looked to have a good chance of continuing Team Penske’s five-race winning streak at the event. But even though he led the most laps on the day, a good result was not in the cards.
“We had a great Verizon Chevy and definitely had the speed that we showed in qualifying,” said Power. “Just got caught out by an unfortunate caution that really didn’t help.”
“After that, we had a problem in the pits that cost us a lot of time and then there was no chance to recover. Chevrolet did a really great job with the power and we had awesome car, but we just had a tough day.
“This Verizon team is fast, we just need to put a full race together.”
Power led the field to the green flag and was able to keep his position for most of the opening laps. After seeing how quickly the tires were degrading in the sweltering heat, the team decided to switch pit strategies to the three-stop plan that most of the rest of the field was on.
The day’s only caution came out at a bad time for Power, however, and the leader had to come down pit road for tires and fuel while most of the rest of the field stayed out.
After spending much of the second half of the race stuck behind other cars, the three-time GMR Grand Prix winner caused himself addition problems by stalling in the pits during his final stop.
The disappointing finish leaves Power in 15th place in the points, a full 63 points down on Dixon after only two rounds.
Power won’t have long to think about what could have been, and will attempt to put full races together for next weekend’s double header from Road America.
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