Team Penske’s Will Power ended a near year-long wait for victory by triumphing in the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Road Course.
Power started the race on the front row alongside Pato O’Ward but used an opposing strategy to overhaul the McLaren driver early on in the race.
Power controlled the majority of the race but had to survive two late restarts, which neutralised a grand prix that had previously run under full green conditions.
The first was caused by points leader Alex Palou, who was running a competitive fourth, suffering a suspected engine failure, dealing a sizeable blow to the Spaniard on a day where he looked set to stretch his advantage.
Power had held enough push-to-pass to fend off Romain Grosjean, who replicated his result from the previous Indianapolis Road Course race, having pulled off a stunning move around the outside of Colton Herta at Turn 1.
Herta bounced back from his hefty Nashville crash with third, having suffered a bizarre incident when his cooling hose on his helmet worked loose.
Alexander Rossi scored a season-best fourth, having prevailed in a fierce scrap with O’Ward, while Jack Harvey was a quietly-impressive sixth.
Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden crossed the line seventh and eighth as the biggest movers of the race, with the result keeping the Penske driver’s slim title hopes alive.
Marcus Ericsson, victor at Nashville, also ensured he remains marginally in the title fight by classifying ninth, while Takuma Sato capped the top 10.
Alpine Formula 1 junior Christian Lundgaard ran a lap up front off-strategy but after qualifying fourth he slipped down the order, though still took an eye-catching 12th, in a race that had 26 finishers.
Reigning series champion Scott Dixon had an atypically subdued weekend after a mistake in qualifying.
Dixon was able to recover only to 17th, making minimal in-roads into team-mate Palou in the standings, despite the Spaniard’s engine failure.
IndyCar returns to action next Saturday for the Automotive Group 500 at the World Wide Technology Raceway.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps led | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Power | 01:49:38.0811 | 56 | 53 |
| 2 | Romain Grosjean | 1.1142 | – | 40 |
| 3 | Colton Herta | 2.3498 | 2 | 36 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | 3.4382 | – | 32 |
| 5 | Pato O’Ward | 4.1052 | 16 | 32 |
| 6 | Jack Harvey | 5.3233 | – | 28 |
| 7 | Graham Rahal | 5.8553 | – | 26 |
| 8 | Josef Newgarden | 6.2497 | 2 | 25 |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | 7.0080 | – | 22 |
| 10 | Takuma Sato | 7.9449 | – | 20 |
| 11 | Conor Daly | 9.3596 | – | 19 |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | 9.8379 | 2 | 19 |
| 13 | Felix Rosenqvist | 10.6234 | – | 17 |
| 14 | Ed Jones | 12.1199 | – | 16 |
| 15 | Sebastien Bourdais | 12.5781 | – | 15 |
| 16 | Simon Pagenaud | 16.4169 | 7 | 15 |
| 17 | Scott Dixon | 17.1924 | – | 13 |
| 18 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 17.3273 | – | 12 |
| 19 | Jimmie Johnson | 18.1585 | – | 11 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | 18.7489 | – | 10 |
| 21 | Helio Castroneves | 19.5451 | – | 9 |
| 22 | James Hinchcliffe | 20.8450 | – | 8 |
| 23 | Scott McLaughlin | 21.0115 | – | 7 |
| 24 | Rinus VeeKay | 22.4946 | – | 6 |
| 25 | Cody Ware | -2 laps | – | 5 |
| 26 | Dalton Kellett | -4 laps | – | 5 |
| 27 | Alex Palou | -18 laps | – | 5 |
| 28 | RC Enerson | -73 laps | – | 5 |
Discussion about this post