Will Power was disappointed in the mistake he made on Sunday that went from leveling the NTT IndyCar Series championship battle with Alex Palou to handing back a big helping of points to his rival.
Returning to green after the caution for Sting Ray Robb’s spin and stall in Turn 2, Power was trying to get a good shot out of Turns 3 and 4. Dipping into the No. 12 Chevy’s throttle too aggressively, Power was sixth at the time and trying to get back to the lead where he spent 64 laps earlier in the race, but the burst of horsepower was too much and sent him spinning and into the wall with a light touch of his front wings against the barrier.
He’d pit twice in the ensuing laps, losing a lap, and returned in 13th place before rallying to get to 10th at the checkered flag.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
“That might have been one of the wildest races I can ever recall,” Power told RACER. “Kicking myself for that spin. I did it because I was like, ‘Alright, I gotta get a good jump here,’ because on the last restart, I got eaten up by Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson always jumps it very well, very well. He’s just on the border of being legal, but he gets it.”
Palou had bigger struggles of his own as an electrical problem shut down his car on the parade laps, and after trying to resuscitate the car, the battery was fried. With the system rebooted and a new battery installed, Palou started his race 29 laps down, but thanks to all of the crashing and adversity, he recovered to place 19th and restore his championship lead to 33 points thanks to Power’s problems.
With a maximum of 54 points on offer at the Nashville Superspeedway season finale, Power can catch and pass Palou if another sizable dose of misfortune hits the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, but it’s a long shot.
“It’s not insurmountable, but it is,” Power said. “It is him having some sort of deal like today and me winning, basically. That’s what it is. We let a chunk of points go today. Too many. A bit frustrating. What we had there, the yellow fell, but that’s just life, man. It’s just the way it goes, and I can’t complain.”