Tag: Will Power

Power sweeps poles for Iowa IndyCar doubleheader

Overnight rain delayed qualifying for the Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway by almost an hour, and once the unique session was complete, pole for today’s 250-lap race was earned by Team Penske’s Will Power with a lap of 181.426mph, and pole …

Overnight rain delayed qualifying for the Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway by almost an hour, and once the unique session was complete, pole for today’s 250-lap race was earned by Team Penske’s Will Power with a lap of 181.426mph, and pole for Sunday’s 250-lapper was taken by Power as well with a 181.578mph blast around the 0.875-mile oval in the No. 12 Chevy.

IndyCar’s all-time record holder for poles went into the session with 68 and left with 70, his first of the season. Power has teammate Scott McLaughlin alongside him on the front row for both rounds as the Chevy-powered duo were unstoppable.

“Great job by the [team],” Power said. “I’ve been trying to win at this track for a long time and we’ll do our best today.”

With drivers completing two laps of qualifying where the first set the order for Race 1 and the second set the grid for Race 2, the challenge of posting similar speeds was seen as most were quick on one lap but lost pace on the other. Select few were able to qualify up front for both races, with Power and McLaughlin serving as the only two to set matching positions for the doubleheader.

Teammate Josef Newgarden was a prime example as he was disappointed to claim third for Saturday and seventh for Sunday. Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas was another who was dissatisfied with ninth on his first lap but impressed with a recovery to third on the second.

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For this afternoon’s Race 1, the top 10 is led by Power, McLaughlin, Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta, Alex Palou, Romain Grosjean, Malukas, and Marcus Ericsson.

Race 2 features a top 10 of Power, McLaughlin, Malukas, Ed Carpenter, Herta, Graham Rahal, Newgarden, Helio Castroneves, Dixon, and Ericsson.

All cars were placed in an impound after qualifying and cannot be modified ahead of the race start.

UP NEXT: Race 1, 3pm ET, aired on NBC and streamed on Peacock.

RACE 1 RESULTS

RACE 2 RESULTS

 

IndyCar aces not optimistic blue flag rules will be changed

Backmarkers being allowed to hold up the leaders in an IndyCar race is a topic that reared its head again at in the Honda Indy 200, after AJ Foyt Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen proved particularly obstructive on his way to 26th place. Mid-Ohio race …

Backmarkers being allowed to hold up the leaders in an IndyCar race is a topic that reared its head again at in the Honda Indy 200, after AJ Foyt Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen proved particularly obstructive on his way to 26th place.

Mid-Ohio race winner Alex Palou saw his lead over Colton Herta shrink from 8.3s to 3.8s while trying to lap the rookie without using up too much push-to-pass boost, which is supposed to be for passes for position.

The fight to stay on the lead lap is understandable, to a degree, since if there is a full-course caution, the driver will get his lap back when the field bunches up. But more surprising was that even once he was lapped by the leader, Pedersen was similarly adversarial to the other frontrunners.

“I think that the blue flag rule, it’s crazy,” said Will Power, who finished third. “You use push-to-pass up and have to race somebody that’s going to be a lap down like you’re racing for position. The series is so tight and competitive, and everyone is so good now that I think we could have a blue flag rule. It’s not like we have yellows constantly, and you’re going to get your lap back.

“Maybe they do it in the second half of the race, but it’s ridiculous when a leader gives up 10s.”

Turning to race runner-up Dixon, Power said: “I think you were 5s down the road, I closed it right up. Probably would have overtaken you if I didn’t get held up while going a couple of laps longer.

“We should have a talk about it,” he continued to the assembled media, before Dixon interjected, “We do every year.” Power nodded, “We tell them every year. They’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we hear you.’ Then… crickets.”

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Asked if there was a simple solution, Power replied: “The problem is, it takes a lot of people to police that because if there’s a blue flag rule and the first guy passes, then you’ve got to have a command blue for everyone. But I think if everyone just understood, if you get the blue flag, you have to let the driver go within the lap.

“That, I think, is their issue – the amount of people in race control that would have to police that. It becomes a bit difficult. But we’re at the stage where this competition is so tough, maybe we have to add some people to do that.

Dixon said that disabling push-to-pass for the backmarker should be part of the solution, to which Power commented, “That was the one where they say, ‘Well, how do we police? Do we disable it for everyone after that?’ It sounded like that was a big problem.

“But it’s not like a ton of people go a lap down anymore anyway. Yeah, disabling the push-to-pass would be a big step if you are going to be a lap down, yeah.”

Although angry at the time he was seeing his lead evaporate behind Pedersen, Palou was calm in front of the media afterward.

“It’s IndyCar; I know the rules,” said the winner, “But at the same time, it’s very frustrating when you are leading and you try to open the gap, and they don’t let you pass, but they are using the overtake, like 20s, 30s a lap, to try to stay up front. On top of that, once you are side-by-side that they are so aggressive defending. Obviously it’s really frustrating when you are leading.

“I knew I had to get past also because you are using more overtake, you are using more fuel, you are using more tires, and you’re not able to do the race you want, just because of a backmarker car that wants to stay on the lead lap.

“The issue is that once you pass them, they let everybody pass because they already lost the lap, right? So, yeah, it’s frustrating. I know it’s the rules.

“I would like it to change. It’s not going to change. So, yeah, whatever. I’m more relaxed now!”

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Dixon, Power praise Palou after his fourth win in five races

Scott Dixon and Will Power, who finished second and third in the Honda Indy 200, have been unstinting in their praise of Alex Palou, who at Mid-Ohio notched up his third straight victory. Between them, this trio has captured the last three IndyCar …

Scott Dixon and Will Power, who finished second and third in the Honda Indy 200, have been unstinting in their praise of Alex Palou, who at Mid-Ohio notched up his third straight victory.

Between them, this trio has captured the last three IndyCar titles, but with nine races gone in the 17-race season, Palou’s points lead is out to 110 points over second-placed Dixon, and 151 over seventh-placed Power. Neither of these two veterans has won a race yet this year.

Said Power, who took his third podium of the season, “Obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but… that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in the championship this year. He is so on point in every respect. He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series. To be extremely fast, there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, qualifying… It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”

Dixon said: “As Will commented, it’s not just Alex, but Julian (Robertson, race engineer), the whole No. 10 car group are just doing a phenomenal job… Barry (Wanser, strategist) as well. It’s never a single person. The effort is big I think on all the cars in Chip Ganassi Racing right now, but they’re firing on all cylinders.

“It’s hard. I think we had a pretty good race today, but obviously we still didn’t have enough to overcome that. I think had a few things changed, same as with Will, same as anybody out there, could have been a bit more racier. Yeah, it’s going to be tough to beat.”

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“Yeah, just from a strategy standpoint as well, which I know from the first time he won a championship, that group on that car is very smart,” added Power. “They’re putting it all together. Yeah, it’s an absolute team effort, but he is also nailing it.

“I think Ganassi in general seems to have a very good package right now, all-around. So they’re a tough group, all good drivers, obviously a very strong team. I think we all have a little bit of work to do.”

Asked what he’d seen from inside the team that made Palou special, Dixon replied, “I think he is just covering all bases. As Will alluded to there, the qualifying is solid, the race pace is solid, strategy is solid. It’s just a really good all-around package right now.

“It’s never only one thing, but having quick pace is something that is huge, obviously, with how tight the competition is now, but even today we didn’t qualify on the front. We were fourth and sixth, but he was still able to overcome the three possibly quicker cars in qualifying.

“Some others may have had some problems on pit road or just whatever it was. He has done a hell of a job to cover all bases.”

Asked to compare him with four-time champion Dario Franchitti, with whom Dixon was teammates for five seasons, Dixon said: “I think it’s always different. The racing is definitely different from what we had back then. So the guy we obviously know is a big talent. You see some talents come along that just really are quick but maybe inconsistent or something like that, but he is definitely the full package.

“Dario is a legend of the sport and won a ton of races – big races – and obviously a ton of championships, too. It’s early in Alex’s career. He has a big, wide runway to go yet to see what comes. We’ll see if he even sticks around in IndyCar.”

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Pagenaud walks away from huge shunt as Power tops IndyCar FP2 at Mid-Ohio

Will Power led the field in second practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, but the talking point of the session was Simon Pagenaud’s escape from a shunt that involved multiple high-speed barrel rolls. Eight minutes into the session, Peacock’s cameras …

Will Power led the field in second practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, but the talking point of the session was Simon Pagenaud’s escape from a shunt that involved multiple high-speed barrel rolls.

Eight minutes into the session, Peacock’s cameras captured Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda broadside but still at high velocity at the end of the back straight. The car launched over the strip of grass, before the right-side wheels dug into the sandtrap, and the car went through six-and-a-half rolls before the belly of the car hit the tire wall with ending up coming to rest on its rollhoop.

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The 2016 champion and 2019 Indy 500 winner radioed to the MSR team to inform them he was OK and that he had suffered brake failure. The AMR Safety Team stabilized the car on its side while Pagenaud slithered out, paused a couple of times to capture his breath, and then walked to the safety vehicle unassisted.

He later told NBC’s Dillon Welch, “It was a hell of a ride, for sure. Something broke and I couldn’t slow down. I tried to make the corner anyway. I know that gravel is deadly. Michael Andretti’s done it, so I’m joining another legend, so that’s cool! But I was just trying to bail out.

“It’s downhill, which is nuts: the car took off, it hit the gravel and I just rolled. I’m just glad I didn’t go over the tire wall. I’m so glad we have the aeroscreen. I’m really thankful for IndyCar and the aeroscreen safety.”

Asked if that was as bad a ride as he’s suffered in his career, Pagenaud said: “Definitely the wildest. Funnily enough, my first crash was exactly the same circumstance. So… yeah, interesting.”

Regarding his return to action for qualifying at 2.45pm ET, Pagenaud declared he was “ready, it’s not a problem” but admitted it would be the doctor’s decision.

When the session restarted, the lap times remained as incredibly tight as in first practice, with Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport-Honda, Friday pacesetter Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet and Scott Dixon covered by just half a tenth with 15 minutes to go.

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power then jumped to the top with his 14th lap, and clipped 0.28sec from that time on his 15th. That kept him a quarter-second clear of runaway points leader and 2021 champion Alex Palou of Ganassi, who also jumped up the order to second.

Santino Ferrucci brought out the second red flag with an off at Turn 12, although the AJ Foyt Racing machine looked fairly undamaged. That wasn’t the end of his drama as he spun over the hill at Turn 9, but managed to continue without stalling.

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist also had a spin toward the end of the session, while Scott McLaughlin of Penske was a late improver, jumping to sixth behind compatriot Dixon.

Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey confirmed the improved Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda form hinted at by Lundgaard’s pace at Road America two weeks ago and on Friday here at Mid-Ohio. The trio finished the session in seventh, 11th and 14th.

Another happy surprise was David Malukas, who slotted his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda into eighth, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood and Rosenqvist.

RESULTS

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Road America boss claps back at Power, who pays the joke forward

Road America president Michael Kertscher didn’t take kindly to Will Power’s harsh Saturday comments on the state of the circuit’s offtrack safety and care. “This track’s terrible; when you go off, they do a terrible job here so they need to pick up …

Road America president Michael Kertscher didn’t take kindly to Will Power’s harsh Saturday comments on the state of the circuit’s offtrack safety and care.

“This track’s terrible; when you go off, they do a terrible job here so they need to pick up their game,” Power said after a poor qualifying run left him 22nd on the grid.

Unimpressed with the Team Penske driver’s remarks, Kertscher commandeered one of the road course’s pungent “**** trucks” used to empty the many portable toilets located throughout the 4.0-mile facility and parked it in front of Power’s motorcoach in the drivers’ lot atop the paddock.

Kertscher’s rationale of ‘Call this a **** track, get the **** truck’ was both hilarious and the perfect end to a contentious day where Power was errantly hit and crashed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the morning practice session. A furious Power shoved Dixon and the domino effect from that early crash and the ensuing repairs left both drivers in an uncompetitive place when it was time to qualify.

Having pranked Power with the odorous truck left in front of his mobile home, Kertscher was kind enough to leave the keys in the vehicle, and with an opportunity to perform a prank of his own, Power climbed in, fired up the truck, drove it down the lot, and parked it in front of Dixon’s bus.

Power’s arrival provided some much-needed humor for the two IndyCar champions who broke the ice and had a laugh. To Kertscher’s credit, no video of the drop-off exists, leaving the track president with plausible deniability. A photo of Power arriving at Dixon’s bus, however, does confirm the vehicle’s appearance in the drivers’ lot…

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The Bird is the word for Will Power after a bad day at Road America

Will Power already broke out his famous fingers in Saturday practice at Road America. Later on, he climbed from his car after failing to transfer into the Firestone Fast 12 and continued to vent his anger towards Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon – …

Will Power already broke out his famous fingers in Saturday practice at Road America.

Later on, he climbed from his car after failing to transfer into the Firestone Fast 12 and continued to vent his anger towards Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon — whose mistake in the morning practice session caused both drivers to crash — before eviscerating the groundskeepers at Road America and taking a jab at Romain Grosjean.

“This track’s terrible; when you go off, they do a terrible job here so they need to pick up their game,” Power said, nostrils flared. “You go off, you break your back every time; done it a couple of times this weekend so they need a kick in the butt. Just p***ed for what Dixon did this morning. It’s ruined our weekend.”

Power, whose car was heavily rebuilt after the crash, will start 24th. A tool was left in the footwell of the No. 12 Chevy which required a quick pit stop to have it removed. From there, an ill-handling car ruined any chance of making it through the opening round of knockout qualifying.

“The guys did a great job; we had a screwdriver in there but everyone thrashed and did a fantastic job,” he said. “We got out there and I did everything I could, man. So frustrating because I felt like we’re really quick this morning but just disappointed with what happened.”

A moment in practice where Andretti Autosport’s Grosjean nearly ran Power off the road was still fresh in his mind as well.

“And Grosjean is a piece of crap,” he proclaimed. “He needs a punch in the face.”

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Dixon, Power clash in chaotic second Road America IndyCar practice

A clean opening day of NTT IndyCar Series action at Road America took a different turn Saturday morning as three contenders for pole position returned to pit lane with their cars dangling from tow trucks. The first to crash was Chip Ganassi Racing’s …

A clean opening day of NTT IndyCar Series action at Road America took a different turn Saturday morning as three contenders for pole position returned to pit lane with their cars dangling from tow trucks.

The first to crash was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who flew off at Turn 14 and damaged the right side of the No. 10 Honda on his third lap. Although the damage was not excessive, the brief two-hour gap between the end of the second practice session and the start of qualifying is where the pressure to affect repairs in a timely manner was impossible to ignore.

The biggest crash, however, was reserved for Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon and Team Penske’s Will Power, who was hit by the No. 9 Honda on the way up the hill leaving Turn 12. With Dixon having spun, recovered, and while running slow on the right side of the track, the CGR driver waited for Romain Grosjean to clear him before turning left but didn’t appear to see the oncoming Power as he ventured directly into the path of the oncoming No. 12 Chevy.

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The ensuing crash did extensive damage to both machines, breaking suspensions and wings before the cars came to a stop on the grass. An enraged Power climbed from his car, flipped Dixon the middle finger with both hands — reminiscent of his “double birds” incident at the Loudon IndyCar race in 2011 — before charging down to Dixon’s car and pushing him before AMR Safety Team members restrained him.

Dixon, who took responsibility for the clash, didn’t attempt to parry Power’s advances, acknowledging his rival was “pretty fired up.”

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Dixon leads Power in stop-start second practice at Detroit

Experience took precedence over youth in IndyCar’s second practice session on the new downtown Detroit racecourse, Scott Dixon leading Will Power, as all drivers struggled to find a clear lap between traffic and red flags. Since yesterday, the pit …

Experience took precedence over youth in IndyCar’s second practice session on the new downtown Detroit racecourse, Scott Dixon leading Will Power, as all drivers struggled to find a clear lap between traffic and red flags.

Since yesterday, the pit exit has been pinched, the blend line moving three feet closer to the right-hand wall to allow cars on the track to swing out and take a wider entry into the left-handed Turn 1 that follows.

The session was barely three minutes old when the first red flag flew as Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden got his Penske-Chevrolet stuck down an escape road and needed retrieving.

One of his teammates, Scott McLaughlin, was the first driver to set a sub-650second time with a 1m04.3660s on his sixth lap, an average of 92.005mph around the 1.645-mile course.

Kyle Kirkwood obliterated that with a 1m03.5658s for Andretti Autosport-Honda, and Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou also ducked under the 64-second barrier but then out came the second red to retrieve Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.

Palou had just moved up to the top of the times but then spun down an escape road and stalled, so out came the third red. The fourth followed soon after, thanks to Colton Herta’s Andretti car stranded in the Turn 8 runoff.

Another constant throughout the first half of the session, was the speed of yesterday’s pacesetter, the Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward and Palou’s teammate Marcus Armstrong, the Kiwi shining on a track that is new to everyone. Both of them were within a tenth of Palou’s 1m03.7165s.

With a quarter-hour to go, Callum Ilott was a late improver in the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet, but then he brushed a tire wall and pitted.

Scott Dixon delivered a 1m03.5s, then a 1m03.2317s to go to the top – a very impressive time on primary tires. Kyle Kirkwood’s earlier 1m03.5658s was also re-installed on the glitchy timing and scoring screens to put him second, while Penske’s Will Power kept trimming his time after a spring change at the rear of the No. 12 car to put himself in the top five. However, with 10mins to go he was bumped out of the top five by McLaughlin.

Just a couple of minutes later, Turn 7 claimed Devlin DeFrancesco who went in head-on and this was followed by a right-side impact.

With the No. 29 AA car scooped up and cleared away, there were nine minutes left as the field got the green flag, the drivers blended together from the two-abreast pitlane and then tried to find a gap to set a flyer. On such a short track, that was near impossible for anyone more than five cars back.

Power’s original best was invalidated for a yellow flag violation, but in the closing moments he set a 1m03.4627s to vault into second, albeit still 0.23s off Dixon’s benchmark and after a wild fishtail moment into the tires at the final turn.

NBC Sports revealed that Meyer Shank Racing did not have to change Helio Castroneves’ Honda unit despite his electronics causing engine over-revs yesterday, but they did make an early switch-out of the Honda unit in the back of his teammate Simon Pagenaud’s No. 60 entry.

UP NEXT: Qualifying will commence at 1:20pm ET

RESULTS

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Power takes charge in Monday Indianapolis 500 practice

Will Power was the fastest driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday at the field of 33 starters for the Indy 500 took part in a two-hour practice session before spending the next three days inspecting and rebuilding their cars for …

Will Power was the fastest driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday at the field of 33 starters for the Indy 500 took part in a two-hour practice session before spending the next three days inspecting and rebuilding their cars for Friday’s Carb Day outing.

The Team Penske veteran turned a 229.222mph lap in the No. 12 Chevy and was nearly matched by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who produced a 229.184mph tour in the No. 9 Honda. Power was the only Penske representative towards the front of the drafting party; Dixon’s CGR teammates Takuma Sato (228.382mph) and Alex Palou (227.392mph) were next, followed by Arrow McLaren’s Tony Kanaan (227.094mph) in fifth and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Conor Daly in sixth (227.093mph).

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Elsewhere, front-row starter Rinus VeeKay was limited to 27 laps and was unable to rise above 33rd; fellow Fast 12 qualifier Santino Ferrucci was also mired at the bottom of the speed chart, relegated to 31st.

The main news of the afternoon was the big crash by Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Katherine Legge and Dreyer & Reinbold’s Stefan Wilson, who was hit from behind by Legge in Turn 1, sending both drivers spinning into the wall and causing major damage to their respective cars. Legge was seen by trackside medical personnel and released, while Wilson — who gave everyone a thumbs up as he was loaded into an ambulance – was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.

RESULTS

Indy GP recap with Marshall Pruett and Will Power

Team Penske’s Will Power joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to recap the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou stormed away to secure a dominant victory.

Team Penske’s Will Power joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to recap the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou stormed away to secure a dominant victory.