IndyCar News: Power leads Penske 1-2-3 at Road America

Using superior Penske Chevy engines, Will Power led a Team Penske 1-2-3 to win the Xpel GP at Road America, his 42nd career win.

Power led 9 of the 55 laps around the 4-mile Road America circuit in his Verizon Chevy and won by 3.26s over teammate Josef Newgarden.

Scott McLaughlin rounded out the podium, 8-seconds behind Power.

Alex Palou was the top Honda finisher, 16.7s behind Power in his #10 Chip Ganassi entry

Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top-5, 24.866s behind Power.

Power also took the championship lead by five points over Alex Palou, who finished fourth in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top five in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda of Andretti Global.

Will Power

Today was Will Power’s 42nd career win and has taken the points lead in the championship.  The Aussie is now tied with Michael Andretti for fourth on the all-time list.

The win today ended the 34-race winless streak for Power.  And made him a two-time winner at Road America.

“Yeah, the car was really good. I kind of came across something I hadn’t been running that Josef runs a certain way, how he runs the car. I started driving like that, just using setup, and it really helped. Yeah, was just easier for me.”

“Yeah, so the car was phenomenal. I haven’t had a car like that for a long time in a race. It was very fast.”

“We’ll keep working for more. Like I said at the beginning of this year, I want multiple wins this year. I think that’s what it will take to win the championship. We have the car for it. We have the engine for it.”

“You know how this championship goes: very tough group, no bad driver in this field. You have to put it together very well if you want to win.”

“I have to say I’m a better driver again this year than I was in ’22 when I won the championship. Last year was sort of a stall-out here. Not much I could do. Spending a lot of time at home, looking after Liz, making sure everything was going well for her.”

Power was asked about how close he was to giving up racing last year, around this time, when his wife was sick.

” Yeah, in the off-season when my wife is sitting in hospital, we’re just wondering what’s going to happen here. She almost died. You start thinking, Yeah, I’m going to have to stop now, take care of my son.”

“You start thinking. When that was going on, you start thinking should I be racing at all. If something happens to Liz and something happens to me, is she going to get better, what’s going to happen. The doctor said this can come back at any time. Should I be racing. That was the thing that was planted in my mind last year.”

“You certainly don’t perform at your highest level because you don’t want your son to have no parents. That is sort of the thing you’re thinking. Yeah, tough wrestling with that.
Ultimately, yeah, if she wasn’t getting better, I would stop. I would have to stop for my son. Simple as that.”

“Massively special,” Power said of the win. “We’ve worked so hard to try to get wins. I worked really hard in the offseason. Obviously, last season was very stressful. Had half a mind at home and half at the track, so it was very difficult to perform at a high level there.

“Man, I’m just stoked. I’m very happy, man. That was very well deserved for the whole team. We worked so hard for that.”

“Liz is well and is a big part of my preparation. She does a lot for me. We’re back as a team
again.”

Josef Newgarden

The last time Team Penske had podium sweep was in 2017 in Sonoma.

Josef Newgarden had a big crash in qualifying yesterday and all three teams worked to rebuilt his car in a matter of hours.

” It was a great day. Great team day. I think we’re all going to be really pleased with the 1-2-3, especially with the 2 car and the disaster that happened yesterday.  It was a real team effort to put a new car together.  Everybody pitched in, the 12, the 2 and the 3.”

“Really rewarding I think for the entire crew when you have to go through something like that, put it all together, we finish 1-2-3, it’s as good as it can get.”

“At Team Penske I’m not ever concerned if we have to build up a new car.  We have great consistency across the board. This team I think is the best as far as putting another car on track, and it’s going to be the exact same thing.”

“I was not concerned when my car had to be rebuilt.  I think we just all had a really good day. We got a 1-2-3 for the team.”

“It was a really good team day,” Newgarden said. “Will did a great job, too. Look, he deserved to win that race, as well.

“We put together a great day. We just probably misstepped there at the end. I feel bad that I came in a lap early. I probably should have stayed out.”

Race Results – 55 Laps

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 126.154 mph
Time of race: 1:45:00.0267
Margin of victory: 3.2609 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 6 laps
Lead changes: 13 among 7 drivers
Lap leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 – 3
McLaughlin, Scott 4 – 15
Newgarden, Josef 16
Palou, Alex 17 – 18
Herta, Colton 19 – 20
Rosenqvist, Felix 21 – 23
McLaughlin, Scott 24 – 29
Newgarden, Josef 30 – 31
Palou, Alex 32
Herta, Colton 33 – 35
Newgarden, Josef 36 – 42
Power, Will 43 – 44
Herta, Colton 45 – 48
Power, Will 49 – 55

NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings: Power 236, Palou 231, Dixon 225, O’Ward 184, McLaughlin 179, Kirkwood 179, Herta 176, Newgarden 169, Rossi 162, Rosenqvist 157, Lundgaard 141, Ferrucci 132, Ericsson 130, Armstrong 121, Rahal 121, Grosjean 112, VeeKay 109, Lundqvist 100, Simpson 81, Fittipaldi 81, Pourchaire 75, Canapino 74, Robb 68, Rasmussen 65, Harvey 65, Blomqvist 46, Ilott 39, Castroneves 26, Ghiotto 22, Daly 21, Larson 21, Sato 19, Siegel 17, Carpenter 14, Vautier 12, Braun 10, Hunter-Reay 6, Andretti 5, Legge 5

Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America