IndyCar News: Will Power gives Team Penske clean Sweep in Iowa

Team Penske driver Will Power led 50 laps around the Iowa Speedway oval to win the 2nd half of the Hy-Vee race IndyCar weekend doubleheader and continue the team’s domination at the short oval.

On a track nearly impossible to pass for a position on after the repave in the corners to accommodate the NASCAR Cup Series, championship points leader Alex Palou came home 2nd, 0.3915s behind Power, despite leading the majority of the race laps.

Yesterday’s winner, Scott McLaughlin, came home third, 2.3651s behind his teammate.

Scott Dixon was 4th for Ganassi Racing, 2.5 behind Power, the same place he finished in  Race 1.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta rounded out the top-5, 4.43s seconds behind the Penske veteran.

The race was run with just one yellow flag on Lap 101 which did not help that fact that it was a one-lane track with only 204 passes.

Sting Ray Robb had a scary moment when he flew over the top of a slowing Alexander Rossi on the race’s final lap.  As a precaution, the Foyt driver was taken to a local hospital for observation.

Thankful for the aeroscreen there with cars on top of each other.

Cool to see Sting Ray give thumbs up after going into the ambulance.

Scary, scary stuff.#INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/tAgZD93HFn

— Ryan Vargas (@RyanVargas_23) July 14, 2024

Will Power

Will Power will admit he got lucky today.  Starting the race in 22nd position, it was a tough climb to the front, especially with it hard to pass on track.

“Once I saw the yellow come out, I thought that this is very good for us. At last saving a ton of fuel worked for me. I’ve had a few races this year where I’m definitely going longer than anyone and then a yellow falls before anyone pits. You’re like, Oh.”

“This time it worked out perfectly, which I had that feeling. If there’s going to be a yellow, it’s going to be through those sequences. So if you can go really long, someone is going
to make a mistake on the apron, the out-lap, the in-lap, they’re going to have to go yellow.”

“Yeah, that was the plan. Starting where I was, knowing how hard it was to pass, my plan is I’m going to sit back and save as much fuel as I can.”

“Even if it didn’t, we were just going to jump people by staying out. They come in. You’re just faster. Jump a few people to a sequence, as well. Either way we were going to go forward. But that was the big one, getting that yellow.”

Scott McLaughlin

Scott McLaughlin won yesterday’s HyVee Homefront Race.  Today he finished third in the fastest race ever held at Iowa Speedway.

“Yeah, as soon as I saw that car on the inside of the apron, I knew we were pretty much screwed. You have to stay long to eliminate risk of a yellow. As soon as the yellow came out, I pretty much knew that, yeah, Alex was going to get me, along with Will, who hadn’t pitted yet.”

“That is what it is. It’s the game. You have them, you lose them. It’s just part of it. Yeah, really proud, man. This weekend was just exactly what we needed. I feel like we built some really nice momentum. Hopefully we can keep carrying this for the rest of the year.”

“We need to somehow work a way to get the second lane to work. That’s after 30, 40 laps. Whether that’s a compound that goes on the racetrack or something that acts with our tire and allows us to continue running that second lane.”

“Like, that thing worked. I passed three cars today on the outside of the restart. Like, it does work. I think it will work through the race if you can just eliminate some of the
excess rubber that goes on there.”

Alex Palou 

Alex Palou is still leading the championship by 35 points over Will Power after this weekend’s doubleheader.  Race 1 was ended on lap 175 after the Spaniard spun out of Turn 4.  Race 2 was a better run.

“It’s been a weekend where we had a ton of speed compared to what we had before with qualifying third and second. Was a shame yesterday obviously with the pit stall on the first pit, then the crash during the second stint.”

“Yeah, happy that today we’re in second. Bit of a shame that couldn’t really do anything to pass or to do anything,”

“Bit of a boring race for everybody: drivers, media. It’s the most boring thing I’ve ever done. It was yesterday, as well.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame that we couldn’t really put a better show. I think everybody will agree that it was a very boring race to drive.”

Palou was asked what he thought could be done to improve the racing.

” I don’t know, the INDYCARs we had, the package of INDYCAR tire, aero, engine,
whatever we had on track this weekend, it was impossible to make it run.”

“So I don’t know. It was never an issue before. It was a repave for our cars. But having that said, we’ve seen other series here run well.”

Iowa Race 2 Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 154.768 mph
Time of Race: 01:26:38.7472
Margin of victory: 0.3915 of a second
Cautions: 12 laps
Lead changes: 6 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin, Scott 1 – 94
Palou, Alex 95 – 100
Power, Will 101 – 106
Palou, Alex 107 – 203
Power, Will 204 – 205
Lundqvist, Linus 206 – 208
Power, Will 209 – 250