Power secured his 42^nd victory in the NTT Indycar Series and his first since June 2022 by blasting past teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin as Team Penske swept the podium, dominating proceedings at Road America. 

Alex Palou secured a good result on a disastrous day for Chip Ganassi Racing by finishing 4^th, keeping new championship leader Power honest as he sits just five points behind the Australian. Kyle Kirkwood kept up his run of top 11 finishes alive crossing the line in 5^th, as the early race leader could not keep up with Team Penske and Alex Palou. 

Colton Herta was taken out on a chaotic opening lap which saw all of the starting top three stalled at the exit of turn 1, but Herta recovered to 6^th with a stunning drive to salvage some key points. Romain Grosjean crashed in practice on Friday and kept his head as Juncos Hollinger found the limelight throughout the weekend, as the Frenchman finished 7^th.

Pato O’Ward finished 8^th having taken some smart avoiding action on the opening lap to miss all the chaos in front of him.  Marcus Ericsson made up 6 positions to finish 9^th on a quiet day for the Swede, and Graham Rahal found himself in the gravel at the opening corner but worked his way up to 10^th. 

The opening corner of the race saw first time polesitter Linus Lundqvist turned around by teammate Marcus Armstrong, and Colton Herta was hit by Josef Newgarden as the field checked up to avoid the spinning Chip Ganassi Racing cars. Lundqvist finished 12^th in the end, as Armstrong retired in the pits. 

In an even worse day for Chip Ganassi, Kyffin Simpson was taken out by Christian Rasmussen on lap 7 at the final corner, with the rookie’s best starting position not materialising into a good result through no fault of his own. Rasmussen was penalised with a stop and go penalty, and eventually finished 20^th.

Scott Dixon had been running strongly in the early portion of the race, but fell victim to the vulnerability of the red tyres. He pitted on lap 17 for the softer, alternate rubber, but on lap 23 he fell from 6^th to 16^th as the tyres blistered dramatically. Dixon would end up in 21^st, after stalling on pitlane and losing the championship lead in the process. 

The XPEL Grand Prix at Road America saw 18 lead changes across 8 different drivers, with 238 on track passes. In the end, however, it was Team Penske who were a cut above the rest on the shores of Elkhart Lake. 

Power outduels Newgarden and McLaughlin in Team Penske 1-2-3

For the first time since the 2017 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, Team Penske swept the podium in the NTT Indycar Series as they dominated the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America in Wisconsin. 

Power had kept himself out of trouble at the start, falling from 5^th to 6^th as he had to take avoiding action as chaos ensued at the front between Herta and Chip Ganassi’s cars of Armstrong and Lundqvist. He passed Scott Dixon for 5^th in the opening stint and then went by Kyle Kirkwood during the first round of pit stops, moving into third position behind his two Penske teammates. 

Yet during the penultimate stint of the race, Will Power found a way to make his alternate tyres last a full thirteen lap stint. The overcut was an incredibly powerful tool as a cool track temperature at Road America made tyre warmup difficult. 

McLaughlin pitted for a final time on lap 42, and Newgarden pitted at the end of lap 43. Newgarden was able to open up a three second gap to McLaughlin despite being stuck behind the Juncos Hollinger car of Nolan Siegel, such was the power of the overcut.

Will Power pitted on lap 44, and his overcut was so powerful that he jumped both Newgarden and McLaughlin, soaring into the lead. Newgarden got a run on him into turn 1 on lap 45, but had such overspeed that he revved out the engine, unable to go any faster. As a result, the car lost drive for a split second, and Newgarden lost momentum. 

Power surged into the distance, and for the first time in 735 days, took the chequered flag first in the NTT Indycar Series. After such a challenging year for personal reasons in 2023, where Power even considered quitting racing to support his family, Power has rediscovered his mojo this year. He takes the championship lead at Road America, with the hope of securing a third Astor Cup in Nashville. 

Power said ‘Yeah, very good strategy. Very fast cars. A lot of fun. Like, once all the yellows stopped, it was a very fast-paced race.’

Yeah, I sat back. I kind of couldn’t get Scott without using a lot of push to pass. I sat back. I knew I had a lap of fuel on him. I was making the reds last. My in-lap was super quick. They didn’t really go off for me at all. I was kind of babying them. I sat behind there. That was a big in-lap. Gave me enough of a gap on Josef to be able to get up to speed on the cold tires.’

‘We’re working hard. We want to win the championship. I think we have the cars and the team to do it. Keep pushing.’

‘It’s been a rough trot. It was last year, we didn’t get a win. She wasn’t at a lot of the races. [Will’s wife Liz was incredibly unwell] Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. Very positive’

McLaughlin and Newgarden battle back in challenging tyre focused race

The newly crowned two-time Indianapolis 500 champion is never far from the headlines. On Saturday, Newgarden cruised into the Firestone Fast 6, before suffering one of the most brutal accidents of the season, as he spun at the fastest road-course corner in the USA: the Kink at Road America. 

He hit the wall at 95G worth of force, feeling about 80G of that inside his helmet, as his PPG Chevrolet chassis was destroyed. In the backup car, he performed well, and despite hitting Colton Herta on the opening lap, he was able to make his red tyres last a full stint (thanks to three caution periods taking the load off the tyre for a significant chunk of the stint). 

Newgarden moved up into 2^nd after the first round of pitstops, and despite nearly losing the car in a bizarre incident on lap 33 that catch the car that would have flown into the concrete at 185mph, he took the lead from McLaughlin on lap 36 and looked to sail off into the distance. 

However, Will Power was able to overcut Newgarden by a lap, giving the 2022 series champion an advantage of around three seconds on lap 44, and saw him swoop past Newgarden after his final stop. 

Newgarden got close, and revved out his car on lap 45 trying desperately to pass Power, but it was not to be, and he finished a full 3.2 seconds behind his teammate, who ultimately had superior pace. 

Newgarden said ‘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 yesterday. It was a real team effort to put a new car together. Everybody pitched in, the 12, the 2 and the 3.’

‘At the same time we sort of gave that one away. I mean, I will say this, too. I felt like we gave it away, but all three of our cars were pretty stellar pace-wise. Whether it was the 3, the 12 or me, I think we all had similar pace.’

[When asked why the over-cut was so strong] ‘Just depends on the track. Today the warm-up was really tough on the tires. It was literally nearly three seconds of an advantage on an overcut. Two-and-a-half, three-second advantage.’

 ‘It’s all part of INDYCAR racing. You got to sort of manage the situation. I felt like I didn’t make the right call there.’

Scott Mclaughlin took the lead from Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood on lap 4, and built a solid gap of three seconds over Newgarden in the opening phase of the race.

On lap 17, Newgarden got rid of the alternate tyre and McLaughlin just about retook the lead from his Indy500 winning teammate, knowing he would have to run the volatile tyre on his third stint of the race. 

On lap 31, McLaughlin put on the red tyres, and having seen how Dixon’s tyres had fallen apart so quickly, was warned by his strategist Kyle Moyer on three separate occasions that he had to take it easy in the opening part of his red tyre stint. 

Despite being able to keep his red tyres reasonably in check throughout the stint, McLaughlin still believed that running them so late in the race was a mistake.

‘I kind of wish we ran reds in the second stint just to get that over and done with earlier, then I could have attacked a bit more on the black tire.’

‘I was pretty careful with them. That’s half the reason why I didn’t fight Josef. Ultimately, they held on pretty good. Not bad. I definitely probably would have not been able to hold Josef off, regardless.’

Yeah, chose to sort of just bring them up and look after them. Obviously thought from a points perspective, after Detroit, just nice to bring home a pretty strong result. I just had to bring that home.’

Road America proves tough for young drivers as experience counts in Wisconsin 

After changeable conditions in qualifying on Saturday, the average age of the top three starters at Road America was just 24 years old. However, the average age of the podium finishers was 35. Experience mattered in a race that was cruel on tyres and even crueller to the young drivers that led the field to the green flag. 

First time polesitter Lundqvist had said after qualifying that ‘I don’t know. I mean, if you ask me after Barber, I would be a little bit more hopeful. Over the last couple races, the month of May was kind of rough for us.’

‘I kind of came in wanting to rebuild my confidence. Detroit was not a confidence builder. It was a rough place. Coming in here was a bit of a reset. I mean, this is one way of doing it, I suppose.’

Linus Lundqvist got a good launch, and although Herta was swamped by Armstrong and Kirkwood, the three looked to have gotten through turn one unscathed. That was until Marcus Armstrong tagged the back of his teammate Lundqvist, turning them both around. 

Herta could not avoid this incident and checked, and was hit by Josef Newgarden. Herta also spun and dropped to the back of the field, and was incensed when Newgarden was not penalised for the contact. 

Herta said ‘it wasn’t even close you see me slowing down, he doesn’t even attempt to slow down, just dumps me. How that isn’t a penalty is beyond me, I don’t understand it.’

Colton Herta led the championship earlier on in the season, but a string of unfortunate results has seen him drop to 7^th in the standings, 60 points behind championship leader Will Power. 

The NTT Indycar Series will test the new hybrid engines at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway on Tuesday, before returning for the Firestone Grand Prix at Weathertech Raceway, Laguna Seca on the 23^rd June.