After more than a year since his last win, Will Power took the checkered flag for Team Penske on Sunday in the second half of the IndyCar Dual in Detroit.
It has been an up and down year for Team Penske driver Will Power. After missing the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg, his team and teammates have looked dominant on the road and street courses. But until today, Power had yet to win, with Simon Pagenaud and Juan Pablo Montoya taking all the other road wins. That all changed on a Sunday in Roger Penske’s backyard, where the Australian would win the Dual in Detroit Race 2.
“It’s been a long time since the #12 has been in victory lane,” Power would say in a post-race interview with ABC pit reporter Jon Beekhuis. “It gives the whole crew confidence…and now we are there [in victory lane].” The win would prove big as Roger Penske and his organization promoted the race for many years, and were instrumental to its return to the IndyCar schedule.
The race began on Sunday with a melee in the opening corner, with James Hinchcliffe and Max Chilton getting the worst of the incident. Only one more major incident would occur where Juan Pablo Montoya would wreck on his own, making a total of three cars failing to finish the race.
The race’s most pivotal moment would come during the final exchange of pit stops, where Will Power would make a bold move past teammate Simon Pagenaud while awaiting the leaders to pit. That would prove to be the winning move, with Pagenaud coming home in second and Ryan Hunter-Reay in third. Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon would round out the top five.
This is Will Power’s first win since the Grand Prix of Alabama in 2015, joining Sebastien Bourdais as winners on the weekend. On the IndyCar championship side, Simon Pagenaud expanded his points lead to a huge eighty points over second place Scott Dixon. The lead is large, but certainly not insurmountable with many races still to go.
Here are the full results from the second half of the Chevy Dual in Detroit:
- Will Power, Chevrolet, Team Penske
- Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, Team Penske
- Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, Andretti Autosport
- Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter Racing
- Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
- Conor Daly, Honda, Dale Coyne Racing
- Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
- Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, KVSH Racing
- Marco Andretti, Honda, Andretti Autosport
- Takuma Sato, Honda, A.J. Foyt Racing
- Graham Rahal, Honda, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
- Alexander Rossi, Honda, Andretti Autosport
- Gabby Chaves, Honda, Dale Coyne Racing
- Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, Team Penske
- Carlos Munoz, Honda, Andretti Autosport
- Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
- Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
- Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter Racing
- Jack Hawksworth, Honda, A.J. Foyt Racing
- Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, Team Penske
- James Hinchcliffe, Honda, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
- Max Chilton, Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing
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The Verizon IndyCar Series will be back in action again next weekend from deep in the heart of Texas. Catch the Firestone 600, live from the Texas Motor Speedway, on Saturday, June 11th, with coverage beginning at 6 pm eastern on NBCSN.