Will Power Talks Mid-Ohio Battle: 'We Would Have Crashed'

Team Penske’s Will Power finished second in Sunday’s 2016 Honda Indy 200, but told the media afterward that he would’ve wrecked if not for one thing.

Will Power finished the Honda Indy 200 exactly where he started it – in second place.

But according to Power, his fierce battle with teammate and current championship rival Simon Pagenaud would have ended a lot differently if he hadn’t eased off while dealing with the more aggressive Pagenaud.

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“Actually in the last turn, had I not backed off, we would have crashed,” Power said during the post-race press conference at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, referencing the restart on lap 66 of 90 in which Pagenaud was finally able to get around him for the second spot and the eventual race victory.

“He was quite aggressive the way he threw it in there,” he continued. “At that moment, I thought of it being just – [team owner] Roger [Penske] would have been pretty mad if we had taken each other out of first and second potentially.

“At that point I decided to lift, because he was not going to.”

Power further added that if he had been fighting with anyone other than a Team Penske colleague on Sunday, he wouldn’t necessarily have backed down.

“It would have probably been different,” he conceded. “I don’t know if we both would have got to the corner.”

Allowing Pagenaud by him (and into Victory Lane) means that Power’s gap to the Frenchman is now 58 points with three and a half races remaining, including the double-points season finale at Sonoma on Sep. 18.

That’s by no means impossible but Power certainly would’ve preferred his fourth victory in five races, rather than letting Pagenaud claim his fourth win of the IndyCar season.

Still, he conceded that he left the door open for the No. 22 Team Penske Chevrolet to get by him and Pagenaud took full advantage.

“I got pickup on the tires and kind of went wide and got more pickup. I was quite slow,” Power admitted. “So you know, I just made a dog’s breath of the bloody restart, which allowed him to get into the position to have a shot.

“And if you have a shot, of course you can’t pass it; you’ve got to go for it, and he did.

“I really put myself in a bad position, and I should have done a better job of just getting a jump on the restart,” he continued. “I didn’t realize Carlos [Munoz] was going to go straight out of the corner and not in the actual restart zone. I should have been onto that.”

What was going through Pagenaud’s head?

“I thought we’re battling for a race win. We’re battling for a championship,” Pagenaud said when he joined the press conference.

“It was hard racing for sure. It was close racing but it was clean, to the limits. I think at the end of the day, we didn’t crash. We did what we were supposed to do as top drivers. I thought it was a great battle, and it was fantastic for the fans, I think what happened.

“I just saw a chance and I went for it, really. Didn’t think much more of it.”

And there’s not much more to think about. When you put two of the Verizon IndyCar Series’ most aggressive drivers together with title implications, of course sparks are going to fly.

The battle between Pagenaud and Power was one of the highlights of the Honda Indy 200 – and as Power said, it could have easily ended in a wreck taking out both cars.

Instead the fans had some spectacular racing and the championship hunt is alive and well; kudos to Power for making the right call, even if he’s probably wishing that he were the one holding that Mid-Ohio trophy.

What did you think of Will Power’s racing at the 2016 Honda Indy 200?

Will Power Talks Mid-Ohio Battle: ‘We Would Have Crashed’

By Brittany Frederick | Aug 1, 2016

Team Penske’s Will Power finished second in Sunday’s 2016 Honda Indy 200, but told the media afterward that he would’ve wrecked if not for one thing.