IndyCar: Will Power wins 2018 Bommarito Automotive Group 500

Will Power earned his third victory of the 2018 IndyCar season by winning the season’s 15th race, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Team Penske’s Will Power hadn’t won an IndyCar race since he won the fifth and sixth races of the 17-race 2018 season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including the race on the track’s road course and the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 on the track’s oval.

Nearly three months later, Power changed that by winning the season’s 15th race, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, at Gateway Motorsports Park after he started in fourth place. The win is his third of the season and the 35th of his IndyCar career.

Power won the 248-lap race around the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) Gateway Motorsports Park oval in Madison, Illinois in his #12 Chevrolet by 1.3117 seconds over second place finisher Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport, who was the highest finishing Honda driver of the race in his #27 Honda.

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Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who leads the championship standings, finished in third place in is #9 Honda. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud and Andretti Autosport’s Zach Veach rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth in their #22 Chevrolet and #26 Honda, respectively.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ed Jones and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammates Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal rounded out the top 10 in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place in their #21 Chevrolet, #2 Chevrolet, #10 Honda, #30 Honda and #15 Honda, respectively.

The race featured a total of 10 lead changes among five drivers. Aside of Power, who led 93 laps of the race, four drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Rossi, Dixon, Veach and Sato. Dixon led more laps than anybody else in the field with laps 145 led.

The race also featured a total of two caution flag periods for 16 laps. The first caution flag period of the race began on lap one when Sebastien Bourdais spun out and hit the turn two wall. The second caution flag period of the race began on lap 173 when Ryan Hunter-Reay was slow on the back straightaway with a mechanical issue, and it changed the complexion of the race.

During this caution flag period, the race leaders came into the pits with 71 laps to go. Many of them opted to run hard throughout the rest of the race knowing that they would need to come into the pits again unless a caution flag period flew, but Rossi opted to save fuel.

While Rossi did manage to save fuel to make it to the end of the race on an impressive 71-lap stint, Power was able to pass him for the win late in the race, although it wasn’t for the lead at the time, because of the fact that he had come into the pits to get more fuel.

Of the 21 drivers who started the race, only two failed to finish it. Of the 19 drivers who finished the race, eight finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park.

The next IndyCar race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, September 2. That race is set to take place at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.