Will Power secures Race 2 win in IndyCar weekend at Iowa Speedway which ended amid huge crash, as Alex Palou was P2 and Scott McLaughlin P3.
Add Iowa Speedway to the list of tracks where Will Power has won an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. Power put that one on his impressive list with a victory in Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade. In doing so, Team Penske’s two-time series champion pushed his career race win total to 43, giving him sole possession of fourth place in the sport’s history.
Power tied Michael Andretti’s career total last month with a victory at Road America. Sunday’s race was Power’s 19th attempt at the short oval east of Des Moines, Iowa. He had won an event-leading seven poles, but finishing second on four occasions, including last year, had been his best race result. His last oval-track victory was nearly five years ago at Pocono Raceway. He now has 10 career oval wins.
Power, 43, drove from the 22nd starting position and then received quick service from his No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet crew to beat series leader Alex Palou during the final exchange of pit stops under green conditions. Power’s time advantage over Palou in that sequence was about nine-tenths of a second, according to information collected by NTT DATA.
The separation between Power and Palou at the finish line was .3915 of a second. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, the winner of Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart, finished third. He led the race’s first 94 laps to push his two-night consecutive laps led total to 259.
McLaughlin lost Sunday’s lead when a caution came out on Lap 101 for Agustin Canapino’s stalled car in Turn 2. As Palou was on pit road at the time and Power hadn’t yet made his scheduled stop, those two drivers cycled to the front, pushing McLaughlin back to third. Power rode behind Palou for 104 of the next 114 laps before overtaking him on the second pit stop.
That was the difference in the race’s outcome on a sunny and hot Midwestern afternoon. Dixon finished fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing while Colton Herta fifth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian. With the victory, Power cut Palou’s lead in the standings to 35 points with six races remaining.
As Power and Palou were crossing the finish line, a multicar crash coming off Turn 2 occurred. Sting Ray Robb ran over the back of Alexander Rossi’s car, vaulting Robb’s car high in the air vertically. Behind them, Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood spun and with Rossi, they ended up against the inside retaining wall with Carpenter’s car on top of Kirkwood’s.
Rossi, Kirkwood and Carpenter safely climbed from their damaged cars. Robb gave two thumbs up as he was taken for precautionary observation and imaging. Last lap incident: https://x.com/IndyCar/status/1812559016372953327
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1812547356073525726
UPDATE: Sting Ray Robb is awake, alert and in good condition following the last-lap crash in today’s race at Iowa Speedway. The No. 41 driver is being transported to a local hospital as a precaution for further evaluation.
Here’s how Race 1 panned out in Iowa
[Note: The story is as per press release]
