The race wasn’t a runaway. Teammate Helio Castroneves dogged Power for the final fifteen laps, catching up under braking before falling back under acceleration.
No doubt both drivers were thinking of Edmonton 2010, when Castroneves made a pass on a restart which was deemed illegal and which gave the win to Scott Dixon. This year Power stayed ahead, and his teammate had to settle for second.
Points leader Franchitti came back from mid-pack, mid-race, to finish third.
“We really needed to come back here and win just to get the confidence back in the team and to get the Verizon car back in Victory Lane is awesome,” Power told Versus after the race.
“That was so hard at the end. The tires were going off, I was struggling on the brakes, and trying to keep Helio behind—it was really, really hard. I drove every lap like qualifying.”
Penske nearly had a 1–2–4 finish, but Ryan Briscoe had to pit for fuel on the final lap, dropping back to tenth.
Power was eager for a win after being wrecked at Toronto two weeks earlier. He was also eager to get past the friction between himself and Dario Franchitti, who rammed Power while he was leading.
“I put it behind me,” Power told the post-race press conference on IndyCar.com. “I guess we were both playing a bit of mind games with each other there. But at the end of the day you go out there and race how you race.”
Franchitti now leads Power by 38 points, 388 to 350, with seven races left in the season.
Power likened the points chase to 2010, when Power had a seemingly insurmountable lead but Franchitti came back to win the championship.
“We’ve got to keep doing this—just keep chipping away sort of like [Franchitti] did with us last year.”
The Penske-Ganassi Show, Now With Fewer Collision Interruptions
Takuma Sato won the pole after Power brushed the wall in qualifying; the Australian Penske driver stayed right on the tail of his Japanese Lotus-KV counterpart until Sato, unnerved by the pressure ran wide in Turn 13 on lap 19.
Power went through, and Target-Ganassi driver Scott Dixon pulled alongside, and completed the pass into Turn One. Dixon’s teammate Dario Franchitti got by as well. After that it was the familiar Penske-Ganassi show for much of the race, with a bit of collision-based drama to keep things interesting.
Next: Crashes From the Start
After the crash-fest at Toronto two weeks ago, IndyCar CEO called for a clean race at Edmonton. He got it—after a fashion.
While the race still had its share of no-hope banzai dive-bombing passing attempts, this time every offender was penalized.
“I’m glad the officials are coming down harder on the guys who are doing dive bomb moves which are not coming off,” Will Power told the post-race press conference on Indycar.com.
The bad driving started on the first lap. The whole field made it through Turn One, but at the next passing opportunity, Turn Five. Alex Tagliani tried to pass four cars at once and rammed Graham Rahal. Rahal spun off the track and back on, right in the path of Paul Tracy. Both Rahal and Tracy were out; Tagliani got a penalty.
On lap 24 Mike Conway speared Orial Servia in Turn 12. The Andretti Autosport driver tried an impossible pass, driving over the curb and right into the side of Servia, ending the NHL driver’s day. One more penalty.
On the lap 30 restart E.J. Viso, whose name must translates to “He who wrecks in every race” in some language, kept up his losing streak by ramming Scott Dixon, and nearly taking out Dario Franchitti. Franchitti dropped back to 13th, while Dixon had to come in for a new radiator. One more penalty.
On lap 38, another AA driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay this time, made a ridiculous attempt to get inside Takuma Sato which cost the Japanese driver a lap. Yet another penalty.
Considering that many of these failed passing attempts were identical to wrecks at Toronto which were all judged to be “racing incidents,” one wonders if the race officials were having a really bad day in Toronto or finally realized that if unchecked, many drivers were just fine wrecking half the field for no reason.
Randy Bernard’s call for a clean race might not have cut down on bonehead overtaking attempts, but the penalties pleased most of the fans who want to see “The Best Drivers in the World” live up to the title.
IndyCar heads south of the (Candadian) border next for the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. This beautiful and technically challenging road course will precise, patient driving and will offer a real treat to the fans. Tickets are available through the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Tickets web page.
