WILL POWERS TO INDY 500 WIN
Will Power took his maiden Indianapolis 500 victory and the 17th win in the event for Penske after a six-lap dash to the flag, after Tony Kanaan’s late crash caused the seventh caution in an attrition-filled race.
Power made his final stop on lap 171 of 200 running a conventional five-stop strategy like most of his rival frontrunners.
But Kanaan’s spin and crash at Turn 2 opened the door to the three one-off entries of Oriol Servia, Jack Harvey and Stefan Wilson – who sat out last year for Fernando Alonso to race.
On the final restart, Power was able to bide his time, passing Servia, then taking the lead again when Harvey and Wilson were unable to stretch their fuel sufficiently to make the flag.
“It’s overwhelming, amazing,” said Power. “It’s funny, you forget where you are, you’re so immersed in the race. You don’t even realise.
“On the white flag lap I started screaming because I knew I was going to win it. Unbelievable, I’ve never been so excited.”
Polesitter Ed Carpenter and Power led the most laps of the race, but Power was able to largely take control of the race from the ECR team owner before the midway distance.
The two largely matched each other in stint length, but Carpenter had no answer to Power late on and finished second.
“The first restart I had behind [Power] I had a good run, I think I could have passed him, and I was like ‘I’ll just sit here and save fuel’ and work on him on the exchange,” said Carpenter.
“And then we got all those yellows [near the end]. Then it made it not a fuel race any more.
“So that’s the one moment in hindsight that I kick myself, but at that moment it seemed like the right decision.”
Danica Patrick started seventh in her final career race but fell to the outside fringes of the top 10 before she spun at Turn 2 and into the wall before half distance.