Power surge
He prevails with strength, strategy
INDIANAPOLIS – The 102nd Indianapolis 500 started out as a parade comparatively speaking and lost significant star power before the midpoint.
Hope you didn’t turn it off. Strategy and desperation delivered a compelling run to the finish Sunday, leaving the door open for a collection of sentimental favorites, a local hero, and a couple of long, long, long shots.
In the end, this 500 came down to a veteran driver turning in a flawless performance for the best team in Indy history.
A victory by Team Penske veteran Will Power was hardly a surprise, although the outcome became predictable only over the final few laps.
“It was the last box to tick to be considered as a very successful driver,” said Power, 37. “I’m not done. I still have plenty of time to win more 500s and championships and races.”
Power, the runner-up to thenteammate Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015, became the first Australian to win the 500. He also is the first driver to sweep Indy after his victory in the speedway’s road-course race two weeks ago and with his 34th win moved to eighth on the all-time Indy-car list.
Power also delivered team owner Roger Penske a record-extending 17th victory.
“Now I have to worry about 18,” said Penske, 81. “I’ll look forward. We have to be back next year.”
Power outran Ed Carpenter, the Indianapolis-born-and-raised polesitter, by 3.1589 seconds. Essentially they were equals — Carpenter led a race-high 65 laps to Power’s 59 — but Power had the position when it mattered.
Scott Dixon came in third by squeezing 40 laps out of his final tank of fuel, compared to Power’s 29. Conserving left Dixon easy pickings for Power and Carpenter, although the strategy did get the 2008 winner his best finish in eight years.
The style of racing Sunday was markedly different from the slingshot dicing of the past six years, at least through the first two-thirds of the race.
Changes to the cars’ aerodynamics, coupled with temperatures in the 90s, created a style of racing different from recent years. Gone were frequent slingshot passes, replaced by a strung-out field.
Six drivers also spun and crashed
by themselves, most notably returning favorites Danica Patrick and threetime winner Helio Castroneves.
Patrick found popularity that transcended motor sports after her rookie run in 2005 in which she became the first woman lead the 500. After an unspectacular six-year venture into NASCAR, the 36-year-old came to finish her career but finished it against the inside wall in Turn 2 on the 68th lap.
“I wouldn’t want to end it any year like that,” Patrick said, “but of course being the last one makes it a lot worse.”
The letdown for a significant percentage of the 300,000 fans — and ABC Television — was palpable.
Alexander Rossi gave them some relief by making moves no one else could manage. On a Lap 146 restart, Rossi steamed around the outside of five cars in Turns 1 and 2 to get from ninth to fifth, and on the next he jumped two more.
Power’s drive wasn’t nearly as flashy, just more successful when it mattered most.
“It was through speed, pit stops, in and out laps, good restarts,” Power said. “It was a fight to win it. It was not an easy win. So that makes it much more satisfying.”
The mix of strategies added intrigue.
In addition to Dixon, three other drivers gambled to try to swipe a victory from the drivers who ran up front much of the day.
Spanish journeyman Oriol Servia got swallowed up on a restart with seven laps to go, had to stop and ended up 17th.
Then Stefan Wilson and Jack Harvey — two Brits making their second starts — both dived into the pits with four laps to go, clearing Power’s path to victory.
Much like Patrick’s crash, Wilson’s stop elicited groans.
He is the younger brother of the popular Justin Wilson, who was killed in a racing accident in 2015. No one roots against him. But similarly, no one can complain about the way Power won.
“I was giving it everything, thought I was going to get them,” Power said. “Then they both pit. It's like, the gates opened, it was amazing. Just full (power), go, go, hold on.”
As it should be. After a mundane first 140 laps, the final 60 more than saved the afternoon.