Power claims second IndyCar title
Will Power was pushed to the brink Sunday by Team Penske but withstood the internal challenge from his teammate to close out a season of consistency and win his second IndyCar championship.
Power finished third at Laguna Seca Raceway to beat teammate Josef Newgarden for the championship by 16 points in the final standings. The Australian's first IndyCar title came in 2014.
“Oh, man, it sounds so surreal,” Power said as he crossed the finish line behind outgoing IndyCar champion Alex Palou and Newgarden, who used a white-knuckled drive through the field to make Power sweat until the checkered flag.
Power needed only to finish third to win the championship. But Team Penske has proved over the last week that its cars race individually and all three drivers were on their own in this title decider. Newgarden was relentless. “I'm ultimately just proud of the team,” said a crestfallen Newgarden. He's talked in the last several days of his personal drive for perfection and the emotional toll its taken on him.
A five-time winner this season, his inconsistency simply put him in too deep of a hole to overcome Power's season of consistency.
Power, at 41 years old, has insisted all year he's been “playing the long game” with an eye on a second title. The Australian won only once, but his average finish was sixth, and he's barely bobbled all year. On Saturday, he won his 68th career pole to break Mario Andretti's mark for most in series history.
Now the fastest man in IndyCar is the most consistent, too, and rewarded team owner Roger Penske with a 17th championship.
NASCAR
Bubba Wallace won his second career NASCAR Cup race and denied the playoff field an automatic spot in the next round for the second
Team Penske driver Will Power celebrates winning the IndyCar championship after a third-place finish at Laguna Seca Raceway on Sunday.
straight week when he held off championship contenders Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell to win at Kansas Speedway.
Wallace, who is not among the 16 in the title hunt, got around Alex Bowman for the lead with 67 laps to go, then built a 2-second lead over a parade of playoff drivers trying to earn a win and ensure their spot in the round of eight.
Hamlin was at the front of it. And the co-owner with Michael Jordan of Wallace's car at 23XI Racing managed to whittle about a tenth of a second off the No. 45's lead over the closing laps. Hamlin ultimately ran out of time, and Wallace took the checkered flag in the same car that Kurt Busch won with at Kansas earlier this year.
Bell finished third and Bowman fourth with playoff outsider Martin Truex Jr. in fifth. William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez — all in the playoff hunt — rounded out the top 10.
Bell clinched a spot in the next round of the playoffs on points. The other 11 spots are up for grabs heading to Bristol.
Wallace also won during last year's
playoffs at Talladega, when he was likewise out of the title picture.
Wallace is the 18th driver to win this season.
Formula One
Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen again made light work of starting down the grid as he won the Italian Grand Prix to leave him within touching distance of a second successive title.
Verstappen, who started seventh after being hi by grid penalties, now has a 116-point lead over Charles Leclerc, who finished second after another questionable strategy decision from Ferrari on its home track. With just six races remaining, the Dutch driver could clinch the title in Singapore next month.
It was the first time Verstappen has set foot on the iconic Monza podium, with his highest previous finish being fifth in 2018.
“It took a bit of time to be on a great podium like this, but finally we're on it,” Verstappen said.
George Russell was third, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton, who had both fought through the field after starting at the back of the grid following penalties.