Power gives Penske his 200th win
Will Power’s timing was impeccable Saturday.
He picked the perfect strategy with his red tires. He pressed the push-to-pass button at precisely the right moment. He gave Roger
Penske his 200th series win at Penske’s place — Indianapolis.
Power overcame a late caution period that shrunk his lead, barely won the race off pit lane on the final stop and even drove through some light rain to pull away from Scott
Dixon by 2.2443 seconds for his second straight IndyCar Grand Prix victory.
“It’s been a slow start for us, so it’s fantastic to get the win,” the first three-time race winner said. “It’s amazing to be a part of that history with Penske Racing because it’s such a deep history.”
It might be just what the Australian needed. He came into the weekend with only one top-five finish all season, a second at Long Beach. The only other top-10 he had this season was in the season opener at St. Petersburg.
But Power won the pole Friday and dominated again on Indy’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. He led a race-high 56 laps including the last 34 after taking advantage of his tire choice to quickly close the gap with race leader Robert
Wickens on the front straightaway before making a smooth move to beat the rookie into the first turn on Lap 51.
“He was on blacks and I was on reds, so I returned the favor and really caught him,” Power said. “Once I got past him it was pretty straightforward because we were much faster.”
Power has won three of the last four road-course events at Indy — all from the pole.
Wickens, a Canadian who drives for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, finished third, more than 8.1 seconds off the pace.
Kevin Harvick surged past Martin Truex Jr. with one lap to go to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, his fifth win in what has turned out to be a dominant start to the season. Harvick qualified on the pole and ran near the front all night, escaping the trouble caused by a couple of late-race cautions. He was fifth after a restart with 10 laps to go, but rode four fresh tires to second place, then swung past Truex at the start-finish line to take the lead. Harvick held on the rest of the way to win for the third time at Kansas.
Lewis Hamilton ended Sebastian Vettel’s dominant run in Formula One qualifying by setting a track record and winning the pole position for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton had a lap of one minute, 16.173 seconds, only four-hundredths of a second ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. Vettel will start third, followed by Kimi Raikkonen.