Power beats Rahal in 1st of 2 Detroit races
Will Power gave Roger Penske and Chevrolet what they desperately wanted by winning the first of two races at the Detroit Grand Prix yesterday.
Power finished 0.3308 seconds ahead of New Albany’s Graham Rahal on the bumpy, 13-turn, 2.36-mile street circuit on Belle Isle.
The second race of the doubleheader is today.
Power, who started a season-worst 16th, took the lead to stay with just more than 10 laps to go when he passed Ryan Briscoe. The Australian held off Rahal to join Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay as the only IndyCar drivers with two victories through six races.
Power, who won the season-opening race, has 23 career victories to break a tie with Emerson Fittipaldi and Tony Bettenhausen for 19th.
His latest victory had to be especially sweet for Penske and Chevy.
Penske had not won an open-wheel race in the area he calls home since Helio Castroneves finished first in 2001. Chevy, which sponsors the race, was relegated to watching Honda dominate the previous three races in the shadow of General Motors’ world headquarters.
Before the race yesterday, Honda executives talked about how they could walk around rival Chevy officials with their chests puffed out. After the 70-lap race, they had to settle for Rahal’s second-place finish.
Tony Kanaan was third, followed by Justin Wilson and pole-sitter Castroneves.
Hunter-Reay, meanwhile, could not follow up the biggest victory of his career, finishing 16th. He was running on the last lap, but did not make it to the finish line because he spun into a tire wall to end the race.
Kyle Busch 2 for 2 at Dover with victory
Kyle Busch raced to his second victory of the weekend at Dover, Del., winning the Nationwide Series race to set himself up for a tripleheader sweep.
Busch followed his dominant victory on Friday night in the Truck Series with a stellar run on the Nationwide circuit. He led 124 of 200 laps for his 66th career victory in NASCAR’s second-tier series. He has 134 victories spread over NASCAR’s three major series.
Busch had a three-race sweep in 2010 at Bristol. He will start second behind pole-winner Brad Keselowski today in the Sprint Cup race.
Race lineup
Trevor Bayne was second, followed by Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth and Chase Elliott.
Pedregon takes top spot in Funny Car
Cruz Pedregon topped Funny Car qualifying in the NHRA Summernationals, with his Friday run holding up in Englishtown, N.J. Doug Kalitta took the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel, Allen Johnson led in Pro Stock and Eddie Krawiec led in Pro Stock Motorcycle.