Power ends 5-year IndyCar oval drought at Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — It was Will Power‘s turn Sunday for Team Penske success at Iowa Speedway.

Power broke through at the 0.875-mile oval, gaining his first IndyCar Series win at Iowa in the race that ended with a four-car, last-lap crash.

Power had already crossed the finish line when Sting Ray Robb’s car flipped after clipping the car of Alexander Rossi coming out of the second turn. The car slid on its top down the backstretch while Rossi’s car collided with the cars of Kyle Kirkwood and Ed Carpenter, with Carpenter’s car ending up on top of Kirkwood’s.

Robb flashed a thumbs-up sign as he was taken on a stretcher to an ambulance. He was then flown to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines for further evaluation, although IndyCar Series officials said he was in good condition.

Power held off second-place driver Alex Palou by 0.3915 seconds. Scott McLaughlin, who won Saturday’s race in the doubleheader, finished third.

Power, who led 50 laps of the 250-lap race, has always been fast at the 0.875-mile oval — he has won seven poles here in his career — but had only five podium finishes in 18 starts. He finished 18th in Saturday’s race after starting fourth.

“Stoked to tick that box,” Power said. “I’ve won a lot of races at a lot of tracks. When you tick a box at a track you haven’t won on, it feels pretty good.”

But this was a weekend when Penske drivers reached milestones at a track where the team has had so much success. McLaughlin picked up his first career oval win on Saturday, and then Power got his victory on a track that underwent partial repaving in the spring that limited the amount of passing room.

“It’s funny, because I’ve been trying to win this for so long,” Power said. “I think I finished second a few times before the repave, trying really hard to win. I didn’t really think I’d win today. You know how life goes, it just happens like that.”

It was Power’s 43rd career IndyCar win, his first on an oval since winning at Pocono in 2019.

It was the ninth Penske win in IndyCar races at the track and the third victory for the team at the track this season — Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series race in June.

Power, who started 22nd on Sunday, was able to move to second place on the first round of pit stops, then took the lead on lap 209 after his second pit stop three laps earlier that was almost nine-tenths of a second faster than Palou’s.

“My plan from the beginning was to sit back and save a lot of fuel, just get the best possible number [of laps] using the speed, lifting,” Power said. “I felt like we had a better car than Alex. … Amazing stops as usual by my guys. They’re the best in pit lane. Don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at the times every time. I’m lucky with that.”

The concerns all weekend that the partial repaving in the turns that had occurred in May would turn the oval into a one-groove track continued Sunday. There was little change among the top 10 drivers until the first round of pit stops that began on lap 94, and that was when Palou was able to get the lead.

Palou stayed out until lap 100, and as he was coming down pit road, Agustin Canapino spun coming out of the pits, bringing out a yellow flag and giving Palou an advantage over the cars that had pitted. Power did not pit until after the caution came out, and he came out of the pit sequence in second place behind Palou.

Palou, who led 103 laps, said the lack of passing made the race “boring.”

“It’s the most boring thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “It was yesterday, as well. Yeah, it’s a shame that we couldn’t really put a better show. I think everybody will agree that it was a very boring race to drive.”

Palou left the doubleheader still in the lead in the series standings with 379 points. Power is second with 344, and Pato O’Ward is third with 327.

“Yeah, this bloke next to me doesn’t make many mistakes,” said McLaughlin, who closed to within 64 points of Palou after the weekend and is in fifth place in the standings. “When he does, you have to capitalize.”