INDYCAR Is Up And Down For Power
Will Power saw (nearly) the best and worst in IndyCar racing with wildly different results in the road-course double-header at Road America.
After a solid second in the first of the back-to-back contests, when he was only beaten by championship leader Scott Dixon, nothing went right in the second race and he trailed home in 11th.
Power blames a pitstop error for his failure to finish first on Saturday, as he hit the pits under a caution.
“We just had a slow pit stop. I don’t think Dixon would have gotten by us if we came out of the pit ahead of him,” Power says.
“And then we had the wrong gears in the car, so it kind of hurt those restarts. Other than that, it was a good day. We moved up and got up to second.
“We’ll sit there as a team and will figure out how to execute a bit better. Especially frustrating when we just let wins like that go.”
But one error became many through contact and a penalty in the second race.
“Man, just a rough race for us today. I guess in the end, things could have been worse, and an 11-place finish is a small victory,” he says.
“We had to come in and change the front wing, then I made a mistake and ran off the track, and we had to make another stop for another wing change. Got a podium yesterday but just didn’t have it today.”
The tough weekend means Power is only seventh in the IndyCar standings, a sharp contrast to the highly-rated Aussies in the FIA Formula 3 championship in Europe.
Oscar Piastri continues to lead the series after finishing fourth and seventh in the double-header at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, although Alex Peroni dropped to eighth with a difficult weekend after a podium in the first round of the series.
Weather for the F3 races was wildly different with torrential rain drenching the first leg, which finished early with only half points awarded, and sunshine for the second contest, where the starting order inverts the Top 10 finishers.
“It was not much of a race; to be honest, we were just trying to stay on the track. The last three laps I was struggling to stay on a straight line,” Piastri says of his Saturday effort.
His speed on Sunday was compromised by a problem with his car’s Drag Reduction System, but he eventually clocked the fastest lap when it was resolved.
“The first few laps weren’t amazing and I lost a few spots, then I had some big problems with the DRS,” Piastri says.
“Towards the end it wasn’t too bad and I made up a few spots on track. The fastest lap on the last lap definitely helped out with the points.
“Not too bad overall, but we still have room for improvement and hopefully (next weekend) in Hungary we can keep the championship lead.”
