On Sunday afternoon, Will Power would lead 229 of 250 laps en route to winning the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at the Milwaukee Mile as he continues his quest towards his first Verizon IndyCar Series Championship. It marks the 22nd victory of Power’s IndyCar career and his third victory of the season, but most notably his first short oval IndyCar victory. For Power, the accomplish means a lot considering he struggled on ovals at the beginning of his career.
“Its something that I’ve worked on over the last few years,” he commented. “I really enjoy racing on ovals now – I really do – and I’ve wanted to win on a short oval. It was a great day. The whole day we were able to run really good. Just really happy to be part of this team.”
The victory allows Power to stretch his points lead to 39 points ahead of Helio Castroneves.
“It’s perfect to start this three-race chase and we’ve got two other tracks that I’m strong on and enjoy so its about keeping my head down,” Power said. “I just kept my head down today and worked at getting the car right.”
Juan Pablo Montoya tried to mount a challenge against his teammate in the closing laps, however fell short in being able to close the gap as the pair weaved their way through lap traffic.
“It’s just hard. These cars are so aero-sensitive so you’re kind of stuck with it,” Montoya commented. “We struggled with the stability early in the race, but we worked on it and it turned out well. I’m slightly disappointed, but it’s good for the team in finishing 1-2.”
Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon would finish third and fourth.
“I was able to keep up, but thee towards the end, he was really strong,” Kanaan. “So on that restart that I got by Andretti and Newgarden and got behind him with newer tires, I knew if something didn’t go wrong that he would’ve won.”
“The middle part we split up one of the splints and I think that’s where we made up five or six spots,” Dixon commented. “It was just a track position race and it was my fault and team’s fault in having too much understeer in qualifying in finishing 11th as we had a good car.”
Josef Newgarden would round out the top five after running inside the top three till he had to pit for fuel and tires with 13 laps to go.
“I think I’ll take away that the top five is not too shabby,” Newgarden said. “I’m still happy that we were able to salvage a fifth place. We worked hard for this result and just looking forward to having good results as the year ends. It was a tough day. It was hard and so difficult to follow close especially once the tires went off. It was tough to get by people. We tried a strategy to get up there and unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned – but we got a good solid top-five finish.”
Ryan Briscoe finished sixth, followed by Simon Pagenaud, Mikhail Aleshin, Ed Carpenter and Jack Hawksworth. Helio Castroneves would finish 11th after struggling with the handling of his car throughout the day.
“The car was consistent, but unfortunately in three and four I had a lot of problems,” Castroneves commented. “If I finished without a crash, I was having a good day. Every time I went into the corner, it started sliding and I started saying ‘Woah’ but was able to keep it going. Still a lot of racing to go, 100 points out there so we’ll buckle down and keep working hard.”
Fellow Championship contender Ryan Hunter-Reay had a worst day, finishing 21st after the left rear suspension broke at lap 169.
“I could feel it running rough a couple laps before then,” Hunter-Reay said. “It wasn’t a clean berak. It was something with the left rear as it would splot. Its unfortunate, but what are you going to do? It wasn’t what I wanted, but that’s probably our championship hopes going up in smoke right now.”
Fellow Andretti Autosport driver Carlos Munoz finished 22nd after getting into the wall at lap 131.
“Having tough laps there, holding on there,” Munoz commented. “I just lost the entry and went into the marbles and as soon as you get in the marbles, you’re in trouble as I get into the weekend. Just a rough day as we weren’t fast all weekend. Just move on to Sonoma next weekend and take what we learned.”
The Verizon IndyCar Series is back in action next weekend on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway for the second last race of the season.
