Indianapolis, Ind. – Will Power drove a picture perfect race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to win the second Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Starting from the pole, the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion led 65 laps in winning for the first time at the famed track and for the 25th time in his IndyCar career.
The 82-lap race took place on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
The winner drove the Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, giving the powerhouse team its 177th win and its 16th at Indianapolis.
His margin of victory was 1.5023 seconds over runner-up Graham Rahal, who now has two consecutive second places.
Said Power, “On that last stint when Tim (Cindric) told me the number I had to hit, it was hard. I was trying to save in the spots where we wouldn’t lose time to Rahal and push like hell in the other areas. That’s the most physical race I think I’ve ever done. It never stopped. I was so determined to win that I didn’t want anything to go wrong. I didn’t want to get caught out by a yellow and wanted a clean race, and that’s exactly what we got. I’m really happy for the guys on the Verizon car. It’s pretty special to win here.”
Discussing his four-part goals for Indianapolis, he added, “I’m halfway there. I’m going for all four! I’m very determined. Now I’ve won a championship. The Indy 500 is the absolutely on my mind, and that’s the one race I want to win.”
Said team owner Roger Penske, “Will Power had one of his best days ever, and this bodes well for us as we move toward Memorial Day. Our overall performance is a credit to the whole team. We have nine poles in a row and now we have to get one next weekend. It is a credit to reliability and our Chevy engines were strong all day.
While Power dominated the race, he had to share the star-billing with Rahal, who forged from 17th, to give Honda a dividend as the manufacturer has had its struggles.
Sporting a huge smile, Rahal said, “It was a good one today as a lot of things went right. At the start, I went from 17th to sixth and from there, we just caught everyone in the pits. My guys did a phenomenal job. On the first stop, we went from sixth to second. Our Honda had really good fuel economy today. When the Chevys were pitting, they were telling me I could go eight more laps but we couldn’t afford to stay out, so I pitted. All day long we played the game, but it was hard. The Chevy of Power was fast on the straight. We were able to hang even, but I couldn’t catch him. All in all it was a good day for me and for Honda.”
Juan Pablo Montoya staved off hard-charging Sebastien Bourdais to gain third place, giving Team Penske two places on the podium.
“It got pretty close at the end,” the Colombian said. “At the start, I missed the tangle, but it made it tough as I lost three places. On our first start, we had a problem but I made up and caught two of them. I wanted to catch Rahal but we were running the same pace. My fuel number got low, so I started backing down just to make sure we would make it. We pretty much ran out of fuel on the last lap, and it really hurt us. Our Verizon Chevy was really good, and we have another good result for Team Penske.”
Bourdais ended up fourth with Charlie Kimball coming from 14thto fifth.
Six through 10 finishers were Helio Castroneves, who made his 300th start; Tony Kanaan; Stefano Coletti; Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon.
Dixon and Castroneves triggered the only caution flag, coming in the first turn, when they made contact, catching five others in the melee. After making pit stops for repairs, everyone kept going but they had lost considerable time and positions to the front-runners.
Said Castroneves, “I was just trying to make sure I didn’t hit anyone. I just wanted to put the No. 3 Verizon Chevy in a good position, but unfortunately I clipped (Scott) Dixon in the right rear when he turned into the corner. With him spinning out, it put me into the grass and we lost many spots. From there it was a great comeback for the team.”