Will Power ends a two-year winless drought at Road America

Will Power ended a two-year winless drought on Sunday at Road America.
Will Power ended a two-year winless drought on Sunday at Road America.

The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the weekend at Road America in Plymouth, Wisconsin, on Sunday in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Linus Lundqvist started the race on the pole with Andretti Global driver Colton Herta starting second.

On the opening lap, the Chip Ganassi Racing teammates of Marcus Armstrong hit Linus Lundqvist from behind at Turn 1. At the same time, Colta Herta got hit from behind by Josef Newgarden while Kyle Kirkwood took the lead when the caution came out. Armstrong was issued a drive-through penalty.

The crash was one of three cautions in this race. The second caution came out on lap four for debris at Turn 1 and the final caution happened on lap six when Christian Rasmussen hit Kyffin Simpson at Turn 14 sending Simpson into the concrete wall and out of the race. Rasmussen was issued a stop-and-go penalty.

Kyle Kirkwood led the opening three laps before losing the lead to Scott McLaughlin on the fourth lap. After Scott McLaughlin made his first scheduled pit stop on lap 16, Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, Colton Herta, and Felix Rosenqvist all led laps before McLaughlin resumed the lead on lap 24. McLaughlin led up to lap 29 before making his second scheduled pit stop and did not lead any more laps in the race. McLaughlin led a total of 18 laps.

For the rest of the race, Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, Colton Herta, and Will Power all led laps. Will Power made two pit stops in the last 13 laps. After Colton Herta made his last pit stop on lap 48, Will Power took over the lead and led the last eight laps to end a two-year winless drought beating Josef Newgarden by 2.2609 seconds.

Will Power’s last win was at the Detroit Grand Prix in Belle Isle in 2022. In addition, Team Penske of Power, Newgarden, and Scott McLaughlin finished in the top three spots since Sonoma in 2017 (Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, Will Power). The rest of the top finishers were Alex Palou fourth and Kyle Kirkwood fifth.

The NTT IndyCar Series heads to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday, June 23, 2024, at 6 pm on USA Network. Subscribe to Fubo to watch all of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. Purchase tickets for all IndyCar races today on StubHub and Viagogo.

Finishing Order:

PositionDriverInterval
1.Will Power
2.Josef Newgarden3.2609
3.Scott McLaughlin8.0148
4.Alex Palou16.7118
5.Kyle Kirkwood24.8662
6.Colton Herta28.3782
7.Romain Grosjean29.2710
8.Pato O’Ward30.3109
9.Marcus Ericsson35.6260
10.Graham Rahal42.8394
11.Christian Lundgaard46.4444
12.Linus Lundqvist46.8107
13.Theo Pourchaire54.5282
14.Felix Rosenqvist59.2412
15.Santino Ferrucci1:03.733
16.Pietro Fittipaldi1:04.716
17.Sting Ray Robb1:08.438
18.Alexander Rossi1:15.042
19.Helio Castroneves1:15.691
20.Christian Rasmussen1:19.070
21.Scott Dixon1:24.475
22.Luca Ghiotto1:40.161
23.Nolan Siegel-1
24.Rinus VeeKay-2
25.Jack Harvey-4
26.Marcus Armstrong-20
27.Kyffin Simpson-50
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My name is Michael Heilman. I'm the Founder of BGMSportsTrax. An independent blog dedicated to covering regional and national sports, while presenting commentary on sports-related stories.