{"id":401531,"date":"2024-06-09T22:22:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T22:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=401531"},"modified":"2024-06-10T00:07:20","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T00:07:20","slug":"aussies-emotional-win-breaks-736-day-indycar-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=401531","title":{"rendered":"Aussie's emotional win breaks 736-day IndyCar duck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Power<\/a> has scored his first IndyCar Series<\/a> race win in 34 starts, strategising his way to victory at Road America.<\/p>\n

The Team Penske driver was the surprise packet of the 55-lap race, jumping into the lead with just over 10 laps to go when his team made the right call to pit late.<\/p>\n

The race, by and large, was dominated by his teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden who traded the lead throughout.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2024 IndyCar Series.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

However, pitting after McLaughlin and Newgarden to short-fill and execute an overcut netted the Toowoomba-born driver the victory.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

It marked win 42 in his career, tying him for fourth on the all-time winners list with Michael Andretti.<\/p>\n

"I felt good about today and I had a very fast car. I've got to thank all the guys. Great strategy," said Power post-race.<\/p>\n

"Massively special. We've worked so hard to try get wins and I worked really hard in the off-season."<\/p>\n

In 2023, Power went winless. It was the first time in 16 seasons that the Australian spent an entire year without standing on top of the podium.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old has been open about his wife's health problems, which were a distraction.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

"Obviously last season was very stressful and I had half a mind at home and half a mind at the track, so it's very difficult to perform at a high level there," said Power.<\/p>\n

"Just stoked. That was very, very well-deserved for the whole team. We worked so hard for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I just know how lucky I am. I'm lucky to drive for Penske and I'm lucky that my wife got through that last year and I've got a great family," he added.<\/p>\n

"I'm lucky, man. I'm lucky to do this. Anyone that complains when they've got a job like this needs a kick in the backside."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndyCar\/status\/1799924422326841637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The race was punctuated by a series of incidents early on.<\/p>\n

Pole position winner Linus Lundqvist had his hopes dashed when Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong hit him into a spin at turn one.<\/p>\n

Armstrong spun in sympathy while Andretti Global's Colton Herta got caught in the melee when he was centre-punched by Newgarden.<\/p>\n

That gifted Herta's teammate Kyle Kirkwood the lead ahead of McLaughlin and McLaren's Alexander Rossi.<\/p>\n

\"Linus<\/p>\n

Kirkwood lost the lead to McLaughlin on the lap four restart, which was short-lived after debris from Herta's car was spotted at turn one, which brought out another safety car.<\/p>\n

There was more drama on lap seven when Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyffin Simpson copped a whack from Christian Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

Simpson was sent into a high-speed spin at the final corner and slapped the concrete wall hard, damaging the suspension beyond repair.<\/p>\n

The first round of pit stops began on lap 16 with McLaughlin leading the way. He led a Team Penske one-two-three after the field was cleansed.<\/p>\n

\"IndyCar<\/p>\n

The second round of pit stops brought McLaughlin into the lane for soft compound tyres, a move which didn't pay dividends.<\/p>\n

By lap 36, Newgarden got past into the lead on the run to turn one and set about stretching his legs.<\/p>\n

The decisive sequence began on lap 42. Newgarden led McLaughlin by one and a half seconds. McLaughlin pitted in a bid to undercut the race leader.<\/p>\n

Newgarden responded and pitted a lap later, returning to the track well clear of McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Power's pit stop on lap 44 was the killer blow, however. He leap-frogged McLaughlin and Newgarden and shot into the lead.<\/p>\n

From there, he cruised away and took the chequered flag more than three seconds clear of Newgarden.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin was third ahead of quiet achiever Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing and a resurgent Herta.<\/p>\n

"We probably misstepped there at the end," said Newgardenn.<\/p>\n

"I feel bad that I came in (to the pits) a lap early. I probably should have stayed out.<\/p>\n

"You're going to get killed on the (pit stop) sequence. The undercut is not working on a day like today. That was the real miss, just coming early."<\/p>\n

Power has shot to the top of the points, five points clear of Palou and 11 clear of Scott Dixon.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The IndyCar Series takes a short break before returning on June 24 at Laguna Seca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Power has scored his first IndyCar Series race win in 34 starts, strategising his way to victory at Road America. The Team Penske driver […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":401533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=401531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401536,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401531\/revisions\/401536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/401533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=401531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=401531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=401531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}