IndyCar

Power holds off Grosjean for Indy road course victory

by Jack Benyon
6 min read

Will Power scored his first and Team Penske’s second IndyCar race win of the year on the Indianapolis road course, holding off a charging Romain Grosjean who just fell short in the closing stages.

Polesitter Pato O’Ward went long in the first stint but bailed out as he didn’t appear to have the pace on the soft tyres he started on.

He was subsequently jumped by Power in the first round of stops and continued to fall back in the following pitstops.

Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Indianapolis IndyCar 2021

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta – last week’s standout until he crashed in Nashville – and May Indianapolis road course polesitter Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing also jumped O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP car in the second stops but Power looked unassailable with a lead over nine seconds.

However, he became livid as he accused backmarker James Hinchcliffe, last in the race, of holding him up on track and backing him up into team-mate Herta.

The lead gap fell from over nine seconds to just over four before the final pitstops, where Power made a mistake and stalled briefly exiting his pitstall – coming out behind Hinchcliffe again!

The race changed when points leader Alex Palou – who had worked his way past O’Ward and looked a podium threat – stopped with what appeared to be an engine problem, erasing the championship lead he was set to increase to 50. He has already twice taken grid penalties for unapproved engine changes this year.

On the restart and with Hinchcliffe out of the way, Power escaped, but behind him Grosjean dived past Herta for second even though he had no push to pass left.

A clash between Scott McLaughlin and Rinus VeeKay caused a yellow that erased the gap again with the race resuming with five laps to go giving Grosjean and Herta another chance at Power.

However, Power, who thanked his crew and said he had “not been putting it together” until now, coped with just about everything in a turbulent race and finally delivered a 2021 win.

He’s the ninth different winner of the year and it’s his fifth win on the IMS road course.

Grosjean held on for a brilliant result ahead of his oval debut next week at Gateway, while Herta got the rebound he needed from his Nashville crash with a return to the podium.

Alexander Rossi jumped O’Ward in the last round of stops and despite an aggressive fight with the Arrow McLaren SP driver, Rossi took fourth ahead of the polesitter.

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Behind, diverging strategies from as early as lap 10 of 85 mixed up the field, but it was the gambler Jack Harvey for Meyer Shank Racing who scored another top 10 at what is his best track, finishing sixth ahead of 16th-place starter Graham Rahal.

Josef Newgarden came from 20th to take eighth in an epic recovery drive for Team Penske in which he was twice bumped off the track but went long on his stints to vault many of his rivals.

He made contact with Takuma Sato with three laps to go at Turn 1 and may be assessed for a penalty because of it.

Nashville winner Marcus Ericsson took ninth as the best Ganassi driver having started in 11th, with Sato bounced down to 10th after that late incident with Newgarden in which Ericsson also snuck past.

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Outside the top 10, star rookie Christian Lundgaard turned a fourth-place start into 12th with a strategy of going long early which didn’t work, and he really struggled on the harder black tyres during that stint.

Nevertheless it was a strong debut where his best lap time was competitive.

Six time champion Scott Dixon had been 13th in the closing stages but fell back to 17th, after a hard fought race bouncing back from a qualifying spin and on a day he could have made some points back on Palou ahead of him.

Palou’s points lead fell by 21 points because of his retirement, with O’Ward now 21 points behind as he jumped Dixon during this race. Dixon is now 34 off Palou, with five races remaining.

Jimmie Johnson had his best performance of the year at the track he has driven most in an IndyCar, scoring 19th.

In a race where nothing went his way, May race winner VeeKay finished 24th.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 56 1h49m38.081s 1m11.691s 3 53
2 Romain Grosjean Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +1.114s 1m12.589s 3 40
3 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 2 +2.349s 1m12.432s 3 36
4 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +3.438s 1m12.446s 3 32
5 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 16 +4.105s 1m12.62s 3 28
6 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +5.323s 1m12.398s 3 26
7 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +5.855s 1m12.461s 3 25
8 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 2 +6.249s 1m12.702s 3 22
9 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +7.008s 1m12.451s 3 20
10 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +7.945s 1m12.577s 3 19
11 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +9.359s 1m12.367s 3 19
12 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 2 +9.838s 1m12.869s 3 17
13 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +10.623s 1m12.679s 3 16
14 Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +12.12s 1m12.671s 3 15
15 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +12.578s 1m12.788s 3 15
16 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 7 +16.417s 1m12.724s 3 13
17 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +17.192s 1m12.621s 3 12
18 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +17.327s 1m12.555s 3 11
19 Jimmie Johnson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +18.158s 1m12.7s 3 10
20 Max Chilton Carlin Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +18.749s 1m13.044s 3 9
21 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +19.545s 1m12.86s 3 8
22 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +20.845s 1m13.109s 3 7
23 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +21.011s 1m12.769s 3 6
24 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +22.494s 1m12.464s 3 5
25 Cody Ware Daley Coyne Racing with RWR Dallara DW12-Honda 83 0 +2 laps 1m13.888s 4 5
26 Dalton Kellett A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 81 0 +4 laps 1m14.44s 4 5
Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 67 0 DNF 1m12.107s 3 5
RC Enerson Top Gun Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 12 0 DNF 1m14.676s 3 5
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