Will Power rediscovered his dominant form at the rare road course he had yet to conquer, winning Saturday’s opener of an NTT IndyCar Series race weekend doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
It was the first victory in 12 starts at Mid-Ohio for Power, whose No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet led nearly every lap after starting on pole at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile track in Lexington, Ohio. The Team Penske driver won by 7.4 seconds ahead of teammate Josef Newgarden.
“We’ve had a pretty trying year, obviously everyone has, circumstances very tough with COVID, but the fact we’re out here racing and have some fans is fantastic,” Power told NBCSN reporter Kelli Stavast after his 48th career victory. “That’s what we love to do. Love to entertain. We love to drive.
“That’s probably the first race in 10 years that I’ve just gone hard. I just said, ‘Screw this, let’s just go hard and use my raw pace and see what happens.’ We won the race, it was a great strategy. … It’s great to tick off Mid-Ohio.”
Alexander Rossi was third, followed by Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had been fastest in practice Saturday morning, as the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio ran caution-free for the third consecutive seeason.
It’s the series-leading 29th career victory on a road course for Power, who ended a yearlong winless drought by taking his first checkered flag since Sept. 1, 2019 at Portland International Raceway. Earlier Saturday, he had scored his 60th career pole position, seven short of the record held by Mario Andretti.
“Unbelievable job,” Newgarden said of Power. “He’s still Will Power. He’s been knocked down a few times this year, but he drove really well. That was a clinic he put on.”
Felix Rosenqvist, Jack Harvey, rookie Rinus VeeKay (who made an impressive pass late in the race), Colton Herta and points leader Scott Dixon rounded out the top 10 in Saturday’s 75-lap race.
Dixon made a last-lap pass to make the top 10, capping an eventful day that included qualifying a disappointing 17th. After gaining a flurry of positions in the opening laps, Dixon rear-ended Herta (who was exiting the pits) on Lap 27.
He avoided any damage to his No. 9 Dallara-Honda and soldiered onto an 11th-place finish. The five-time series champion’s lead over Newgarden shrunk but still remains comfortably more than 70 points with four races remaining in the season — the next being Sunday at Mid-Ohio.
The green flag will be at 1 p.m. ET on NBC. Qualifying will be at 10:15 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold.
