Will Power gets elusive first IndyCar Series win at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Will Power broke through at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, winning the second IndyCar Series race of the weekend for his first victory at the track.

Power held off second-place driver Alex Palou by 0.3915 seconds. Scott McLaughlin, who won Saturday’s race, finished third.

Power, who led 50 laps of the 250-lap race, has always been fast at the 0.875-mile oval — he has won seven poles here in his career — but had only five podium finishes in 18 starts. He finished 18th in Saturday’s race after starting fourth.

It was Power’s 43rd career IndyCar win, his first on an oval since winning at Pocono in 2019.

The win completed a Team Penske sweep of the twin billing, after Scott McLaughlin won Saturday’s race. It was the ninth Penske win in IndyCar races at the track and the third victory for the team at the track this season — Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series race in June.

Power, who started 22nd on Sunday, was able to move to second place on the first round of pit stops, then took the lead after his second pit stop on lap 206 that was almost nine-tenths of a second faster than Palou’s.

The concerns all weekend that the partial repaving in the turns that had occurred in May would turn the oval into a one-groove track continued Sunday. There was little change among the top 10 drivers until the first round of pit stops that began on lap 94, and that was when Palou was able to get the lead.

Palou stayed out until lap 100, and as he was coming down pit road, Agustin Canapino spun coming out of the pits, bringing out a yellow flag and giving Palou an advantage over the cars that had pitted. Power did not pit until after the caution came out, and he came out of the pit sequence in second place behind Palou.

A four-car crash occurred on the final lap as Power was taking the checkered flag. Sting Ray Robb’s car flipped twice on the backstretch after clipping the car of Alexander Rossi. Kyle Kirkwood and Ed Carpenter also were collected in the crash. Robb was taken to the infield care center on a stretcher, but gave a thumbs-up sign as he was taken to an ambulance.