POWER SCORES FIRST WIN OF 2020
Will Power scores first win of 2020 – Photo: LAT
Australian Will Power has scored his first win of the 2020 IndyCar Series, taking out the Mid-Ohio doubleheader opener.
By RHYS VANDERSYDE
The Team Penske driver dominated proceedings leading 66 of 75 laps after starting from pole position to claim the win, the 60th of his career and first in over a year.
“I’m so happy to have the Verizon 12 car in Victory Lane,” said Power after the race.
“This is probably the first race, I reckon, in about 10 years that I’ve just gone hard. Like every other race we’ve tried to save fuel and play a strategy game.”
“Today I said: ‘Let’s just go hard, man. Screw this. We don’t want to get caught by a yellow. Let’s just run hard and use my raw pace and see what happens.’ And we won the race.”
“It was a great strategy. It’s just putting down good laps, lap after lap after lap. Just a flawless day.”
“It’s what you have to do to win races in this series. The whole team did a fantastic job. To see Verizon in Victory Lane again is fantastic because it’s been awhile.”
Power took the chequered flag with a 7.45s margin over his teammate Josef Newgarden, while Alexander Rossi rounded out the podium.
Championship leader Scott Dixon was the surprise of the day. Having won at Mid-Ohio six times previously, the Ganassi driver finished in tenth, his second-worst result of the season.
“It’s was just OK for us today in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda.” said Dixon.
“It just didn’t play out the way we thought it would. We went with a cautious move and made sure we ran the red tires first based on what we saw in qualifying.”
“I guess looking back maybe we should have gone the other way, but who knows? Then we got caught up with (Colton) Herta on the pit exit, and I’m not sure what happened there or why he slowed up or whatever, but I thought we might have broken the front end after that.”
“I hit him pretty hard, but I guess at the end of the day we made up seven or so spots, and that’s a small win.”
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Race 1 Results
1. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 75, Running
2. (3) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 75, Running
3. (6) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 75, Running
4. (8) Graham Rahal, Honda, 75, Running
5. (2) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 75, Running
6. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 75, Running
7. (5) Jack Harvey, Honda, 75, Running
8. (9) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 75, Running
9. (13) Colton Herta, Honda, 75, Running
10. (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 75, Running
11. (15) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 75, Running
12. (20) Alex Palou, Honda, 75, Running
13. (4) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 75, Running
14. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Honda, 75, Running
15. (21) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 75, Running
16. (12) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 75, Running
17. (18) Takuma Sato, Honda, 75, Running
18. (10) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 75, Running
19. (16) Oliver Askew, Chevrolet, 75, Running
20. (19) Zach Veach, Honda, 74, Running
21. (22) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 74, Running
22. (23) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 74, Running
23. (11) Marco Andretti, Honda, 74, Running
The IndyCar series is back in action tomorrow with the second leg of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course doubleheader.
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