INDIANAPOLIS – When it comes to victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nobody has won more races than team owner Roger Penske. His cars and drivers have won the Indianapolis 500 a record 15 times. Brad Keselowski gave Penske a 16th victory in 2012 by winning the inaugural Indiana 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Penske celebrated victory No. 17 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Saturday’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis as Will Power drove a flawless race, leading 65 laps in the 82-lap contest on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
It may not be the Indianapolis 500 but to Penske any win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a big deal.
“It’s my 17th win at Indy so that’s a great day for the team and Will well deserved it by running the whole race, top to bottom, without a problem,” Penske said. “It was a great day. It sets us up for the rest of the month.”
Team Penske president Tim Cindric calls the race strategy for Power and was impressed by the efforts of the defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion.
“It was a flawless race,” Cindric said. “He was pretty much a machine the whole time. He had good pit stops and everything was good. I think this is the best facility we race on because of the condition of the track so it is certainly special to win here.”
Cindric was more concerned with lapped traffic at the end of the race than the hard-charging Honda that Graham Rahal raced from 17th starting position to a second-place finish.
“If we hit lapped traffic and Sebastian Saavedra doesn’t get out of the way the best ally we had was he was quick enough to stay up front and not pack everything up,” Cindric said. “We had conserved push-to-pass and were in good shape that way –we just had to make sure we had the fuel to use them.”
Power checked off the pole for the GP of Indy on Friday and followed that with a decisive victory in the race. The next two goals are the Indianapolis 500 pole and victory in the 99th Indy 500 on May 24.
“This is a great start to the month,” Cindric said. “Roger Penske was able to win the first Nationwide race they had here and now we have won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. We wanted to be the first winners on the road course here but we took second. Our eyes are now on winning the big show but you have to race this race first before going after the big show.”
Power and Rahal have the momentum heading into Indianapolis 500 practice on Monday and momentum is very important at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Will will be in a much better place the rest of the week, a good place for practice and a good place to put that car on the pole here next weekend,” Cindric said. “This is like any other race. It’s a big race for the championship and it has a lot of prestige, without a doubt.
“The trophy is a lot better here, too.”
And when it comes to collecting trophies, nobody had more in the history of IndyCar racing than Penske.
“I guess we’ve got eight poles in a row,” Penske said. “What we’ve got to do is get one coming up next weekend (at the Indy 500).
“Will Power had one of his best days, never missed a beat and was out front all day long. This bodes well for us as we move into Memorial Day Weekend.”
Of course, that means the 99th Indianapolis 500.