MADISON, Illinois – Will Power loves short tracks, but they don’t always return the sentiment. Until Saturday night, anyway.
Power scored the second short-oval victory of his Indy car career, winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at Gateway Motorsports Park over challengers Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon.
Power hasn’t won on an oval shorter than 1.5 miles since the Verizon IndyCar Series race at the Milwaukee Mile in 2014. This time, he chased down Dixon midway through the 248-lap race and went on to win by 1.3117 seconds.
When asked afterward if he felt a sense of satisfaction about a rare short-oval win, Power responded affirmatively.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “Short ovals have always been close for me, but I’ve let a couple of them get away. It’s always cool to win on a new track. It’s always cool to win on any oval because we don’t have that many of them.”
In the early stages of the race, Power chased Dixon for the lead. At one point trying to overtake Dixon, Power’s No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet slid up the track, allowing Rossi to steal second place. But after his second pit stop, Power took charge.
On Lap 146, he passed Rossi – who nearly lost control as he slid up the track – for second place. Four laps later, Power roared past Dixon for the lead. Power led 90 of the last 93 laps.
“I felt like we had a better car than Dixon from the beginning and Rossi,” Power said. “Just following them, I was able to save fuel and get very close to them. I could see they were struggling a little bit. I knew if I got either clean air or got by them, we’d be in pretty good shape.”
When it comes to superspeedway ovals, Power has come into his own. He began winning at larger ovals in earnest since 2011 – claiming victory at Texas Motor Speedway (2011 and ’17), Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California (2013), and Pocono Raceway (2016 and ’17). And, of course, he added to his victory resume the greatest superspeedway of them all, the Indianapolis 500, three months ago.
But on short ovals, Power hadn’t – until Saturday night – had as much success despite his admitted joy racing on them. At Iowa Speedway, he’s won the pole position four times but not the race. At ISM Raceway in Phoenix, he finished on the podium twice but didn’t win. At Milwaukee, he finally pulled off his first short-oval win in 2014.
Then there was last year’s race on Gateway’s 1.25-mile oval, where Power won the pole and crashed in the first turn on the sixth lap.
“I was really determined to at least get past Turn 1,” Power joked after winning Saturday night. “That would be a nice start.”
The victory also was his first with team owner Roger Penske as his strategist. Penske took over the calls for Power this season, but rejoined Helio Castroneves when the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner returned to Team Penske’s INDYCAR operation in May at Indianapolis for the INDYCAR Grand Prix and 102nd Indy 500. Power won both the races in what were his only 2018 victories until Saturday.
“I was so happy to win my first race with Roger,” Power said. “I was wondering when that was going to come. I didn’t get to work with him at Indy, and we won two races there.
“When he told me I could go wide open and not save fuel (Saturday at Gateway), that was a great call and a lot of fun. We were able to chop through the field. I’ve never passed so many cars in such a short period of time.”
What he enjoys, then, is finally coming around to pay him back. A noted road-course racer when he started in Indy cars, five of Power’s last seven wins have now come on ovals.
“Superspeedways is where it’s been at for me,” Power said. “I’ve been strong on the superspeedways the past few years, but I really have fun on short ovals, especially with this package.”
Saturday’s win was also career victory No. 35 for Power, linking him with a pair of Unsers. He broke a tie with Al Unser Jr. at 34 and moved into a tie with Bobby Unser for seventh place on the all-time Indy car list.
Power also slipped ahead of teammate Josef Newgarden into third in the 2018 point standings, 68 behind Dixon and 42 in back of Rossi, with two races remaining. The Grand Prix of Portland airs live at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 2 on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. The season finale, the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Sonoma, kicks off coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 16 on the same networks.