LDN - Sports

Stewart earns first NASCAR win in 3 years

[June 27, 2016] ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- Will Power wasn't going to be denied in IndyCar's return to the popular Road America circuit.

With Tony Kanaan dogging him on the final couple laps, Power held on to win his second series race in a row, giving him 27 for his career, tying Johnny Rutherford for 13th place on the sport's all-time list.

Power missed the first race of this season due to an inner ear illness, and that left him behind the competition in terms of points. But Power is hot now, and he's drawn within 81 points of Team Penske teammate Simon Pageanud with seven races left.

Power thinks he can win his second title since 2014.

"Absolutely we can," he said. "We're still in it."

Graham Rahal finished third with Ryan Hunter-Reay fourth and Helio Castroneves fifth. Castroneves moved to second in the standings, 74 points behind Pagenaud.

The next race is July 10 at Iowa Speedway, and the season's final race, Sept. 18 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, is worth double the usual number of points.

"There's plenty of points still available, especially with a 100-point swing possible at the final race," Power said. "I'm finally feeling like my old self again, doing what I do. Qualified well, raced well, did the job."

Power and Pagenaud were 1-2 approaching the six-lap final shootout, but Pagenaud faded to 13th. He has finished 19th, 13th, second and 13th in the past four races, not counting the rain-delayed race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Power won from the pole, helped by the fact he had more engine-boosting pushes than Kanaan. His margin of victory was 0.7429 seconds.

"I don't think (Power) was much stronger, but obviously the advantage of being in the lead you have clean air in that first three laps, that's where he got the gap," Kanaan said. "And we we're trying to sort ourselves out (back in the pack)."

The final shootout came as a result of rookie Conor Daly's crash with 11 laps left. Daly had a head of steam approaching Turn 1 only to have left rear wheel failure, sending the car spinning. Daly hit the tire barrier hard, lifting the rear of the car off the ground, but he was not injured.

Scott Dixon's championship hopes took a hit when his equipment failed in Turn 5 off the seventh lap. The series' season winner last year had qualified second and felt he had a car to win with this race with, but obviously that went by the wayside as he had to pull off course before the first pit stop.

[to top of second column]

Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards (19) leads the pack during the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Dixon couldn't immediately pinpoint the problem, but the engine lost power and then the rear brakes failed.

The hit to his season point total?

"It's going to be pretty bad," he said, "but that's another thing."

"It's a real bummer; the car was so fast."

Josef Newgarden handled a surgically repaired right shoulder and a fractured right hand suffered two weeks ago in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway to finish eighth.

"I think if I didn't mess it up yesterday we would have had a really good race," said Newgarden, who dropped from fourth to fifth in IndyCar's standings. "We did still have a good race, I just think we had a (top-three) car if I could have qualified the thing properly."

IndyCar last raced at the picturesque Road America track in 2007, a race won by Sebastien Bourdais. The Frenchman had finished in the top three of each of his four races here, but couldn't keep that streak going after contact from Charlie Kimball broke his rear bumper unit.

The lengthy pit stop cost him a lap to the leader that he couldn't make up. He finished 18th.

Back to top