Will Power Leads a Penske Perfect IndyCar Sweep in XPEL Grand Prix at Road America

For the first time in a long time, Will Power was the life of the Team Penske party.

Power, who hadn't won an NTT IndyCar Series race since Belle Isle in Detroit back in 2022, took care of business on the picture-postcard Road America track and won the XPEL Grand Prix to lead a Penske Podium sweep on Sunday.

The win was career win No. 42 and moved Power into a tie with Michael Andretti for fourth on the all-time IndyCar wins list.

Penske teammates Josef Newgarden finished second, 3.2609 seconds back, and Scott McLaughlin completed the podium, 8.0148 seconds behind the winner.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure when it was going to happen," said Power who had at least one win in 16 consecutive seasons before going winless last season. "I've been digging all year. Sometimes it just works out.

"Long Beach I was leading by seven seconds. If a yellow doesn't fall there, I think we were going to have a pretty good day. A reasonable chance at Barber.

"Yeah, very good strategy (today). Very fast cars. A lot of fun. Like, once all the yellows stopped, it was a very fast-paced race."

Power took the lead for good with six laps remaining following the last cycle of pitstops. The three Penske drivers combined to lead 37 of the 55 laps. McLaughlin dominated the race early and led 18 laps. Newgarden led 10 laps and Power nine.

"It was a great day," Newgarden said. "Great team day. I think we're all going to be really pleased with the 1-2-3, especially with the 2 car and the disaster yesterday. It was a real team effort to put a new car together. Everybody pitched in, the 12 (Power), the 2 (Newgarden) and the 3 (McLaughlin)."

Newgarden was unhurt, but he pretty destroyed his car crashing into a SAFER barrier on his final lap of qualifying on Saturday.

"Really rewarding I think for the entire crew when you have to go through something like that, put it all together, we finish 1-2-3, it's as good as it can get," Newgarden said. "At the same time we sort of gave that one away. I mean, I will say this, too. I felt like we gave it away, but all three of our cars were pretty stellar pace-wise. Whether it was the 3, the 12 or me, I think we all had similar pace."

Power said that hopefully everyone can now put behind them the early season penalty and disqualifications hit that the team took at St. Petersburg. Penske's cars were flagged for excessive use of the push-to-pass feature that resulted in disqualifications for Newgarden and McLaughin. Power's team was fined.

Since the penalty decision came down, Newgarden has won the Indianapolis 500 and now there's the 1-2-3 sweep in Wisconsin.

Team Penske blamed the St. Pete incident on failure to remove software from its car following a test session ahead of the race.

"The whole push to pass thing was just an unfortunate incident," said Power. "There was nothing malicious in it. There was no intent. No one intended to do that. Just habitually I think people press that at times. I think the whole field would have pressed that button at some point subconsciously in a restart. It just looked bad for us.

"Yeah, to come back like that at Indy, then 1-2-3 today. Really, I feel like we're performing at our highest level right now. That includes Chevy. Chevy's done a great job with the engine. I think we struggled a little bit last year compared to Honda. They went away, did their homework. So did we. Together we have a very strong combination.

"Yeah, like Roger said, I feel bad for Roger, that whole thing that happened. Just one of those things. If you're a team like Penske, people like to pound you if something like that happens. Ha, ha, we knew that's how you guys are fast."

The win propelled Power into the NTT IndyCar points lead. His 51 points on Sunday give him 236. Alex Palou, who finished fourth on Sunday is now second in the standings with 231 points.

Previous points leader Scott Dixon struggled mightily all day and finished 21st, and that dropped him to third place in the championship with 225 points.

Results

XPEL Grand Prix of Road America

at Elkhart Lake, Wisc.

(starting position in parenthesis)

1. (5) Will Power, Chevrolet, 55, Running
2. (6) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 55, Running
3. (8) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 55, Running
4. (7) Alex Palou, Honda, 55, Running
5. (4) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 55, Running
6. (2) Colton Herta, Honda, 55, Running
7. (14) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 55, Running
8. (11) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 55, Running
9. (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 55, Running
10. (24) Graham Rahal, Honda, 55, Running
11. (13) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 55, Running
12. (1) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 55, Running
13. (18) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 55, Running
14. (22) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 55, Running
15. (19) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 55, Running
16. (25) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 55, Running
17. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 55, Running
18. (9) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 55, Running
19. (27) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 55, Running
20. (16) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 55, Running
21. (10) Scott Dixon, Honda, 55, Running
22. (23) Luca Ghiotto, Honda, 55, Running
23. (21) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 54, Running
24. (17) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 53, Running
25. (20) Jack Harvey, Honda, 51, Running
26. (3) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 35, Mechanical
27. (12) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 5, Contact

Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 126.154 mph
Time of race: 1:45:00.0267
Margin of victory: 3.2609 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 6 laps
Lead changes: 13 among 7 drivers
Lap leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 - 3
McLaughlin, Scott 4 - 15
Newgarden, Josef 16
Palou, Alex 17 - 18
Herta, Colton 19 - 20
Rosenqvist, Felix 21 - 23
McLaughlin, Scott 24 - 29
Newgarden, Josef 30 - 31
Palou, Alex 32
Herta, Colton 33 - 35
Newgarden, Josef 36 - 42
Power, Will 43 - 44
Herta, Colton 45 - 48
Power, Will 49 - 55

NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings: Power 236, Palou 231, Dixon 225, O'Ward 184, McLaughlin 179, Kirkwood 179, Herta 176, Newgarden 169, Rossi 162, Rosenqvist 157, Lundgaard 141, Ferrucci 132, Ericsson 130, Armstrong 121, Rahal 121, Grosjean 112, VeeKay 109, Lundqvist 100, Simpson 81, Fittipaldi 81, Pourchaire 75, Canapino 74, Robb 68, Rasmussen 65, Harvey 65, Blomqvist 46, Ilott 39, Castroneves 26, Ghiotto 22, Daly 21, Larson 21, Sato 19, Siegel 17, Carpenter 14, Vautier 12, Braun 10, Hunter-Reay 6, Andretti 5, Legge 5