No Magic for Power in Round 11 of 17 at Mid-Ohio
Scott Dixon preparing for warm-up session on race day. Dixon went on to win the Honda 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Image Credit: Dan Helrigel via IZOD IndyCar Series
No Magic For Power In Round 11 Of 17 At Mid-Ohio
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Round 11 of 17 delivered a fatal blow to Will Power's chances at getting his first IndyCar Series (ICS) season championship. The Verizon Penske Racing Dallara driver, who was on track to get the ICS championship last year up until the final race of the season when Dario Franchitti was able to eclipse Power's season points total, was looking to climb back into the challenge at 38 points behind and a perfect track for his talents, was caught out twice in pit stop strategy by full course cautions.
"We were making great fuel mileage and we were going to go a lap or two longer than the leaders on the second stop, which would have put us in great position to challenge for the race lead in the last stint," said Power of the Lap 58 incident involving contact between the cars of Graham Rahal and Danica Patrick. "Basically, today we suffered for doing a great job of driving a smart race. We just got caught out by that last yellow flag.”
Will Power as he is being followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Image Credit: Chris Jones via IZOD IndyCar Series
This dropped Power to P16 and allowed Target Chip Ganassi team-mates to duke it out for the win with Scott Dixon passing Dario Franchitti on a restart to eventually take the win. It may have been doubtful if Will Power had anything for the Scott Dixon Dallara because of how well the driver and car had been hooked up all weekend long (fastest Lap - 1:09.1271 / 76), but to finish so far down in the order with a competitive car (set 2nd fastest lap late in the race - 1:09.2376 / 85), placed a stake through the heart (a loss of 24 points against Franchitti - at 62 points behind) of Will Power's chances for a ICS season championship. In fact, with the points Scott Dixon gained with his win (he is now just 29 points behind Power with six races left), Will Power may not even become a repeat "bridesmaid" (runner-up) at season's end in 2011.
The Penske Racing fleet of Dallara cars had a terrible outing at Mid-Ohio. After qualifying Ryan Briscoe at P2, Will Power at P4, and Helio Castroneves at P15, the three drivers end up with Power at P14, Briscoe at P16 and Castroneves at P19.
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