Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar
After showing a ton of speed and qualifying well for the first Chevrolet Duel in Detroit Presented by Quickens Loans, the Team Penske teammates of Will Power and Helio Castroenves were both hoping for podium finishes. Instead, they were get out-played by strategy in the first race of the weekend, and then crashed out of the second race of the weekend together.
With six laps to go, Will Power had managed to get himself back into contention for a good finish despite having to make an unscheduled pit stop for a steering wheel change. Running just inside the top-five, he would get hit by Tristan Vauier, resulting in him getting sideways and going across the straightaway.
“I’m proud of the Verizon Chevy team and we were in good shape, despite the weather conditions,” Power said. “We had a bit of a steering problem and went toward a different strategy, then made good ground on the restarts. But going into the wall toward the end was a bad way to finish and I’m obviously disappointed. But we will look toward a better result in Texas.”
When Power went across the straightaway, he would make contact with Castroneves, resulting in both driers hitting the wall and being done for the race.
“The Hitachi Chevrolet was really good today, especially in the dry,” Castroneves said. “We made some different strategy calls, which were actually starting to pay off there at the end of the race. Unfortunately, we got caught up in an incident between Will (Power) and another car and it ended our race. We were easily going to crack the top five or top six, so it’s frustrating to not be able to finish. But it’s racing and you have to move on.”
Team Penske has been the dominant team this season with Juan Pablo Montoya currently leading the points. Power now sits second, 21 points, while Castroneves sits fifth, 70 points behind Montoya.
The pair will now hope to get their season’s back on track this coming weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, a track that has treated them well in the past. Castroneves has an average finish of 6.7 with four wins, nine top-fives and 13 top-10s in 17 starts, while Power has an average finish of 6.9 with a win, three top-fives and five top-10s in seven starts.
