Will Power drops down rankings again amid New Hampshire chaos
Will Power may have closed the gap to championship leader Dario Franchitti at New Hampshire, but he couldn't prevent a fall down the Castrol EDGE Rankings for a second consecutive week
The Australian finished fifth in a farcical end to the race, with stewards deciding to restart despite wet and largely undriveable conditions.
The result saw him close to within 50 points of Dario Franchitti in the championship, the Scot having earlier crashed from the lead on lap 118.
It was not enough to preserve his place in the Rankings however, as Power had to discard a second-place finish from Mid-Ohio under the rollover system. The subsequent points drop saw him fall one spot to ninth, with NASCAR's Carl Edwards moving the other way into eighth.
In an unusual situation, Power could yet gain the place back by the end of Monday, following the decision to postpone NASCAR's race at Watkins Glen by one day.
Edwards will defend a fifth place finish from 2010, meaning a poor result could make his spell in the Rankings top eight a fleeting one.
Franchitti's DNF, his first since Kansas in 2009, lost him ground in the Rankings but he remains a relatively comfortable sixth - his gap to Jenson Button in seventh aided by the current F1 summer break.
On the IndyCar support bill, Josef Newgarden took an utterly dominant fifth win of the season in Indy Lights to rocket 56 places to an all-time high of 247th.
The 20-year-old American started from pole and led every lap of the race, remarkably lapping everyone of his opponents as he extended his advantage at the head of the championship.
Newgarden's ascent in the Rankings was matched by Felix Rosenqvist, who won the Formula 3 Masters at Zandvoort.
Rosenqvist's task was made easier as front-row starters Roberto Merhi and Daniel Juncadella clashed moving away from the line, allowing him to slip into a lead he then never surrendered.
Victory boosted the Swede 55 places to an all-time high of 209th in the Rankings.
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