IndyCar Detroit: Power holds off Rossi to win last Belle Isle race

The Team Penske driver used a two-stop strategy to hold off a charging Rossi (Andretti Autosport), who was on a three-stop strategy, and take the chequered flag by just over a second.

Having moved into the Top 10 by Lap 5, ahead of fellow primary-tyre runner Scott Dixon, Power continued his charge, passing Arrow McLaren SP's Pato O’Ward for fourth on Lap 10 before getting past Meyer Shank Racing team-mates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud for second on successive laps. 

Power took the lead on Lap 14, with Dixon in second, before Rossi, thanks to his early first stop had charged through to sixth and went past Josef Newgarden to claim fifth on Lap 16.

Power had pulled a five second lead on Dixon before pitting on Lap 25, and he emerged with another set of primaries, whereas Dixon and Alex Palou, running in fourth, went one more lap and both grabbed a set of the fragile alternates.

Power’s lead over Dixon was out to 8.5 seconds on Lap 35, as he was continually able to turn in 1min16.9sec laps.

Rossi hadn’t closed the gap on Power once past Dixon and so once he got embroiled in traffic, he pitted for the third and final time, and his pitcrew out comfortably ahead of Dixon.

Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Power’s lead over Rossi on Lap 50 was 44s when he stopped for his reds, closing to 16s after his outlap. By Lap 58, he was still 11.7s to the good, and managed to squeeze 12 more laps out of his reds to win by 1.0027sec.

Dixon was six seconds further behind Rossi, ahead of Newgarden, O’Ward and Palou.

A very strange start where only the top eight or nine cars were in formation saw Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Newgarden easily convert his pole into the lead, while Pagenaud and Castroneves passed Sato to claim second and third.

Behind ran O’Ward and Colton Herta, while Rossi immediately started slicing through the field, and by Lap 3 he was into sixth.

He then pitted the following lap to get off the alternate tyres and tackle the race on a three-stop strategy.

Power and Dixon outbraked Marcus Ericsson on Lap 7 to claim seventh and eighth respectively. The alternate-tyred cars were now struggling, and the pair passed Herta to claim sixth and seventh which became fourth and fifth and sixth when Sato pitted.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Power, Dixon and Palou passed Newgarden to assume the top three spots on Lap 14, and on Lap 16 Kirkwood passed Newgarden, too. Rossi, thanks to his early first stop had charged through to sixth and he went past Newgarden to claim fifth on Lap 16.

Pagenaud managed to make it to Lap 17 on his reds, pulling out of seventh place to grab a set of blacks, and Newgarden and O’Ward stopped a lap later.

On Lap 37, Rossi was within striking distance of Palou and dived down the inside of him at Turn 3 on Lap 39. Dixon proved a tougher nut to crack, finally getting it done on Lap 43, again at Turn 3. 

Palou pitted on Lap 43, which allowed Kirkwood, Newgarden, O’Ward and Ericsson ahead. But the following lap, Dixon, Newgarden and O’Ward were in and they emerged still ahead of Palou.

Kirkwood pitted on Lap 48 and emerged in ninth, but he tagged the wall on his out lap and bent his suspension.

Rinus VeeKay crashed out of seventh place on the last lap, promoting Ericsson and Herta into seventh and eighth.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph	Pits
1	Will Power	Team Penske	70	1:32'08.818		107.209	2
2	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	70	1:32'09.821	1.002	109.233	3
3	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	70	1:32'15.942	7.123	107.114	2
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	70	1:32'19.489	10.671	105.999	2
5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	70	1:32'20.053	11.234	106.632	2
6	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	70	1:32'23.723	14.905	105.398	2
7	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	70	1:32'49.717	40.899	91.087	2
8	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	70	1:32'49.946	41.128	91.030	2
9	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	70	1:32'50.112	41.294	88.864	2
10	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	70	1:32'51.695	42.877	92.684	3
11	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	70	1:32'54.709	45.891	95.105	3
12	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	70	1:32'59.995	51.176	93.437	3
13	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	70	1:33'01.034	52.216	97.467	3
14	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	70	1:33'21.594	1'12.776	95.114	3
15	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	70	1:33'37.059	1'28.241	94.046	3
16	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	69	1:31'19.475	1 Lap	107.862	3
17	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	69	1:32'18.328	1 Lap	105.426	3
18	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	69	1:32'50.587	1 Lap	89.686	2
19	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	69	1:32'58.872	1 Lap	93.718	2
20	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	69	1:33'28.402	1 Lap	89.791	2
21	Santino Ferrucci	Juncos Hollinger Racing	68	1:32'14.190	2 Laps	101.948	3
22	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	68	1:32'53.894	2 Laps	89.652	3
23	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	68	1:32'56.390	2 Laps	95.516	2
24	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	49	1:08'07.132	21 Laps	32.204	3
25	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	21	1:09'53.061	49 Laps	3.311	2
26	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2	10'59.767	68 Laps	14.894	1
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