IndyCar Pocono: Will Power closes on points lead with victory

Power started eighth at the 'Tricky Triangle,' but early on struggled to match the pace of the leading Honda-powered cars.

It took several tweaks to downforce levels in the first two pit windows for Power to match the leading cars, soon joining the front battle between polesitter Mikhail Aleshin, Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

In the last quarter of the race, Power finally made his move for the lead and just minutes later his cause was boosted by Pagenaud's retirement.

His title rival, who led by 58 points coming into the weekend, bottomed out on the exit of Turn 1 and collided with the wall before retiring.

Power then battled to victory ahead of Aleshin, with the top two cars running in a duel of their own in the final laps.

Aleshin had held the early lead, before he was dragged into a thrilling battle with Hunter-Reay.

The Andretti Autosport man started at the back of the grid after his practice shunt prevented him from qualifying.

It took just 49 laps for him to take the lead, before then conserving fuel to ensure he matched the strategy of top two Aleshin and Newgarden.

It looked to be a masterstroke until an engine problem put him a lap down as he put his Andretti car through a power cycle, but a caution period after a winglet of Tony Kanaan's car landed on the racing line enabled him to make another charge.

Hunter-Reay made up ground from a lap down to take third at the flag as he pipped Newgarden to the podium.

Sebastien Bourdais took fifth after starting down in 18th place. The ex-Formula 1 driver's gamble to not change tyres for the final stint proved successful, as he made up five places in the pits.

Despite his tyre wear, he was able to hold off the sixth placed car of Scott Dixon.

Seventh fell to Carlos Munoz ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, despite Munoz running with the lead pack early on, who struggled to find pace early on, but improved as the race went on to ensure he finished eighth ahead of Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe.

In the first 500-mile race since Indianapolis, Alexander Rossi was unable to turn his early top three running into a result after a pit-lane collision.

After leaving his pit box, Rossi made contact with Charlie Kimball as he approached his stop, launching Rossi's car over Helio Castroneves and almost hitting the Brazilian's head, and led to Rossi's retirement.

RESULT - 200 LAPS