Power, Castroneves in a Penske 1—2 at Edmonton Indy

Will Power narrowed his points gap to Dario Franchitti with a win on the new Edmonton City Center Airport course in the Rexall Edmonton Indy Sunday. The Penske driver didn’t start from the pole for the first time on a road course all season, but he did take the lead on lap 19, and except for pit stops held it to the end.

The race wasn’t a runaway. Teammate Helio Castroneves dogged Power for the final fifteen laps, catching up under braking before falling back under acceleration.

No doubt both drivers were thinking of Edmonton 2010, when Castroneves made a pass on a restart which was deemed illegal and which gave the win to Scott Dixon. This year Power stayed ahead, and his teammate had to settle for second.

Points leader Franchitti came back from mid-pack, mid-race, to finish third.

“We really needed to come back here and win just to get the confidence back in the team and to get the Verizon car back in Victory Lane is awesome,” Power told Versus after the race.

“That was so hard at the end. The tires were going off, I was struggling on the brakes, and trying to keep Helio behind—it was really, really hard. I drove every lap like qualifying.”

Penske nearly had a 1–2–4 finish, but Ryan Briscoe had to pit for fuel on the final lap, dropping back to tenth.

Power was eager for a win after being wrecked at Toronto two weeks earlier. He was also eager to get past the friction between himself and Dario Franchitti, who rammed Power while he was leading.

“I put it behind me,” Power told the post-race press conference on IndyCar.com. “I guess we were both playing a bit of mind games with each other there. But at the end of the day you go out there and race how you race.”

Franchitti now leads Power by 38 points, 388 to 350, with seven races left in the season.

Power likened the points chase to 2010, when Power had a seemingly insurmountable lead but Franchitti came back to win the championship.

“We’ve got to keep doing this—just keep chipping away sort of like [Franchitti] did with us last year.”

The Penske-Ganassi Show, Now With Fewer Collision Interruptions

Takuma Sato won the pole after Power brushed the wall in qualifying; the Australian Penske driver stayed right on the tail of his Japanese Lotus-KV counterpart until Sato, unnerved by the pressure ran wide in Turn 13 on lap 19.

Power went through, and Target-Ganassi driver Scott Dixon pulled alongside, and completed the pass into Turn One. Dixon’s teammate Dario Franchitti got by as well. After that it was the familiar Penske-Ganassi show for much of the race, with a bit of collision-based drama to keep things interesting.

Next: Crashes From the Start