Long before the initial oval race of the IZOD IndyCar Series season in late May, Will Power ruminated on 11.375—his average finish on left-turn-only racetracks in 2010. It was his Achilles’ heel in the championship chase in which he wound up five points shy to Dario Franchitti.
Of course, he pored over the data, digested input, took a hard look at his driving and formulated a plan to improve results, complemented by his crew’s abilities to put the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car up front.
“Going into the ovals last year I just didn’t feel I knew what to expect,” said Power, who completed his first full season with Team Penske and second in the IZOD IndyCar Series. “I didn’t have the experience. I’m working on building what I did last year, and I know I’ll be quick and be challenging for wins.”
Buoyed by two road/street course victories, Power took a 16-point advantage over main early championship challenger Franchitti into the June 11 Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Motor Speedway - two 114-lap sprints on the dizzying-fast 1.5-mile, high-banked oval. He heads to the Milwaukee Mile and the Milwaukee 225 with a 21-point lead, but a lot more in the form of momentum.
Power, starting third in Race 2, overtook pole sitter Tony Kanaan on Lap 39 and went on to record his first oval victory. He leaped out of the Dallara chassis on cue for the cameras in Victory Circle, but his enthusiasm was bubbling over as he crossed the start-finish line.
“Gained points overall. That was the objective,” said Power, who has competed in 22 oval events in the series. “It was great to get my first oval win.”
Power said the final four races of 2010, in which he closed strong on the 1.5-milers by averaging a starting position of 2.75 and a pair of top-10 finishes, gave him confidence, but nothing like a win.
“The last four races last year, we shouldn’t have lost that many points,” he said. “We were knocking on the door all the time there for a race win. Now we just put it all together, no mistakes. I really think that we’ll be running up front on all the ovals.”
Franchitti won the first race - moving in between Johnny Rutherford (27) and Rick Mears (29) on the all-time Indy car victory list - and charged from the 28th starting position in the blind draw to finish seventh in Race 2.
His Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, also gained some momentum with a pair of runner-up finishes to move to third in the championship (70 points behind Power). He’s the A.J. Foyt Oval Championship award leader.
“Pretty good result for the team, obviously, a 1-2,” said Dixon, referencing Race 1. “Second race, you could see it sort of trickling down with the draw that it wasn’t looking too good for us. Obviously, me starting from 18th and Dario 28th, it’s a huge deficit when the competitor for the championship starts third and with not too much competition in front of him. It was a tough race. Thought we had enough for him toward the end there. I just burnt the rear tires off and was too loose and lost a bit of time going into that last pit stop and could never really get it back.”
Oriol Servia of Telemundo Newman/Haas Racing posted finishes of 21st and 15th, being supplanted by Dixon in the standings. Kanaan brought home the No. 82 GEICO KV Racing Technology car in 11th and fifth place to remain fifth, while sixth- and third-place finishes in the No. 6 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car moved Ryan Briscoe to sixth (93 points out).
The IZOD IndyCar Series’ first doubleheader also made history as the latter race was the first to run caution-free at Texas Motor Speedway, prompting the second-fastest closed-course race in series history (206.64 mph; the record set at Fontana, Calif., in 2003).
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