DETROIT – In the final Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix held on Belle Isle, Will Power made up for last year’s heartbreak, Chevrolet scored its 100th NTT IndyCar Series victory since its return to the series in 2012 and a Team Penske driver won the race that is owned by Roger Penske and the Penske Corp.
“All In all, I’d call that a storybook day,” said Penske Corp. CEO Bud Denker, who is also the Chairman of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
It was a grand farewell to old Belle Isle, which has seen some of the quirkiest and goofiest events take place on this island that a Michigan State Park located in the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
Next year’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix shifts to a street circuit in downtown Detroit using Jefferson Avenue and the famed General Motors Renaissance Center.
It was also the first time in the event’s history that it was green flag racing from start to finish without being halted by a caution period.
Power scored the 41st victory of his career in a race where he led two times for 55 laps in the 70-lap contest. He is now just one victory behind Michael Andretti for fourth place in IndyCar’s all-time victory list.
Of Chevrolet’s 100 IndyCar Series victories, Power has won 26 of them.
“It’s very cool to have a partner like Chevy,” Power said after the milestone victory. “I’ve been with them since 2012. We’ve certainly had a lot of fun together. I won a championship, won an Indy 500, and a ride in the game this year again.
“I cannot thank them enough. They work really hard. They certainly improved over last year. Better drivability, better engine all around.
“I’m really proud to get the 100th win for Chevrolet.”
Power did it by flipping the strategy on his competition. Race engineer David Faustino decided to save the Firestone Reds for the last pit stop, while every other driver in the race did the opposite. The Reds are a softer compound tire and wore out at a much faster rate than on other street and road circuits.
Drivers pitted early in the race to bail out on the Reds and switch to the more durable Firestone Blacks.
But Power built up a 35.781-second lead over Alexander Rossi when he pitted with 20 laps remaining to get off the Blacks and onto the Reds.
When Power returned to the track, his lead over Rossi was 16.079-seconds with 20 laps remaining.
Rossi started off chopping nearly a second a lap off Power’s lead until Power was able to maintain the gap at 12:0130-seconds with 10 laps remaining.
On lap 63, it was down to 10:0512 second and down to 8.2928 seconds with five laps to go. When the white flag flew on lap 69, Power’s Chevrolet was up by 2.4652 seconds.
Power encountered the lapped car driven by Jack Harvey and that allowed Rossi’s Honda to close the gap even further, but it wasn’t enough to change the outcome.
Power’s Chevrolet defeated Rossi’s Honda by 1.0027 seconds.
He made amends for last year’s heartbreaking loss when he dominated the race, but a red flag near the end caused an electronic sensor in his engine to overheat, keeping his car from starting on the restart.
That is a loss that haunted Power for the rest of the season and into the offseason.
“It’s obviously very satisfying,” Power said. “It’s redemption from last year. The last stint, it was good because it had such a gap. On the out lap, it was really nice. You can do a bit of damage on the cold tires. I was really cognizant of not slipping the tire too much. Then just got in a rhythm and drove it really straight, really straight. Can be very quick that way. Just a certain way you can drive when tires are like that.
“The fact that the track had rubbered so much looked after them. They never, like, dropped and I was like, Oh, my God. I just looked after them in case there was a battle at the end.
“If I had to go hard at the end, I think I could have.”
Rossi’s strategy was simple. He had to pass as many cars as possible and hope for the best. That nearly paid off with what would have been his first victory since Road America in June 2019.
“It was hard at the end,” Rossi said. “Obviously with the three-stop we knew it was just basically a qualifying run for 70 laps type of thing.
“The team did an amazing job, and the NAPA AutoNation Honda was fantastic. We thought we had a car to be in the front yesterday, and circumstances prevented that. It’s good to get the car where it should have been and have a shot there at the end.
“Obviously Will did a fantastic job on a tire that has a lot of falloff at the end. We did our best to kind of manage the pace and go for it at the end, but we were probably a lap short.
“Still all in all a good result for the team.”
Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda was third followed by pole-winner Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet. Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet rounded out the top five.
By winning the race, Power has taken over the top position in the NTT IndyCar Series standings heading into next Sunday’s race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
“We want to be competitive for the rest of the year,” Power said. “We want to be in the championship hunt.
“That’s the goal.”