Mingay’s truck overturned during the third lap of the race, which was eventually suspended after a long delay.
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But he didn’t post the quickest lap in qualifying; that honor went to Will Power, who lost the track-record lap of 1:13.884, plus a second quick lap, as a penalty for interfering with Marco Andretti’s qualifying effort. Pagenaud had led the early phase of the race and looked to be on his way to a fourth season victory until being passed by Power on the lap 53 restart.
Power finished 0.9203 of a second ahead of Penske team-mate Simon Pagenaud of France after 70 laps on the 2.35-mile (3.78 Km) Belle Isle street circuit. The Ganassi team driver retired early with electrical issues in the first race but did manage to nurse home a vehicle with a broken suspension piece from wheel to wheel contact with two different Penske drivers to snag a top-five finish.
Power finally won a race, ending a 19-race drought over the past 13 months, capturing the nightcap to the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit. Power wasn’t the only one penalized in qualifying.
“We knew that we were on the same strategies and all those guys in front of us had to pit”, Power explained. “But there was a space and I went for it”.
Championship leader Pagenaud wisely ceded the position and ended up padding his points margin with the second-place finish. The whole top 10 had all pitted at this point, except for Race 1 victor, Sebastien Bourdais, who was on an alternate strategy, and Helio Castroneves, who wanted to pit late. That trio ducked into the pits on lap 49 but Castroneves stayed out after a late call by Roger Penske and then a full-course yellow flew on lap 50 for the stalled vehicle of Jack Hawksworth.
“The restarts really made it hard for us”, Pagenaud said.
“Will was really good and aggressive”. He saw it and took his chance and that’s how you win races. Congratulations to him. There was no point in colliding and trying too hard.
“Big picture”, he said of his approach to the battle with Power.
Rossi pitted with nine to go and that put Power in the lead, Pagenaud second – 1.8 seconds back – and Hunter-Reay third. If you asked someone to come to a race held on an island with limited parking, that’s inconvenient to get to and they’ve had rain during the weekend the last two years, most would quickly decline, but I’ll come back to the Detroit Grand Prix every time. They just had the pace and there’s only so much I could do about it.
“It’s nice to finish on the podium, but that’s obviously not what we’re here for”.
Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Pagenaud 357, Dixon 277, Castroneves 271, Newgarden 259, Rossi 242, Munoz 242, Power 240, Kanaan 240, Montoya 233, Kimball 227.
Power missed the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla., due to the effects of an inner ear illness.
Power has a history of running hot and cold, so he hopes taking his first IndyCar race win since May 2015 kicks off an extended period of success. Conor Daly, who finished second in Saturday’s race, finished sixth.
Will Power celebrates his win on Belle Isle on Sunday. “It’s just been such a insane year, you could say, of unfortunate things happening and things not kind of rolling our way. It’s been a long time since the No. 12 has been in victory lane so I’m very happy for the whole Verizon crew”. “I think we’ve all kind of been stumbling a little bit, the whole group of us”.
“It’s been a tough start to the year, missed the first race and just had a few mishaps”.
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“Now we are there”.
