Will Power’s clash with Charlie Kimball on lap 38 of Sunday’s Watkins Glen IndyCar race has placed a giant question mark over how the race for the championship will play out on September 18 at Sonoma Raceway.
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According to a USA Today report, Trammel met with Power for half an hour in his motorhome on Sunday.
Helio Castroneves, a three-time Watkins Glen pole victor, was fourth in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet (1:22.8748, 146.389 mph) ahead of a pair of Chip Ganassi Racing drivers.
Dixon, 36, said his vehicle was exceptional this weekend. Dixon noted that Power has more experience in these title chases – he lost three times at the final race and won once – and has a stronger record in the Napa Valley.
In a bid to get through the pack Power was aggressive, but he spun out of the race after an ambitious move from Kimball saw the drivers collide. Power missed the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, with a similar diagnosis after winning the pole in qualifying.
It was his second win of the season and fourth ever on the 5.42km permanent road course in NY.
There are all sorts of ways Power, the 2014 IndyCar champion, can swap spots with Pagenaud, and the fact he’s won three races at Sonoma bodes well for him. This was IndyCar’s first race here since ’10. This is the first time this event is being held since 2010. Power also has four wins. This one was with Chevrolet; the others were with Toyota and Honda.
“We’ve been at the top of the time sheets, at least a good percentage of them this weekend”, said Dixon, tied for fourth on the Indy auto victory list with 39 but winless since the second race of the season at Phoenix. He is now No. 4 on the all-time list, trailing Michael Andretti by two race wins.
“I’ve got to thank the whole Target crew, the auto rolled off extremely fast”, said Dixon, victor of three consecutive Indy vehicle races at Watkins Glen (2005-07) but who had not qualified better than second in six previous visits.
American Graham Rahal escaped injury when his vehicle went nose-first into the turn one inside wall after contact from Charlie Kimball. Rahal was trying to pass on the inside, but Kimball ran over the curbing, kicking his auto slightly right. We were able to make the fuel thanks to Chevy. We’d been fast in practice, fast in qualifying, obviously got the pole. Max Chilton, Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, RC Enerson and Mikhail Aleshin also made the cut. Kimball hit the left rear tire of Power’s No. 12 in the narrow section of the track at the top of the hill.
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The race is scheduled to start at 4am on Monday (NZ time). Bourdais, who started third, got the worst of it, losing almost half of a lap before restarting.
