At the drop of the green flag, much of the discussion was about the new Verizon driver, David Malukas, who started on pole, the first of his career in just his second race for Team Penske, but at the drop of the checkers, all the conversation was about the old Verizon driver, Will Power, who started dead last after he hit the wall during his qualifying effort.
The big incident came on lap 208 of the scheduled 250, when Power was doing his utmost to hold off the day’s dominant driver, Christian Rasmussen. The Ed Carpenter wheelman had looked strong right from the jump, carving his way through the field from his 18th-place starting spot.
Rasmussen was, unsurprisingly, not pleased with the incident, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the veteran Andretti driver.
“I think we should have won the race today and it got robbed for us and it’s, it’s a shame,” said Rasmussen. “I mean, we had, we were the best car out there for sure…
Yeah, I mean, when you get run into the wall, there’s not much you can do, right?
Like we should have won today. We were the best car out there and it’s just unfortunate.”
The Dane did get a chance to have a quick discussion with Power. When asked about the content of that discussion, Rasmussen was forthright.
“I just told him that I think he knows what he can expect if he’s on my outside, and I’d left it at that. He (Power) was apologetic. I think he knew what he did.”
Given where Power had started the race, right up until the incident with Rasmussen, it couldn’t have gone much better.
Josef Newgarden Takes Fresh Tires for the IndyCar Win at Phoenix
“I knew as soon as we started and just drove up to 15th or something on the start, I’m like, OK, we’ve got a pretty good car here, and then, you know, sort of maintained on that stint and then just kept driving forward,” said Power. “The car was amazing. My guys deserve better than what has been these two races for sure. I feel really bad that I haven’t executed, but you know, it’s a cruel sport at times.”
Power then broke away from the interview to apologize to Rasmussen’s team owner, Ed Carpenter, accepting the blame for his part in the incident.
And while Power is indisputably correct, racing can be a cruel mistress; it is Rasmussen who will feel most aggrieved that what looked like a second NTT IndyCar Series victory was snatched from his grasp in extremely unfortunate circumstances.
Both he and Palou claimed they didn’t know a car was outside. Not sure how much I believe that from Power as I heard a later comment he was trying to hold up Rasmussen to let the tire advantage equalize. Regardless, I can’t imagine the spotters wouldn’t be more on top of that. I guess to their defense, on ovals that gap does close considerably quicker than it does in NASCAR.