You race them clean and they always do you dirty. That’s what was going through Will Power’s mind as he got crashed out of the IndyCar race in St. Louis on Saturday night. Yes, it was Alexander Rossi who went airbourne over the top of the No. 12 Verizon car, but it was Power’s own teammate Josef Newgarden who was to blame.
Newgarden was leading with 9 laps to go when he took advantage of a late-race restart to cause chaos behind him. As the green light was shown, Newgarden simply didn’t go. He just maintained his speed in the restart zone, knowing all the racers behind him would ‘go on green’ and possibly wreck. Well, he got his wish.
Power, Rossi and others accelerated at the command from race control, but had to check up as the leading car simply did not go. The result was Rossi climbing over the back of Power’s car before crashing down to the track, wrecking both their Top 5 finishes and taking out severel other race cars in the process.
Power clambered out of his car, walked across the retaining wall to where Newgarden was, and gave him the finger to let Josef know what he really thought of that BS tactic.
Power head lead 117 laps and was within striking distance of a podium or a win, to help close the gap to championship leader Alex Palou. But the wreck has dashed the hopes of the No. 12 team of making up the points defecit.
And to think, it was his own teammate Josef Newgarden, who earlier this year was embroiled in a cheating scandal at Penske that only Power was exonerated of, it was Newgarden who did him dirty.
Well, that seriously sucks. Was there some perceived benefit in his mind to just not speeding up enough?
Two main benefits.
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If the leader accelerates early, there’s more time for the following drivers to catch / pass him. The hole in the air (the draft) encourages passing.
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But hey, if you can cause a chain reaction behind by NOT going on green, that helps protect the lead too.
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Poor Will Power. So sad.
I know. Of all the drivers for that to happen to โ he is one of my favorites.
Certainly seems like poor sportsmanship, beneficial or not.