Mario Andretti’s record of 67 pole positions stood for 30 years until Will Power surpassed him in 2023. Since taking the outright record of most pole positions in IndyCar history, it’s been two very uncharacteristic years without a pole for Will. But this weekend on the 1¼ mile banked oval at Gateway in St. Louis, Power racked up pole position number 71. Power has extended a record that may never be broken.
Team Penske is usually very strong at Gateway, so it was no shock that Power was on pole. IndyCar fans looked at this race as a turning point for Team Penske that ‘s had a terrible season, after being rocked by a cheating scandal at the Indianapolis 500.
There was a bad omen when Power’s teammate McLaughlin stalled and was stuck on pit lane like a beached whale as every other car passed him on the way to the parade laps. McLaughlin was able to get started but would DNF with left-rear suspension failure before the checkered flag.
Power also had an early night due to a tire blowout that sent him into the wall. He was running strong, in the lead group, early in the race. But the suspension set-up on the Penske cars was putting tremendous strain on the right-side Firestone tires. The inside sidewall on Will’s front tire delaminated and the tire cords popped through. The flat tire immediately sent Power sliding into the Turn 1 wall, breaking his front and rear suspension.
However, the most spectacular exit of the night belonged to the third Penske car of Josef Newgarden. Midway through the race, Newgarden was leading, and looked poised to take another win at Gateway. The TV broadcast was about to go to commercial, and was showing a studio-recorded ‘bumper’ of Josef smiling, cheering and pointing at the camera like the macho-man that he is. Rather than going to commercial, the broadcast returned to live on-track action, and there was Newgarden’s car, upside down, skidding and sparking down the front straight.
IndyCar back-marker Louis Foster bounced off the outside wall and veered directly into the path of the chasing cars. Newgarden was tucked up behind Indy 500 winner Alex Palou as they approached the stricken race car; Palou went right, Newgarden went left and broadsided Foster in a spectacular airbourne crash. Full credit to car manufacturer Dallara, and the aeroscreen, for keeping Josef safe.
The race was eventually won by Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood, followed by Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward as runner-up. A bright spot was Danish driver Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing taking his first ever podium finish in IndyCar.