Will Power predicted before starting his IndyCar title defence that his main rivals were within his Team Penske garage and so it’s proving.
Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya pipped the Australian in the season-opening event despite Power leading for 75 of the 110 laps of the 1.8 mile street circuit in St Petersburg, Florida on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
Colombian ex-Formula One driver Montoya grabbed the lead late in the race and held off Power to win by 0.9930 of a second.
The powerful Penske outfit is running four cars in this year’s championship, with former Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and France’s Simon Pagenaud joining Montoya and Power.
Only Brazil’s Tony Kanaan prevented a Team Penske clean sweep of the podium in St Petersburg.
He claimed third as three-time St Petersburg winner Castroneves finished fourth and Pagenaud fifth.
Power said his move to get past Montoya on the 101st lap, when their cars made contact, showed how hard both drivers were pushing.
“I think he saw me,” Power said.
“It was kind of optimistic…if he gave me something I would have taken it but he didn’t. He did what anyone would have done.
“He was phenomenally fast. I couldn’t drop him on that stint before and he was very quick on the reds.
“As we thought it would be, it’s going to be a battle between teammates for the championship, I’m sure.”
Sunday’s win was Montoya’s second since the 39-year-old returned to IndyCar racing last year and it was Penske’s 175th race win as a team in the championship.
Team owner Roger Penske clearly wasn’t worried about his two lead drivers making contact late in the race and potentially costing each other a podium finish, instead focusing on the dominant result by the team.
“It was a fight between our two guys in front. It was just an amazing weekend,” Penske said.
“To come back this year with the fast times in qualifying and win this race one-two, and four drivers in the top six, wow, what a day.”
The next leg of the IndyCar series is the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at the newly designed NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans on April 12.
