FP – Indycar series leader Will Power rued a late blocking penalty which cost him a great chance of a rare oval track victory at the Firestone 500 in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday.
Power and his Penske teammate, fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe, were running side-by-side in front late in the 228-lap race on the 2.41 km Texas Motor Speedway, when Brazilian Tony Kanaan tried to go low and make it three in a row.
Power blocked him and the contact broke Kanaan’s front wing.
Forced to the pits, a furious Kanaan demanded officials penalise Power.
“Will just put the biggest block ever on the oval. … That move right there to me is unacceptable,” Kanaan said.
He got his wish as Power was ordered into the pits for a drive-through blocking penalty with 33 laps remaining. It meant he plunged from first to finish eighth.
“I had (Ryan) Briscoe on the outside of me and Tony took me by surprise,” said Power. I feel bad for him because I ruined his day.
“We ruined our own day, we had one of the best cars out there … I feel we could have quite easily won this race.”
Briscoe was left in the lead but finished third.
American Graham Rahal got past him with 29 laps to go but crashed with two laps remaining and guided his damaged car to second place as Britain’s Justin Wilson got past on the penultimate lap to claim his first oval victory.
The race was the first on a high-banked oval for IndyCar since Dan Wheldon’s death in a 15-car accident at Las Vegas in October.
Drivers were skittish about racing at Texas, and IndyCar worked hard on a formula to break up the pack racing that was cited as a contributing factor in Wheldon’s death.
It worked, there was no pack racing and the race featured passing.
Power, with three wins this season, still heads the series standings on 256 points from New Zealander Scott Dixon on 222, and Englishman James Hinchcliffe on 208.
Dixon led 133 of the first 174 laps before Power passed him with 57 laps remaining.
Three laps later, Dixon crashed in turn three, setting up a caution period that allowed the leaders to make their final refuel stops.