AP – Australian IndyCar driver Will Power has missed out on back-to-back wins at the Detroit Grand Prix after Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves cruised to victory in the weekend’s second race.

Castroneves finished 1.6836 seconds ahead of Power on Sunday, having enjoyed a lead so large that he managed to maintain his position after his final pit stop on lap 49.

The competition got closer after cautions led to restarts with seven and three laps left, but Castroneves could not be caught.

The triumph took the Brazilian’s record to 29 IndyCar victories, tying Rick Mears for 11th on the career.

Castroneves finished 0.060 seconds behind Ryan Hunter-Reay last week in the Indianapolis 500 in his bid to join Mears as a four-time winner in open-wheel racing’s signature event.

Power won Saturday’s opening race and played a big part in a sloppy start on Sunday.

He was penalised for avoidable contact on the opening lap, failing to turn right and causing Josef Newgarden to hit him from behind to trigger a three-car crash.

That led to the first of two cautions within the first ten laps after a false start briefly delayed the race beginning.

Despite a drive-through penalty, Power was able to pull into contention later in the race with aggressive moves.

No one, though, was faster than Castroneves.

Hunter-Reay, meanwhile, had a poor ending to a rough weekend after the biggest win of his career.

Starting 21st in the 22-car field on Saturday and Sunday, he crashed out on the final lap of the first race and did not last beyond lap 61 in the second due to an electrical problem.

Team owner Roger Penske was not a part of Castroneves’s post-race celebrations, but he had to be one of the happiest guys in the Motor City because Castroneves and Power finished first and second and Charlie Kimball, who was also driving a Chevrolet-powered car, was third.

Honda had dominated the Detroit Grand Prix the previous two years – in the shadow of Chevy’s world headquarters – and had the fastest car last week at the Indy 500.