Australian driver Will Power has got the fuel strategy right to win the IndyCar race in Madison, Illinois, keeping his championship hopes alive.
Power, the Indy 500 winner, took a splash of fuel late in the race, allowing him to go flat out to the finish as he regained the lead with eight laps to go at Gateway Motorsports Park.
That was enough to stay in front of American Alexander Rossi, who tried to conserve fuel for about 70 laps and wound up making one less stop to finish second.
Rossi, the winner the last two races at Mid-Ohio and Pocono, wound up nipping into the points lead of New Zealand's Scott Dixon, who finished third.
Power, the 2014 season champion, climbed from fourth to third in the standings with two races remaining in the 2018 championship, at Portland and Sonoma.
While he is an outside title chance, Power can't be discounted, especially given the double points at the season finale and his prodigious talent on road courses.
He won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis this year, just before his big oval breakthrough at the Indy 500, and his victory at Gateway was the 35th of his career - moving him into a tie with Bobby Unser for seventh on the career list.
The race was shaping up as a fuel-mileage competition all along on the 1.25-mile oval, with some teams trying to make it the 248 laps on three stops.
But when Ryan Hunter-Reay, who'd been running third at the time, lost power to bring out the caution it appeared fuel strategy wouldn't matter.
Rossi gave it a shot anyway, refusing to race with the leaders as he saved every drop of fuel. It was reminiscent of the way the then-unknown Rossi conserved to win the 100th edition of the Indy 500.
Power was given the green-light to go, though. And the driver who once disdained ovals but has grown to love them wound up with another reason to Saturday night.
Share
