Team Penske’s Will Power suffered problems with his in-car radio during the second race of IndyCar’s Honda Indy 200, hampering his march through the field.
After taking a flag-to-flag victory in the first race at Mid-Ohio last Saturday, Power made a mistake on a damp and drying track during qualifying for race two, which left him stuck in the wet grass and brought out the red flag.
IndyCar rules state if a driver is the cause of a red flag stoppage, they must not take any further part in the session. This left Power to start Sunday’s race from down in 17th place.
Power made up several places in the opening laps of Sunday’s race, but the radio on the No.12 Verizon Chevrolet was causing some issues leaving communication with the team near impossible.
The issues led to the 2014 series champion having to make his own pit stop calls, one of which resulted in a side-by-side battle on the pit lane exit with team-mate Josef Newgarden.
“It was actually a pretty solid race,” said Power after taking the chequered flag on Sunday.
“We had some radio issues, so I really wasn’t sure what position we were running in all the time, so I really just followed my team-mates and pitted when they did.
“It was pretty smooth sailing from there, but we really couldn’t make up a lot of ground. Obviously, it was a pretty disappointing result in qualifying today, and that was totally my fault.”
Despite the issues, Power was able to secure seventh place at the finish line, sandwiched by his Penske team-mates Simon Pagenaud and Newgarden.
The Australian’s weekend mirrored how well his 2020 championship season has unfolded thus far, with peaks and troughs of form.
“Considering that and the radio challenges during the race, we come away actually feeling all right with a seventh-place result and a pretty good weekend overall with the win on Saturday.”
