MADISON, Ill. — After swearing at a FOX camera following his retirement in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix one week ago, Will Power had a bit of a mountain to climb in Sunday’s (June 7) Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway after qualifying 21st.
Power moved through the field to score his second top-10 finish of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season with an eighth-place finish, 9.3370 seconds behind race winner Josef Newgarden.
Power was one of six lead-lap cars to make their final pit stop under caution on lap 230, but a slow stop put the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner back in 14th place on the upcoming restart.
“If we’d been the first on (new) tires, which we were, we just had an issue on the stop, I think we would have ended up fourth, maybe in the top three,” Power said. “I don’t know, but yeah, we were pretty good.”
Power moved around Scott Dixon, Christian Lundgaard and Felix Rosenqvist to move into 11th shortly after the restart. The two-time IndyCar Series Champion turned his fastest lap of the race on lap 238 and gained one position each lap until settling into his finishing position of eighth on lap 240.
“It’s nice just to finish a short oval, man,” Power said. “Just good to have a solid day. Yeah, it’s nice to finish the race.”
Power started near the back of the 24-car field after the Dale Coyne Racing crew discovered a fuel leak on the No. 19 entry of Dennis Hauger. After working his way up to 15th place on the race’s 14th lap, the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda remained there until the first sequence of green flag pit stops.
After the caution came out for contact between Nolan Siegel and Alex Palou that sent Siegel to the turn 1 wall, Power was running 16th, having lost a position to Caio Collet. The Andretti team called Power onto pit road to top off his fuel and remained near the back of the lead lap, going a lap down on the race’s 80th lap.
Because Power had topped off his fuel under yellow, the Australian was able to run longer ahead of the second sequence of pit stops. Despite going a lap down, Power was able to stay out longer and was able to stop under the yellow for Graham Rahal‘s wall contact in turn 3 on lap 113.
Power was in third place at the time and blended out fifth as the caution stretched on because of light rainfall. The next pit stop sequence saw Power lose five more positions before receiving a wave-around under the caution period that began on lap 197 for light rainfall.
The lower half of the top 10 became Power’s main running group until his final pit stop for new tires on lap 230. Unfortunately for Power, Firestone’s compound at Gateway did not have as much fall-off as in previous years, so new tires were not as much of an advantage as he had hoped.
However, the new tires helped Power gain a place in the final results and put Detroit behind him.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
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