By: Ashley McCubbin

Will Power watched a victory slip out of his hands in the first of two events as part of the REV Group Grand Prix on Saturday, and then threw away his chances on the opening lap on Sunday through a pair of desperate moves.

Coming to the green flag as everybody fanned out, Power would make contact with the back of Ryan Hunter-Reay, sending him into the wall and ending his race right away. Then in turn six, he would make contact with Graham Rahal, resulting in him going off track and into a wall.

“I just got nailed from behind,” Hunter-Reay commented afterwards. “I don’t know where he was going. It seems like he’s driving desperate. He’s been a wrecking ball so far. It’s unfortunate. We just got some points finally yesterday, and the first two races of the season, we had our own issues – electrical issues and then mechanical issues. We’re finally on our way, and yeah, turn one. Long race, unfortunately, we could have had a long way to battle it out this race.”

Known as a front runner, Hunter-Reay cited the moves were uncharacteristic for Power, and certainly aren’t beneficial with the early advantage Scott Dixon has via winning the first three races of 2020.

“I’m not really sure what’s going on, but you definitely can’t win the whole thing in the first corner,” he continued. “I’ll ask him about it, but he hit me and then took Graham out – and now just took himself out. I don’t know what’s going on today, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe he’s feeling a little off today.”

As Rahal was coming out of the media center, he saw Power go off once again, as he went spinning through some track advertisement signage on Lap 6. The Honda driver didn’t shelter away, saying Power was getting what he deserved with the penalty for avoidable contact also given.

“It’s disappointing to see desperation moves like that, that early in the race,” Rahal commented. “I’ve made them before, so I know them well. We’re OK from the hit. It was a disappointing end to our race today, and we had a really good chance for a good finish. It was extremely short with only doing one turn. I’m pretty upset with the way it all worked out, but we’ve got Iowa next week and we’ve got to look ahead and try to do a better job there. We had a good car this weekend. Our guys did a good job, but it’s just a shame we didn’t get a chance at it today.”

To his credit, Power was able to rebound from the early issues to salvage an 11th-place finish.

“Man, just a rough race for us today,” he said afterwards. “I guess in the end, things could have been worse, and an 11^th-place finish is a small victory. I don’t really agree with the penalty from early in the race. I felt that was just a racing deal. So, we had to come in and change the front wing, then I made a mistake and ran off the track, and we had to make another stop for another wing change. Just not the day we needed for the Verizon Chevrolet. Got a podium yesterday but just didn’t have it today.”