After leading both practices and being the quickest at St. Petersburg and NOLA Motorsports Park, Will Power was expected to be a front running contender all race long in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. However, he wouldn’t get the qualifying effort that he wanted, qualifying deep in the field.
Things just continued to go downhill from there, as Stefan Colletti would stall in front Power as they tried to get on pit road under the lap seven caution. Power wouldn’t get the clutch engaged quick enough, causing his No. 1 Verizon Dallara-Chevrolet to stall. The result would be Power going a lap down while getting it restarted. With no more cautions in the event, Power was trapped a lap down the rest of the day, finishing 19th.
“I feel bad for the Verizon Chevy team,” he stated. “They worked so hard and me finishing P20 was a result of a bad day in qualifying. I didn’t get it done and it was a snowball effect from there. Today, I made mistakes and I stalled the car on pit road during the first pit stop. Was hoping for a top-10 finish but it didn’t happen. It makes me more motivated to make up for it the next couple races.”
The finish dropped Power to sixth in points, 39 points behind points leader Juan Pablo Montoya. Rather than gaining points, the defending series champion is now stuck in a position where he will need to make a comeback to contend for the championship this year.
The good news, though, is Barber Motorsports Park is the next stop on the schedule, and that’s a track that Power knows well. In five career starts at the road course, he has finished in the top-five each time, including a pair of wins. A win would certainly help get him back into the top-five in points.
