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Even the Abu Dhabi Self-Driving Car Racing League
A massive crash involving Sting Ray Robb spoiled the end of the thrilling second IndyCar race of the 2024 season at Iowa, which was won by Will Power over championship leader Alex Palou.
The incident occurred on the final lap when eighth-placed Alexander Rossi slowed down and was hit by Rob at high speed, sending his DW12 terrifyingly high into the air, flipping on landing and continuing to slide along the straight after returning to the ground.
Meanwhile, this contact sent Rossi flying across the track, hitting the cars of Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood – with Carpenter’s car ending up on top of Kirkwood’s.
A look at the multi-car accident on the last lap. @Iowa Speedway.
Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood were seen and released. pic.twitter.com/EWvkQFSbhZ
— NTT IndyCar Series (@IndyCar) July 14, 2024
Rossi, Carpenter and Kirkwood – who indicated Rossi had run out of fuel – were treated by the medical team and quickly released.
IndyCar described Rob, who was taken on a stretcher out of sight of the accident, as “awake, alert and in good condition” but was taken to a local hospital by helicopter as a precaution.
Update on @sting_ray_robb After the incident that happened on the last lap this afternoon. #IndyCar | #IndyCar in Iowa pic.twitter.com/72MDK3V7v0
— AJ Foyt Racing (@AJFoytRacing) July 14, 2024
Race to win
The series traded Saturday’s cold night race for the blazing Iowa sunshine on Sunday afternoon, but low tires and drivers’ struggles with the heat didn’t turn into high drama.
Pato O’Ward summed up the first 100 of the 250 laps when he was photographed opening his face mask and appearing to rub his eye, with very little action on the track as drivers conserved tyres – the rubber lasted much longer than expected – and fuel and the single-track nature of the track did not allow for overtaking after the repaving.
Palou led the first few stops as he was allowed to pit before IndyCar threw out a caution for Agustin Canapino’s car that had spun.
Power had not pitted before the caution – so he jumped from 19th to second by making his own pit stop under the yellow flag.
With the duo now in the lead, Palou was expected to lead the entire next stint as overtaking was rare except for a restart where the cars were not up to speed and the tyre glass was wiped to allow a brief grip at the top of the track.
In the final round of pit stops, a gap of around 0.9 seconds across the first lap, time in the pits and the second lap put Power just ahead of Palou, with the Australian stopping a lap after the Spaniard.
Yes 🏆!!
Man we have a chance in this tournament. pic.twitter.com/fsls6p0SnP
— Will Power (@12WillPower) July 14, 2024
It was a marked turnaround from Saturday, when Power was fined for speeding in the pits and separately for colliding with Pietro Fittipaldi while under caution – and asked over the radio “What do I do?” as he finished the race in 18th place.
The win — his first on the oval since Pocono in 2019 — moved him back into second place in the standings, 35 points behind Palou.
2024 IndyCar Standings (Race 11/17)
1 palo 379
2 power -35
3 awards -52
4 dixon-57
5 McLaughlin -66
Team Penske has now won nine of the last 11 races at Iowa.
Despite losing the win, Palou has reason to celebrate his recovery from Saturday’s race accident, which he described as unacceptable.
After his first oval race win yesterday in the first race of the two championships, Scott McLaughlin came in third in the next race, after leading at the start.
Scott Dixon and Colton Herta completed the top five, while Josef Newgarden was seventh, just behind Pato O’Ward.
Newgarden started the race in 14th place – having moved from 22nd to fourth yesterday – and made another great start to establish himself in the top 10 straight away. But he never quite overcame his poor qualifying due to the single-track nature of the track, where he had won five of the previous seven races before the weekend.
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