October 3, 2020 – Will Power has won race 2 of the IndyCar Harvest GP. The Australian from the Penske team had started the race from pole. Colton Herta came second at the Brickyard, Alexander Rossi finished third. After his excellent podium the day before, Rinus van Kalmthout had to make do with seventeenth place.
Polesitter Power had a strong start and was not fooled at the first corner by Herta following behind, who briefly blocked his wheels at turn 1, giving Rossi the chance to advance to second place. In his first stint, Power didn’t walk too far from the field, mainly to save fuel. On lap 27 he came in for new rubber for the first time, followed by Rossi and Herta.
The trio at the front kept their balance even after the first lap of pit stops, and on lap 52, Power made his second tire change. He switched to the hard compound while Rossi and Herta switched directly behind him to the softer tire. It turned out to be another interesting battle at the end of the race, with Herta overtaking Rossi in Turn 1 and pushing Power for his faster rubber. However, he made clever use of his push-to-pass to defend and was eventually flagged first.
Not Veekay’s day
In contrast to Friday, VeeKay drove a fairly anonymous race. The Dutchman took his first IndyCar podium in race 1 with a third place, but was unable to break any pots in race 2. He started the race from fourteenth place and finally finished in seventeenth place.
Title fight remains open
Josef Newgarden kept the tension alive in the title fight. The American number two of the championship had won race 1 on Friday and finished fourth on Saturday, while classification leader Scott Dixon had another bad day. The bottom plate of his car was damaged on a touch and the New Zealander eventually had to settle for eighth place, allowing Newgarden to catch up again. With one race to go, Dixon now only has a 32-point lead over his closest attacker. The last race is on October 24 in St. Petersburg.
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