DETROIT— Will Power was a lone wolf as Sunday’s (June 5) Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix drew to a close, but the 2014 NTT IndyCar Series champion held on to score his first win of the 2022 IndyCar season.
Power beat Alexander Rossi by just 1.0027 seconds after 70 laps around the 13-turn, 2.35 mile street circuit on Belle Isle Park. Instead of an all out charge by both drivers, the race came down to pit stop strategy.
Every IndyCar driver has to use Firestone’s black sidewall primary tires and the red sidewall alternate compound tires for the road and street courses. The red tires are softer and provide more grip, but tend to wear quicker on most tracks. At Detroit, they were not the preferred tire throughout the weekend, with 17 of the 26 competitors choosing to start on the red tires to get that stint done as quickly as possible.
After turning the minimum required two laps on the red tires, drivers started to pit to put on the more durable black tires, with Rossi pulling the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda into the pits on the race’s fourth lap.
Meanwhile, Power’s No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet started 16th on the black sidewall primary compound tires and steadily climbed through the field, grabbing the lead on the race’s 14th lap. The 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner passed 11 cars on track en route to grabbing the lead from polesitter and Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden while the other cars ahead of Power pitted.
As for Rossi, the Californian was going through the field at an equally rapid rate. After being as low as 22nd on the lap following his first pit stop, the Formula 1 veteran was in 13th by the tenth lap of the race and was fifth by lap 16.
Rossi was in fourth place when he made his second pit stop on lap 24. Power pitted from the lead for the first time on the next lap, putting a used set of primary compound tires on. After that pit stop sequence, Power and Rossi reassumed their positions in the running order, but there was another…
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