FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — IndyCar Series points leader Will Power made a quick evasive move to avoid disaster just before his final pit stop Saturday night at Texas and held on for his first victory on an oval track.
Power raced to his third win of the season, and 12th career for the Team Penske driver, to wrap up the first doubleheader in major open-wheel racing in 30 years. He kept his points lead over Dario Franchitti, the winner in the opener.
Franchitti led 110 of 114 laps in the first race, when Power finished third.
The starting spots for the second race were determined by a blind draw. Power started third and Franchitti was 28th in the 30-car field, working his way to a seventh-place finish.
Scott Dixon, Franchitti’s teammate with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, was second in both races.
As Power was charging down the backstretch inside the final 10 laps of the finale for his last stop, he suddenly had to swerve toward the inside wall to avoid contact with Graham Rahal, who had apparently run out of fuel. Power got in with no problem, then got a splash of fuel and new left tires.
Power got the lead on the 39th lap after going side-by-side with Tony Kanaan, who drew the pole position for the race. The two stayed nearby for a couple of laps before Power finally cleared him and went on to win by 0.09466 seconds over Dixon.
Power entered the weekend with a 16-point lead over Franchitti, who cut it to seven points after winning the opener for his 28th career victory. The margin stretched back to 21 after Power won the nightcap 171-mile race at the 1½-mile, high-banked Texas track.
The first race was on a blistering pace of more than 207 mph, which would have been the fastest in IndyCar Series history, before the Indianapolis 500-winning car driven by rookie Wade Cunningham, not Dan Wheldon, was involved in a crash for the only caution to set up the final sprint.
“I saw Dixie. That’s a guy you don’t want to see, especially with a side-by-side restart,” Franchitti said. “I managed to get a good restart, was able to stay ahead of him, and at the same time he was able to stay ahead of Will. That was 1-2 for the team. Worked out pretty good.”
Franchitti, who edged Dixon by 0.0527 seconds, wasn’t as happy after the second race, despite an incredible run through the field. With his starting spot determined by the luck — or bad luck — of the draw, the seventh-place finish could still cost him valuable points by the end of the season.
There was an abbreviated celebration between races for Franchitti’s 28th victory, which moved him into 10th place overall on the career list past Fort Worth native and three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford. Franchitti shot the customary six-shooters in Victory Lane for his first victory at Texas, where he was twice a runner-up.
The race-tightening crash in the opener came with 22 laps remaining when rookie drivers Charlie Kimball and Cunningham made contact in the fourth turn.
Wheldon had only a one-race contract with Bryan Herta Autosport at Indy two weeks ago, when he drove to victory in the No. 98 car that was leased from Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
Because of damage to one of its other cars at Indianapolis, the Schmidt team decided to use that Indy 500 championship car at Texas for the Firestone Twin 275s as No. 99. It sustained significant damage.
Cunningham went to a backup car for the second race, and drew the No. 2 starting spot. He finished 26th.
Franchitti had built a nearly 5-second lead before the only crash of the night, but was able to drive around the wreckage without any issues.
“I had slowed down already,” Franchitti said. “I was already fully in control of where I was going to go.”
After the first attempt to start the race was waved off because Tagliani took off to soon, they were side-by-side on the second attempt. Franchitti, who qualified second, took the lead in the first turn.
“The biggest problem was traffic and working my way through that,” Franchitti said. “The first win at Texas feels good.”
Only 12 of the 30 drivers, the largest field ever at Texas, finished on the lead lap in the first race. That number dropped to 11 in the second race.
“It was fun out there, and then crazy,” Dixon said. “The race blows by so quick”
Before Saturday night, there had only been 17 twin races, nine on ovals, in the history of U.S. open-wheel racing including CART and USAC. All of those twin bills were between 1967 and 1981, the last being a CART-sanctioned event Rick Mears swept at Atlanta.
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