IndyCar’s return from the summer break at the Grand Prix of Madison produced enough drama to last the sport for another month without a race.
Yet, over the next four weeks, there will be four more races – meaning that the incidents of the much talked about IndyCar Gateway race need to be buried before the upcoming Grand Prix of Portland.
One man who has already set about doing that is Will Power, who got caught up in two spectacular late incidents.
In a fight for the net lead of the race with David Malukas, things got a bit too close and the two touched on the inside of turn one.
Will Power admits he ‘created the yellow’ in David Malukas collision
The contact sent Malukas spearing into the wall at high-speed, which Power refused to take the blame for at the time.
But, since reviewing the footage, he has since backpedalled on that stance having realised that his American rival didn’t understeer into him.
“I thought he understeered up into me until I saw the replay,” Power said to RACER. “I called him and said, ‘Man, I actually did squeeze you. I didn’t think I did that. My fault.’”
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Malukas, who appeared upset after the incident on Saturday, revealed that Power did contact him after the incident when he said: “He reached out and it was really funny, sarcastic Will. We’re definitely all good. And it was a nice message. He said, ‘I was a d***. I’m sorry.’
“My audience was saying some crazy and awful things about him. So I was talking with Will that when we show up to Portland, let’s go and take a picture with each other, and I can actually tell my audience that everything’s peachy and there’s no fighting going on.”
Power loses ground in the championship fight
It could have been a great weekend for Power, who was well in contention for victory at Gateway until he got ‘ploughed’ from behind by Alexander Rossi from a caution restart.
In fact, the gap between him and championship leader Alex Palou would be something in the region of 30 points instead of the 66 it is now.
It’s likely to be a few championship defining laps for the Australian, who now faces an uphill battle to remain in the title picture across the final four races.
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He’s up against relative inexperience compared to his own (apart from Scott Dixon), and that could help him at the three remaining oval events – where Alex Palou and Colton Herta ahead of him are yet to register a win.
A lot is still going to have to go Power’s way if he is to achieve the almost unthinkable at this stage and claim his third IndyCar crown, and he will be hoping that he has cleared the worst of his bad luck already.