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Power Wins Kohler Grand Prix

Will Power celebrates his victory at Road America. [Andy Clary Photo]

Will Power celebrates his victory at Road America. [Andy Clary Photo]

Road America’s Kohler Grand Prix winner Will Power said after the race that he had to give everything his Penske Chevrolet had to hold off challenger Tony Kanaan as the two battled for the win during the final laps.

“I saved my remaining two Push-to-Pass adjustments for just that reason. TK had a good shot at getting to me,” he admitted, “if I didn’t have that to use.”

But Kanaan didn’t get to him, and the leader of 46/50 laps also outran Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves, all of whom wished the race had just a few more laps to go, so that they would have had a chance to pass the Aussie.

“There were battles all day between me and Graham,” Kanaan noted, seemingly satisfied that he had finished second. “I thought we had a car to win, but I had to use my remaining Push-to-Pass just to hold Graham off there at the end.”

That final late-race scramble for the win was set up by the only full-course caution of the day, brought about when something broke on Conor Daly’s Dale Coyne mount that sent him into the Turn 1 barrier on Lap 40.

Power had dominated the day by starting on the pole, leading the most laps and running a near perfect race. But the 2014 Verizon Indy Car champion admitted that earlier in the season he might not have had the stamina to hold off those challengers.

“Most of our races have run “green” this season (with few cautions) and I should have challenged more. I had some health problems in the off-season and I couldn’t train. Both food poisoning problems and diet along with lingering inner-ear symptoms from my incident before the St. Petersburg race kept me out of that first round.”

But his health has improved and he’s training again, hoping that when tiring races like today come along, that he’ll continue to be up for that late-race challenge.

Rahal, who was defending his Honda marque against the wave of Chevrolets, was also satisfied with his podium finish and seemed really happy with the enthusiastic crowd at the track he used to come to as a kid with his racer dad Bobby.

“It was a decent day. A good first stint got us up near Pagenaud. Our finish is pretty big given the year we’ve had. I made a wrong tire call and still got third,” he said. “I was under TK for just a moment there at the end but they (Chevrolet) had more top speed.”

“I’m not disappointed in anything today.”

And the “anything” in Rahal’s mind included the large, enthusiastic crowd that filled Road America’s “National Park of Speed”. The whole weekend had a great atmosphere. People can camp and wander from place to place. They don’t have to stay in one spot and there’s stuff for the kids to do-zip-lines, karting.

“Places we need to race are right in front of us. We don’t need to overthink this. We just have to go there.”

Front row starter Scott Dixon dropped out with engine trouble after just six laps, Daly crashed, Gabby Chaves had two pit road speed penalties and Detroit race winner Sebastien Bourdais finished 18th, one lap down.

Not everybody had a great day on the track, but a whole lot of fans had a great day AT the track.

Power said his mojo is back after his health issues, but it’s also quite clear that on a warm and sunny Elkhart Lake afternoon, Road America also has its MOJO back.

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