INDIANAPOLIS — Australian Will Power won a late-race dash to capture his first Indianapolis 500 on Sunday on one of the hottest days in the history of the century-old race.
“I was wondering if I would ever win it,” Power, 37, said after he took the race’s traditional sip of milk in Victory Lane. “I just couldn’t imagine winning a race in front of a crowd like this” of more than 250,000 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he said.
Power, a former champion in the Verizon IndyCar Series, drives for racing mogul Roger Penske and his win was a record 17th Indy 500 victory for the team owner.
Pole-sitter Ed Carpenter finished second and former Indy 500 winners Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi finished third and fourth, respectively.
When the field was restarted with only seven laps left, Power was third behind Stefan Wilson and Jack Harvey. But Wilson and Harvey were forced to pit for fuel with four laps to go, enabling Power to take the lead.
The caution was set up by a crash involving former Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan with 11 laps left in the 200-lap race.
Kanaan, a former Indy 500 winner, was among several drivers who spun out and slammed the wall as the field grappled with the sizzling track temperatures and a newly designed car for this season.
They also included Danica Patrick, who was driving her final career race Sunday, along with 2017 winner Takuma Sato, Helio Castroneves, Sebastien Bourdais, Ed Jones and Sage Karam. None was seriously hurt.
Castroneves was hoping to become only the fourth driver in history to win the celebrated race four times.
Temperatures during the race reached the low-90s; the official record high before Sunday was 92 degrees in 1937.