NEWTON, Iowa – By virtue of a masterful overcut and a timely caution after starting outside the top-20 on an oval track that in the span of a year has become almost impossible to pass for the bulk of the IndyCar field, Will Power and his No. 12 Team Penske Chevy team orchestrated a much-needed bounce-back victory Sunday at Iowa Speedway after finishing 18th in Saturday night’s first leg of the doubleheader weekend.

Power’s win, his second of the year, helped further shrink championship leader Alex Palou’s title lead down to 35 points with six races to go. Power's 43rd win of his career also broke an all-time wins list tie with Michael Andretti, giving the Team Penske driver the solo hold on fourth all-time, and it marked Power’s first oval race win since Pocono in 2019.

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It’s also Power’s first race win at Iowa Speedway.

“I’ve been trying to win this race for years, so I’m over the moon,” Power said post-race. “We’re right back in the game.

“I actually thought coming into the season, ‘I want to win an oval and win multiple races.’”

Here’s how he did it:

A processional first 100 laps

A snoozer of a first 90-plus laps Sunday at Iowa Speedway delivered precisely zero passes or position changes within the top-8, as polesitter Scott McLaughlin held onto his early lead after clinching his first-career oval win 15 hours prior. As he did in Saturday night’s race to combat a poor qualifying performance, six-time Iowa race-winner Josef Newgarden jumped from 14^th to 10^th in the first lap-and-a-half after the green flag.

Unlike Saturday’s front-end of the doubleheader, the 27-car field made it through the first lap unscathed and proceeded to run 92 laps before the first round of stops by those in the top-10. For comparison, recent IndyCar Iowa races would feature several drivers — even those running well — begging their respective teams to come in and pit roughly 50 laps into a stint, while needing to run 10-15 laps more.

Graham Rahal kicked off the first of two rounds of pitstops among the lead pack on Lap 93, triggering nearly the entire field to come in over the next five laps or so — all except Palou and Power.

The caution Will Power, Team Penske needed

Just as Agustin Canapino spun to bring out the race’s first and only caution on Lap 100, Palou managed to dive into pitlane to make his first stop of the day. Power, though remained out and put a full lap on the entire field. After starting 22^nd, the Team Penske driver was able to make his stop under caution and blend back into the lead-pack in second place, just ahead of polesitter and teammate McLaughlin and behind Palou.

With the return to green-flag racing at the end of Lap 113, Palou (first), Power (second), McLaughlin (third), Scott Dixon (fourth) and Colton Herta (fifth) made up the top-5.

“Just a massive fuel save. Honestly, I was just sitting in the back. I knew I had a really good car, a really fast car and just wanted to sit in the pack,” Power said. “I knew once those guys pulled in, I could go hard and caught a yellow.

“That was the sort of thing we were hoping for to help us cycle to the front and then get better fuel behind Palou, go a couple laps longer than him and jump him."

A final race win-clinching stop for Will Power

Though Santino Ferrucci made seemingly easy work of the high line and wove through the middle of the field from 17^th to 10^th during the first 15 laps following the return to green flag racing, the front of the field stayed intact.

McLaughlin kicked off the final round of stops on Lap 197, with Palou (Lap 205) and Power (Lap 206) stretching their middle stints longer. By virtue of a super-speedy in-lap, pit stop and out-lap that took 0.888 seconds less than Palou, Power jumped the championship points leader to take control of the race – one that he wouldn’t surrender.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Will Power wins Race 2 at Iowa Speedway, closes IndyCar points gap