Will Power earned an impressive victory in the Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade on Sunday, and in doing so, the two-time Team Penske series champion increased his career race win total to 43, moving into sole possession of fourth place in the sport’s history. Power matched Michael Andretti’s career total with his victory at Road America last month.

Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway was Power’s 19th attempt at the short oval track east of Des Moines, Iowa. He has won seven poles in the event, but his best finish is four second-place finishes, including last year. His last oval win was nearly five years ago at Pocono Raceway. He now has 10 career oval wins.

“I’ve been trying to win this race for years (and) years,” said Power, who had a deep start in the 27-car field due to a wall crash in Saturday’s qualifying. “So, I’m very happy (I’m).”

Power, 43, started from the 22nd starting position and then got a quick serve from his No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet to beat series leader Alex Palou in the final pit stop change under green conditions. Power’s time advantage over Palou in that series was about nine-tenths of a second, according to information collected by NTT DATA.

The gap between Power and Palou was .3915 seconds at the finish line.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, winner of Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart, finished third. He led the first 94 laps of the race, bringing his total number of laps led for the second night in a row to 259.

McLaughlin lost Sunday’s lead when a caution came out on lap 101 for Agustin Canapino’s car stalling in Turn 2. Palou was on pit road at the time and Power had not yet made his scheduled pit stop, so the two drivers moved into the lead and pushed McLaughlin into third.

Power drove behind Palou for 104 of the next 114 laps until he passed him on the second pit stop. That was the difference in the outcome of the race on a sunny and hot Midwestern afternoon.

“Big fuel (savings),” Power said of how he moved up in the field. “To be honest, I was (just) sitting in the pack. I had a really good car — a really fast car — so I just dropped back and used that speed to save fuel and get a big (fuel) number.”

“I knew I could go hard when all the (leaders) came in for pit service and then we got a yellow flag. That’s what we were hoping for, to get one of the yellow flags that would put us in front. Then we were able to get better fuel economy behind Palou and go a lap longer than him and then jump in (to the pits).”

“We probably got the caution at the wrong time, (but) I accept that in the first and third (two races),” McLaughlin said.

Dixon finished fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing, while Colton Herta finished fifth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.

With this win, Power narrowed Palou’s points gap to 35 with six races remaining.

As Power and Palou crossed the finish line, a multi-car accident occurred exiting Turn 2. Sting Ray Robb hit the rear of Alexander Rossi’s car, launching Robb’s car vertically into the air. Behind them, Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood spun and crashed into the inside retaining wall with Rossi on top of Carpenter’s car on top of Kirkwood’s.

Rossi, Kirkwood and Carpenter climbed out of their damaged cars safely. Robb received two thumbs up before being transported to a local hospital as a precaution for further evaluation.

Practice for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, the 12th race of the season, begins Friday at 3 p.m. ET at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard earned his first series race victory on the temporary street track last year. The 85-lap race will be broadcast live on Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Standings:
Palou 379, Power 344, O’Ward 327, Dixon 322, McLaughlin 315, Herta 299, Kirkwood 274, Rossi 265, Newgarden 247, Ferrucci 221, Rosenqvist 219, Ericsson 209, Lundgaard 203, Rahal 177, Grosjean 177, VeeKay 177, Armstrong 173, Lundqvist 156, Simpson 125, Fittipaldi 124, Robb 116, Rasmussen 104, Canapino 104, Harvey 80, Siegel 79, Pourchaire 75, Malukas 54, Blomqvist 46, Ilott 39, Carpenter 32, Ghiotto 27, Castroneves 26, Daly 26, Legge 24, Larson 21, Sato 19, Sowery 17, Vautier 12, Braun 10, Hunter-Reay 6, Andretti 5

Presented by Hy-Vee One Step 250 Gatorade Race Results (finishing order, starting position in brackets, driver, engine, laps completed and reason for cancellation (if applicable)
1/ (22) Willpower, Chevrolet, 250, Works
2/ (2) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
3/ (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Works
4/ (3) Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
5/ (4) Colton Herta, Honda, 250, Running
6/ (7) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Working
7/ (14) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 250, Working
8/ (8) Graham Rahal, Honda, 250, Running
9/ (15) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 250, Works
10/ (16) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 250, Working
11/ (19) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 250, Working
12/ (13) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 250, Running
13/ (9) David Malukas, Honda, 250, Running
14/ (11) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 250, Working
15/ (6) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 249, Contact
16/ (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 249, Contact
17/ (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 249, Running
18/ (23) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 249, Running
19/ (25) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 249, Running
20/ (17) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 249, Running
21/ (20) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 248, Contact
22/ (26) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 248, Contact
23/ (21) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 248, Running
24/ (24) Katherine Legge, Honda, 248, Running
25/ (10) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 221, Mechanics
26/ (5) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 184, Mechanics
27/ (27) Conor Daly, Honda, 140, Mechanics