IndyCar’s Will Power Angry at Romain Grosjean, Scott Dixon, Road America Itself

IndyCar veteran and reigning champion Will Power is known for overwhelming single-lap speed, his 2018 Indianapolis 500 win, and a relentless aggression on track, but he is certainly not known for his patience. After a long day of practice and qualifying at Road America saw Power off track on three separate occasions, he unloaded all of that frustration into a post-session interview that was closer to a wrestling promo than anything you'd expect to encounter in a qualifying session.

All that frustration starts in practice, when two separate incidents in the span of a few minutes ended with Power crashing into six-time series champion Scott Dixon. The first incident saw Romain Grosjean block Power on a fast straight, which forced Power to put two wheels off. Shortly afterward, with Power still right behind, Grosjean came up on Scott Dixon and Dixon allowed him past. Dixon, who did not seem to see Power behind Grosjean, then tried to return to the racing line, only to find Power's car there and hit him at speed.

Power's frustrations compounded in qualifying, starting with an installation lap that Power immediately abandoned after noticing a screwdriver inside of the car. Power then went out with limited time to run a fast lap on a fast and freshly-repaved Road America, only to make a mistake and go off track. Unfortunately for Power, the runoff area at the track has been uneven since the repaving, and he became at least the third driver since the repave to catch some air upon going off the course and experience the pain of landing an IndyCar at speed. The all-time leader in IndyCar poles would qualify just 22nd.

Power had a tense exchange with Scott Dixon after his crash in practice, but the real fireworks came in a post-qualifying interview. Power started by sounding off on a track that is "just terrible when you go off," saying that Road America's runoff issues are so unsafe that "you almost break your back every time" a driver goes off the course at speed. In the rest of the interview, captured in the footage shared by the IndyCar social team above, Power blamed Dixon directly for what has become a disappointing race weekend and noted that recovering from major repairs before qualifying is a serious challenge. Then, when the interview seemed done, he added a final note about Grosjean, too: "and Grosjean is a piece of crap, if you saw what he did in practice. He needs a punch in the face."

All of Power, Dixon, and Grosjean made major mistakes in qualifying, so all will start between 19th and 23rd tomorrow. Power's frustrations may have boiled over, but a weekend of drama at one of America's greatest racing tracks has only just begun.

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