Tire Failure Ends Promising Night for Will Power at Gateway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

MADISON, Ill. – After starting on pole, Will Power’s night at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway came to an early end just 47 laps into Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500.

Shortly after the start, Power dropped back to second-place behind David Malukas and was seemingly content to just ride and make a fuel number, but everything went out the window when his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet took off into the outside wall in Turn 4.

After bouncing off the SAFER barrier, Power limped his machine back to pit road, but the damage was terminal and he would retire from the race, saddling him with a 27^th place finish on the night. A tough blow for the 44-year-old Australian in need of a solid run as he finds himself in the midst of contract talks to remain at Team Penske after this season.

“It was a right-front tire failure,” Power said. “Man, I felt last night when we were running pretty much flat through [Turn] 3 and 4 every lap. And I was like ‘Man, this is a lot of load,’ like when I had a tire failure at Iowa, it felt the same. And yeah, that actually happened. Unfortunate for us.

“Blew the front. Man, you’re literally flat in [Turn] 3 and 4 every lap here and then, yeah, nothing I could do there. Unfortunate. I feel bad for everyone on the Verizon car.”

Will Power is in the WALL! 😬 pic.twitter.com/yaqb4mwW6z

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 16, 2025

Power added that he was optimistic in the strategy that his team was employing at the 1.25-mile oval, but they would never get the chance to see it play out. Now he’ll have to head to next week’s race at Road America looking to make a return trip to Victory Lane.

It was that race a year ago where Power broke his last winless streak.

“We had a good car, just sitting there saving fuel, getting a big number to try to get that fourth stop,” Power said. “I know Malukas was taking off. I figured he’d just catch traffic and we’d be able to get to him and probably knock a stop off the race.

“Nothing was going to stop a tire failure, unfortunately. That’s the way it is. We’ll go to the next one, man, and see if we can get a win. Like, we’re always knocking on the door, just not today.”