Team Penske’s reigning champion was late getting into his #12 Chevrolet-powered car when he misplaced his regular earbuds and was then horrified to discover that his spare set wasn’t in his helmet bag either.
Someone had to run to his RV in the paddock to get them, which delayed Power from getting into the car. His late departure from pitlane meant he had to drive flat-out to catch up with the pack and then overtake the majority of the field to take up his seventh place starting spot.
That meant he couldn’t run his first stint as long as he wanted to and subsequently he lost out to those that used the powerful overcut at the opening round of pitstops.
“It was not a very good day, kinda had to use a lot of fuel after I got into the car late,” said Power. “That stopped us going an extra lap [before the first pitstop] and lost us a lot of positions in that sequence. So went from something like third to 10th or 11th.
“Freaked out [about] almost not starting, normally we have a spare pair of earbuds in the [helmet] bag, for some reason they were gone. The primaries, because we finished qualifying late I went back to the bus to do an appearance, they were in the bus.
“Yeah, just not a good situation. I’m going to have about five spare pairs from now on! I was freaking out, any longer we were going a lap down and the whole day is ruined by not having any earbuds, so a good lesson there.”
The compromised strategy meant that he slumped to 10th place, losing spots to race-winner Kyle Kirkwood, team-mate Josef Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) who all started behind him.
“It was as good as we could do today,” he rued. “Just that bit of strategy stuff meant it was one of those days.”