Will Power finally overcame his IndyCar championship demons.

The 33-year-old driver of Toowoomba, Australia, had finished second in the point standings three times in the past four years, but he delivered a special moment Saturday night in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

Power finished ninth in the season-ending race as Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves settled for 14th place after a penalty for crossing a line coming to pit road.

The white line in the corners is to keep drivers from straying into the path of others still on the track. Castroneves was on pit road in turn three but drifted up in turn four before turning down toward pit road.

“I was crying over the line,” Power said. “[The race] just went on and on, slowly making up positions.

“I can’t believe I’m the champion. That’s 15 years of hard work.”

Tony Kanaan won the race, his first for Ganassi Racing since replacing Dario Franchitti, the driver who twice denied Power the championship. Kanaan became the 11th different driver to win this season, matching the record set twice in CART. It also gave Chip Ganassi’s team three wins in the season’s final four races.

After qualifying poorly, in 21st among 22, Power and strategist Tim Cindric decided to go conservative with the race approach. Power made no move to advance his position in the early laps, and he was briefly last in the field.

Slowly and surely he started his march, picking off a car here, another there. After the second pit stop at lap 70, he was 10th and starting to see the level he needed.

Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud effectively lost his chance to steal the title from Team Penske early on. The most points the Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports driver could attain was 648 and that’s if he scored maximum race-day points. That meant Power only needed to finish in the top 19. Pagenaud didn’t help his chances by falling a lap off the pace with an early pit stop under green, on lap 22, and he nearly crashed leaving the pits as he did in Wednesday’s test.

Pagenaud was trying to win his first IndyCar Series championship. He won an American Le Mans Series sports car title in 2010, and he continued to show why he’s the top member of IndyCar’s free agent class. Pagenaud said he’d decide where he’ll race next season in the next couple of weeks.

The race went on without Pagenaud’s teammate, rookie Mikhail Aleshin, who was hospitalized at Loma Linda University Medical Center with an assortment of injuries suffered in Friday night’s crash in the final practice.

Aleshin was in stable condition Saturday evening with a broken clavicle, fractured ribs, a concussion and a chest injury that was vague in its description. IndyCar did confirm, however, that Aleshin had a procedure on his chest.

Aleshin, a 27-year-old Moscow native, is expected to remain hospitalized for the next five to seven days. His car was withdrawn from the race.

Notes

-MAVTV announced a two-year extension to sponsor IndyCar races at this track, but the date will be changing. Track president Gillian Zucker is pushing for a June weekend, and it’s expected that the sanctioning body will accommodate.

-Rookie Carlos Huertas won an IndyCar race earlier this year, in Houston in June, but he was no factor this weekend. He qualified last among the 22 drivers at 202.319 mph. The pole speed was 218.540 mph. He was first out of the race with an illness.

-Castroneves’ pole was significant for more than the championship point he earned. The top qualifying spot was the 41st of his career, breaking a tie for fourth place with Rick Mears. Next for Castroneves to catch is Bobby Unser with 49.

Results

1. Tony Kanaan Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

2. Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet + 3.675s

3. Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet + 7.3053s

4. Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Chevrolet + 7.9238s

5. James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Honda + 11.8858s

6. Takuma Sato AJ Foyt Racing Honda + 12.6887s

7. Ryan Briscoe NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet + 16.5113s

8. Carlos Munoz Andretti Autosport - HVM Racing Honda + 23.2807s

9. Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet + 28.3456s

10. Josef Newgarden Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda + 32.1856s

11. Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Honda + 1 laps

12. Charlie Kimball Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet + 1 laps

13. Justin Wilson Dale Coyne Racing Honda + 1 laps

14. Helio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet + 1 laps

15. Jack Hawksworth Bryan Herta Autosport Honda + 1 laps

16. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda + 2 laps

17. Sebastian Saavedra KV AFS Racing Chevrolet + 2 laps

18. Sebastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Chevrolet + 5 laps

19. Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda + 6 laps

20. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda + 7 laps

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