They came to the final corner of the XPEL Grand Prix fighting for the last step on the podium, two veterans with more than three decades of IndyCar racing between them. They left Canada Corner pointing fingers in opposite directions, and a week later neither has given an inch.
The last lap of Sunday’s race at Road America turned a promising afternoon for Graham Rahal into wreckage and a hard-earned result for Will Power into a fresh argument. Rahal restarted the one-lap dash in third and was defending against Power into Turn 12, the famous Canada Corner, when the two cars made contact. Rahal spun into the gravel two corners from the finish. Power gathered his car up and crossed the line third. The stewards penalized Rahal for blocking, dropped him to 23rd, and sent him tumbling to 12th in the championship. Two men watched the same replay and saw two different races.
Two Drivers, Two Versions of the Truth
Rahal did not hide from what he had done. He just refused to accept it was the whole story. “Was I blocking? Heck, yeah,” he said. “It’s the last lap. At the same time, he’s not on the white line, he’s got room to his left, so to run square into the back of somebody, it’s pretty disappointing.” His verdict on the man who hit him was blunt and weary, the sound of a driver who has seen this movie before. “Power being Power,” Rahal said.
Power, for his part, described a driver out of options. “I could not do anything. I was at the capacity of braking,” he said. “He moved it. There’s nothing I can do.” In Power’s telling, Rahal closed the door so late that contact was the only possible outcome, a physics problem rather than a moral one. In Rahal’s telling, Power had room to go left and chose instead to drive through the back of him.
Both versions can feel true at once, which is exactly why this kind of incident lingers. The stewards sided with the letter of the rule and penalized the blocking move. The drivers, and plenty of fans, are still arguing about the spirit of it.
What the Clash Cost Each Man
For Rahal, the sting goes beyond a single result. The 37 year old has been quietly rebuilding his season, putting himself back in the conversation after years in which his name had drifted toward the middle of the field. A podium at Road America would have been the loudest statement yet that the comeback was real. Instead he loaded a damaged car onto the truck and dropped four positions in the standings, a swing that turns a feel-good story into a what-might-have-been.
For Power, the podium was its own form of relief. The 2014 and 2022 champion is in the middle of a difficult first season with Andretti Global, a year that has tested a driver used to running at the front. Third place at Road America was only his second podium of the campaign, and it carried more weight than the position alone suggests. It was also the 110th podium of Power’s career, which moves him to fourth on IndyCar’s all-time list, a milestone reached in the most Power way imaginable, on the edge of the brakes with another driver spinning behind him.
A History That Colors the Present
Part of why “Power being Power” landed the way it did is that Rahal and Power have been racing each other since before some of the grid’s rookies had driver’s licenses. Power debuted in American open-wheel racing in 2008. Rahal won his first IndyCar race in 2008. They have shared corners, traded paint, and built up the kind of familiarity that breeds both respect and exasperation. When Rahal reached for that phrase, he was not describing one corner. He was describing a reputation built over nearly twenty years of hard, late, unapologetic racing.
Power has never apologized for that style, and his career stats are the argument for it. More than 70 career poles, two championships, and now 110 podiums do not come to drivers who lift early. The flip side is moments like Canada Corner, where the same refusal to yield that built the record also builds the resentment. Rahal’s frustration is the frustration of a man who knows precisely who he is racing and still got caught out by it.
Where It Leaves the Title Picture
The championship math did not move at the very top. Alex Palou continues to lead, with Christian Lundgaard taking the win at Road America after his own first-lap drama, the kind of result that keeps the title fight breathing. But the incident reshaped the middle of the order. Rahal’s fall to 12th costs him momentum he had spent weeks gathering, while Power’s podium keeps him in touch despite a season that has rarely cooperated.
Neither driver is likely to let this one fade quietly. Rahal made clear he felt wronged. Power made clear he felt blameless. The next time the two find themselves side by side late in a race, every fan watching will remember Canada Corner, and so will they. That is the thing about a clash like this. The stewards can assign a penalty and close the file, but the drivers carry the grudge to the next green flag, and the one after that.
IndyCar’s second half is shaping up around exactly these kinds of margins, where a single corner can swing a championship position and a single phrase can define a rivalry. Rahal and Power gave the season one of each on the same lap. They will not agree on what happened. They do not have to. The racing will sort it out, one late braking zone at a time.
Sources:
- https://www.indycar.com/news/2026/06/06-21-buzz-ra
- https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/power-being-power-says-rahal-after-last-lap-road-america-podium-clash/10832279/
- https://speedcafe.com/indycar-news-2026-road-america-will-power-vs-graham-rahal-crash-incident-reaction-comments-video/
- https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/06/22/will-power-and-graham-rahal-at-odds-over-last-lap-incident/
