WILL POWER, OF AUSTRALIA, leads the field on a restart late in the Indianapolis 500 on his way to winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS — Will Power hated racing on ovals. He wasn’t a fan of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and figured he would never win the Indianapolis 500.

That kind of attitude doesn’t fly when you drive for Roger Penske.

Power had to change his thinking and his performance on oval tracks. He learned to respect the speedway. And the 37-year-old Power is now a winner of one of the biggest races in the world.

“I’ve slowly changed to be a more positive person. It’s hard when you’re very negative,” said Power, who pulled away in the final moments to win the 102nd running of the Indy 500. “You’ve got to have determination. That’s what I had. You work hard at something, it comes to you. It eventually comes to you. (Indy) was the last box to tick, to be considered as a very successful driver.”

The different approach landed Power in the most storied winner’s circle in history Sunday when he gave Penske a 17th victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Power actually swept the month of May at Indy after winning on the road course two weeks ago and his 34 wins tied him with Al Unser Jr. for eighth on IndyCar’s all-time list.

Power is also the winningest IndyCar driver in Penske history (31). He is the first Australian victor in 102 editions of the race, and joined countryman Daniel Ricciardo as winners on the biggest day of the

year in motor sports. Ricciardo won Formula One’s Monaco Grand Prix earlier Sunday.

Power celebrated the checkered flag by screaming into his radio: “Show me respect, (expletive)!” When he got to the winner’s circle, he screamed some more. Some two hours after the race, he was exhausted.

“I just screamed like I’ve never screamed before. It was just amazing. The last two laps, the last lap, seeing the white flag, the checkered, I mean, you can’t explain it,” Power said. “It’s what I needed so badly, what I wanted so badly, and it came true. Anyone here knows how that would feel. You want something so much, it comes through to you through hard work and determination.

Penske arrived in Indy with four fast Chevrolets, and the engine builder was determined to snap Honda’s two-race Indy 500 winning streak. The Chevys were the fastest cars in the field and Team Penske had four equal chances to win.

As Power held off pole winner Ed Carpenter to win his first Indy 500, the 81-yearold Penske pumped his fist in the air and clapped. Penske was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this month, and had a shot at closing Sunday with a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina.

“To be able to race on Memorial Day in the biggest sporting event in the world, have America the way it is, that’s what I’m going to take away from this race,” Penske said. “I’m just so thrilled, 17 wins. Now I have to worry about 18. I’m not going to look back, I’ll look forward. We have to be back next year.”

Penske also credited his strong lineup of 2014 series champion Power, 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud, reigning champion Josef Newgarden and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves.

“We had four great cars. That’s what you have to have here. You have to have four bullets, whatever it takes,” Penske said.

Indianapolis 500 Results

By The Associated Press

Sunday

At Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Indianapolis

Lap length: 2.5 miles

(Post position in parentheses)

1. (3) Will Power, Chevrolet, 200, Running

2. (1) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 200, Running

3. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200, Running

4. (32) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 200, Running

5. (14) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 200, Running

6. (2) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 200, Running

7. (21) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 200, Running

8. (4) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 200, Running

9. (18) Robert Wickens, Honda, 200, Running

10. (30) Graham Rahal, Honda, 200, Running

11. (27) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 200, Running

12. (12) Marco Andretti, Honda, 200, Running

13. (11) Matheus Leist, Chevrolet, 200, Running

14. (22) Gabby Chaves, Chevrolet, 200, Running

15. (23) Stefan Wilson, Honda, 200, Running

16. (31) Jack Harvey, Honda, 200, Running

17. (26) Oriol Servia, Honda, 200, Running

18. (15) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 200, Running

19. (13) Zachary Claman De Melo, Honda, 199, Running

20. (6) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 199, Running

21. (33) Conor Daly, Honda, 199, Running

22. (20) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 198, Running

23. (25) Zach Veach, Honda, 198, Running

24. (28) Jay Howard, Honda, 193, Running

25. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 187, Contact

26. (24) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 154, Contact

27. (8) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 145, Contact

28. (5) Sebastien Bourdais, Honda, 137, Contact

29. (17) Kyle Kaiser, Chevrolet, 110, Mechanical

30. (7) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 67, Contact

31. (29) Ed Jones, Honda, 57, Contact

32. (16) Takuma Sato, Honda, 46, Contact

33. (19) James Davison, Chevrolet, 45, Contact

Race Statistics

Winner’s average speed: 166.935 mph.

Time of Race: 2:59:42.6365.

Margin of victory: 3.1589 seconds.

Cautions: 7 for 41 laps.

Lead changes: 30 among, 15 drivers.

Lap Leaders: Carpenter 1-30; Newgarden 31; Pigot 32-34; Carpenter 35-50; Claman De Melo 51-55; Carpenter 56-62; Kanaan 63-64; Carpenter 65-72; Kanaan 73-89; Carpenter 90-91; Power 92-94; Servia, Oriol 95; Bourdais 96; Rahal, Graham 97-105; Claman De Melo 106-107; Power 108-128; Hunter-Reay 129; Bourdais 130-132; Newgarden 133-134; Rahal, Graham 135-137; Munoz, Carlos 138-140; Power 141-170; Carpenter 171-172; Rossi, Alexander 173; Pagenaud, Simon 174; Munoz, Carlos 175; Servia, Oriol 176-177; Wickens, Robert 178-179; Servia, Oriol 180-192; Wilson, Stefan 193-195; Power 196-200.

Point standings: 1, Power 243; 2, Rossi 241; 3, Newgarden 233; 4, Dixon 218; 5, Hunter-Reay 186; 6, Rahal 183; 7, Wickens 178; 8, Bourdais 168; 9, Pagenaud 155; 10, James Hinchliffe 144.