LONG POND, Pa. -- Things certainly do happen quickly in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Will Power stole a stealthy victory Monday in the rain-delayed ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway in a race that Ryan Hunter-Reay or Mikhail Aleshin looked destined to win.
Power's triumph, coupled with his teammate Simon Pagenaud's crash, moved the Australian within 20 points of his Team Penske teammate with three races remaining in the 2016 season. Coming into Pocono, Power was 58 points back.
His goal was to cut that number by a quarter. Instead, he experienced one of the big point swings that he was often on the wrong side of before he broke through to win his first IndyCar Series championship in 2014.
Power's 29th career IndyCar Series win was the product of a mature drive reminiscent of Team Penske advisor (and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner) Rick Mears -- with a little bit of Power's longtime rival Dario Franchitti thrown in.
"Now that I've gotten older and mature as a driver, I can see how you just let the race unfold," Power said. "I have a lot of respect for Dario, and I have more respect for him now that I'm older, seeing how he worked and all that. He knew when to take risks, and it used to frustrate me because I'd think, 'I'm quicker!'
"I just think the older you get, the more you let the race happen. You don't try to force it. If you've got it, you've got it. If you don't, you settle for where you're at. That's what I was doing. You just have to play the game right."
Meanwhile, Pagenaud, who has led the point standings since the second race of the season at Phoenix, crashed on his own on Lap 148 of 200.
"Certainly a real shame for the championship," Pagenaud said. "That's certainly not what we wanted to see happen today, but it happens, and it's my first mistake of the year."
Power, who had a reputation for cracking under pressure when he came out second-best in championship battles with Franchitti in 2010 and '11 and Hunter-Reay in 2012, instead was the driver who never put a wheel wrong on Monday.
Power started the Pocono race eighth and ran in the bottom half of the top 10 for the first half of the contest. He said his car came to life around the midway point, which put him within reach of pole winner Aleshin and Hunter-Reay, who crashed in practice but drove through the field to lead several times Monday in an Andretti Autosport Honda that looked like the fastest car in the field.
But Hunter-Reay's car suffered an electrical glitch, and the American star fell a lap behind before making a furious comeback to third place in the last 20 laps.
It was a bitter pill for the 2012 IndyCar Series champion, who has suffered through a disappointing 2016 campaign. Just like at Indianapolis (he was eliminated in a pit lane accident), RHR felt like this was one that got away.
"The engine shuts off while you're leading ... I don't know," Hunter-Reay said. "Something pretty freak happened. We just can't seem to catch a break.
"At the end, we just ran out of time. It's very frustrating. I'm trying to smile about it, trying to be upbeat about it, but after the season we've had this year, it's very disheartening."
That left Aleshin to lead the chase of Power, who led the last 36 laps and 55 in total. Aleshin demonstrated the strength of the Honda superspeedway engine and aero package by leading 87 laps from pole, but a bad penultimate stint cost the Russian driver a shot at his first IndyCar win.
"This day was definitely great, but it could have been greater if I was standing on the top step of the podium," Aleshin said. "Today, I think Will deserved it more because he was faster. I could catch him, but I couldn't get past. I was going sideways, and I almost lost my car a couple times. I wanted this win so bad, but it wasn't the case today."
With Penske's Helio Castroneves crashing out in a pit incident that also ended a promising run for Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, the championship is turning into a two-driver showdown between Pagenaud and Power.
Josef Newgarden is third in the standings, 100 points behind Pagenaud, but Newgarden won't restart the continuance of the rained-out race on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. Four-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon is -111 and Castroneves is -113.
Even though it's a two-man fight, it's still shaping up as a good one, as Power and Pagenaud have been evenly matched on road courses this year. Expect to see the Penske teammates fighting for the title from the front of the field at Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
"It would be nice to be an IndyCar fan right now because it's going to be a good one," said Hunter-Reay "When I saw that flourescent bodywork into the wall today [Pagenaud's bright yellow Menard's car crashing], I knew things were getting interesting and it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Simon is a big-picture thinker and a very calculated driver, and Will has got the bit between his teeth and hair is on fire.
"It's going to be interesting and I just wish we were in the mix."