Will Power fades as Tony Kanaan wins Indy 500

WILL Power's Indianapolis 500 dream must wait another year after Brazil's Tony Kanaan won a thrilling race this morning (AEST).

Tony-Kanaan

WILL Power's Indianapolis 500 dream must wait another year after Brazil's Tony Kanaan won a thrilling race this morning (AEST).

Power twice held the lead in the 500-mile epic for a total of 16 laps of the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in a race that contained a record 68 lead changes overall.

But the Queenslander couldn't keep up his pace and faded to finish 19th with Kanaan taking out the race for the first time in his career.

Kanaan hit the front with three laps remaining after a restart, with a crash seconds later ensuring he claimed the win from Colombian rookie Carlos Munoz while American Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third.

Power started sixth but admitted mechanical dramas cost him after a bright start to the iconic motorsports event.

“All of the cars were all up on each other the whole race,” Power said.

“It was incredibly tough. We had a very good car but, when we got back in traffic, we started to struggle a little bit.

“Unfortunately, we had a fuel problem and had to come back in. That cost us a bunch of positions. But, that is racing.”

The result leaves Power well down in 14th on the championship standings, 79 points behind American Marco Andretti.

A series of races on his less-favoured American-style oval circuits lie ahead and the 32-year-old knows he'll need to find form if he's to have any hope of mounting a championship challenge this year.

Fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe did his hopes of regaining a full-time drive in the championship no harm by finishing 12th.

The Sydney-born driver said the race's red-hot pace, a record-breaking average speed of 187.433m/h (301.58km/h), made it difficult to challenge for honours.

“We were hoping for a little bit better of a result today,” Briscoe said.

“I think it really came down to a case of track position and we were never able to make a jump to the front of the field.

“It was such a quick race - there wasn't much alternative strategy to use where we could try something different with the car.

“If we would have been able to get to the front, we could have raced harder - but we were never able to get there.”

AAP