STEAM CORNERS, Ohio -- You could look at the Honda Indy 200 as a microcosm of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season as a whole.?Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, the two main (Chevrolet equipped, sorry Honda) championship contenders, waged an intense duel over 90 laps at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course that ended in favor of the Frenchman.?The Team Penske teammates started alongside each other on the front row, and along with their respective crews, fought a clean and compelling battle that demonstrated why they have distanced themselves from the field this year.?In typical IndyCar fashion, the race could have thrown a surprise result, as Mikhail Aleshin and Conor Daly used alternate pit stop strategies to combine to lead more than half the laps.?But ultimately the eighth win of Pagenauds IndyCar career came down to hard, wheel-to-wheel racing -- with one of his teammates.?If anybody doubts how hard the man from Poitiers is willing to push in the quest for his first series championship, they should watch a replay of Lap 66 of Sundays race.?Lining up third behind an off-sequence Daly and Power for the restart, Pagenaud banged wheels as he tried to pass Power on the outside of Turn 4 on the entry to Mid-Ohios esses.?With Power suffering from rubber pickup on his tires, Pagenaud stayed glued to his teammates gearbox through the next four corners and got a run through Thunder Valley to try an audacious move into Turn 10 that got properly chopped. But Pagenaud stayed with it, ducking to the inside on entry to the Carousel.?The two Penske cars made contact again, but the No. 22 emerged ahead of the No. 12 through the sequence of corners and pulled away in the run to the finish. Pagenaud won by 4.16 seconds and stretched his championship advantage to 58 points over Power.?Compounding the joy from his fourth win of the season (and first since early May on the road course at Indianapolis), most of the other drivers in championship contention had bad days Sunday at Mid-Ohio.?Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon came into the weekend third and fourth in the title sweepstakes but crashed out together in an incident that, again, was pretty much symbolic of the season as a whole.?While Pagenaud and Power separate themselves from the IndyCar field, everyone else self-destructs.?Pagenaud started the season with three wins and three second-place finishes, and he withstood challenges from Dixon and several others before Power emerged as his main contender.?An under-the weather Power missed the season opener, but he has bounced back with a championship-caliber season in any other year against any other teammate. As well as the Australian performed on Sunday, it wasnt enough to topple his teammate from scoring a very timely victory.?I just made a dogs breath of the bloody restart, which allowed him to get into the position to have a shot, Power said. And if you have a shot, of course you cant pass it up. Youve got to go for it, and he did.?I really put myself in a bad position, and I should have done a better job of just getting a jump on the restart. ?No question. Mid-Ohio is a notoriously difficult place to pass, so Pagenaud knew his only chance to pass Power would come on a restart or soon after.?When the opportunity came, Pagenaud struck with ruthless precision. When Power lagged, Pagenaud raced him hard and clean and was rewarded with a satisfying victory on a day when he wondered whether he could even make the start after tweaking his back in the Saturday morning practice session.?It looked like an excellent opportunity for Power -- or Castroneves, Dixon, or even Josef Newgarden -- to capitalize.?But serial blocker Castroneves took care of Dixon and himself, while Aleshin -- who had the race in the bag based on his midrace pace -- crashed out Newgarden in the pits.?That set up the Lap 66 restart showdown between Pagenaud and Power. And we know how that came out.?I knew that was my chance, Pagenaud said. On that restart, it was time to go. And it was a pretty interesting lap. That was fun driving like that.?Thats racing, he added. It was fair, it was clean. It was hard racing, and Im just glad I won.?Team Penske drivers arrived at Mid-Ohio ranked 1-2-3 in the IndyCar Series, and the order remained the same when they left.?But Castroneves is now 111 points behind Pagenaud with four races remaining, as Pagenaud and Power have turned the title chase into a two-man show.?Power started the season in a 40-point hole thanks to the concussion-like symptoms that held him out of the opener at St. Petersburg. And hard as he has tried -- matching Pagenaud win for win up through Sunday -- he just cant seem to make up that disadvantage.?It was a good clean battle and it was tough, but it sucks finishing second, Power said. Simon did a bloody good job. He saw an opportunity and he went for it, which he should.?Its turning into a pretty good battle, though the points have opened up, obviously, he added. We need to keep pushing.?With no team orders at Team Penske, Pagenaud and Power duked it out fair and square, and the fastest man won.?Thats the way it played out at Mid-Ohio -- and on the season as a whole.?Sundays race was the kind of clean, fair competition that Roger Penske relishes. In terms of intrateam championship battles, this one is far more authentic and realistic than the one being contested between Mercedes-Benz teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Formula One.? ?Well look, those guys both want it, and I think thats the reason theyre both driving for us, Penske said of Power and Pagenaud. Fortunately it didnt cause a problem, but overall it was a little dicey.?A little dicey but nobody crashed. That next Penske team meeting will be a lot less awkward than it could have been.?Mid-Ohio, with big crowds lining the hillsides surrounding the old-fashioned road course, was a great showcase for the IndyCar Series. It summed up the whole season, in fact.?It was close racing but it was clean, to the limits, Pagenaud said. At the end of the day, we didnt crash. We did what we were supposed to do as top drivers. I thought it was a great battle, and it was fantastic for the fans, what happened.?I just saw a chance and I went for it, really. Didnt think much more of it.Adidas Ultra Boost Outlet Uk .ca NFL Power Rankings, overtaking the Denver Broncos and remaining ahead of NFC competition San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans. Latest Nmd Trainers . The Islanders dealt Thomas Vanek to the Montreal Canadiens after less than a year on Long Island. Meanwhile, the Oilers dealt long-time sniper Ales hemsky to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in 2014 and a third-rounder in 2015. http://www.nmdukonlinestore.com/nmd-r1-trainers-outlet-deals.html . By having more great seasons. Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. Adidas Eqt Trainers Uk . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. Wholesale Adidas NMD R2 . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months.NEW YORK -- Tom Brady isnt the only star player suspended by the NFL when the season begins.Joining the four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback from the Patriots on the sidelines are such standouts as Steelers running back LeVeon Bell (three games, violating the substance abuse policy); Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus (four games, substance abuse); Jets defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson (one game, personal conduct); and Patriots DE Rob Ninkovich (four games, performance enhancers).Other notable veterans under suspension are Browns receiver Josh Gordon (four games, substance abuse); Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict (three games, player safety violations); Giants kicker Josh Brown (one game, personal conduct); and Cowboys LB Rolando McClain (10 games, substance abuse).Brady, of course, is out for four games for his role in the use of deflated footballs in the AFC title game after the 2014 season. During the summer, he dropped his appeals of the suspension handed down by Commissioner Roger Goodell in the Deflategate saga.So in steps untested Jimmy Garoppolo.This is why you play the game. You play to be in the game and play. You dont want to be the backup, Garoppolo said.dddddddddddd The opportunity is here. Ive just got to go take advantage of it.Three players are under indefinite suspension for substance abuse violations: Steelers WR Martavis Bryant, Raiders LB Aldon Smith and Redskins RB Silas Redd. Ravens tight end Nick Boyle is out for 10 games (performance enhancers).Clevelands Gordon comes off a lost year when he was suspended for failing another drug test. He hasnt played in a game since December 2014 and will get back on the field for the same game Brady returns to New England on Oct. 9.Im the same guy, Gordon said during training camp. Im definitely the same guy. Im confident in my abilities. I definitely am aware of what I can do and I think I can build upon that and do even better.In all, 28 players are suspended, including three Cowboys: Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence each got four games for substance abuse. Baltimore, New England, Cleveland and Green Bay each have two players suspended.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '