Hours of introspection midway through the 2013 Verizon IndyCar Series season, when Will Power was sitting 12th in the standings and without a podium finish, are now regaled as a career watershed.
The series championship runner-up in 2010-12 says those rewarding, but ultimately disappointing, seasons in which he was “feeling the points” affected his driving – and ultimately results -- the following year.
He qualified well, as usual – 11 times in the top five, including two poles -- but wins were negligible through 14 rounds. Reaching Sonoma Raceway, whose blind corners and rattling undulations were a metaphor for his Indy car service, and the hard self-inspection began the page-turning period. Power qualified third and became the track’s first multiple Indy car race winner.
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“It taught me you just need to race hard no matter what,” Power reflects on 2013 drought. “In fact, the results came a lot better when I did that. I just started driving more naturally instead of trying to manipulate things. I just drove my normal way, which I had done in junior categories coming up and I carried that into the next season and it felt good and I just raced each race as it is and not think too much about it.”
Dividends were immediate and impactful – victories in the final two races of the 2013 season and another to start the next year at St. Petersburg. Power followed with five podium finishes (two wins, three second-place finishes) in the next seven races and went on to secure his first series title in the season finale at Auto Club Speedway.
Power, who turns 34 on March 1, begins defense of his Verizon IndyCar Series championship in the No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in a month. New challenges will arise, but the North Carolina resident will seek to retain the "don't over-think it" approach to each of the 16 races.
“When I look back at the season I was a contender in every single race,” he said of 2014, which included three wins and 15 of 18 finishes in the top 10. “It wasn’t a more dominant year than I’ve had in the past with winning and poles, but it was a consistently solid year. I won three and I was always there knocking on the door, capable of a top-five finish.”
Though Power has reached a personal pinnacle – “something I worked really hard for for the last 15 years” – he’s not content. There’s additional career markers, including an Indianapolis 500 victory and more series titles, to attain. Reprising his 2014 race results might not be enough, he acknowledges, to repeat as champion.
“It’s another year and I just think it’s something in your head when you’ve done it, know you can do it,” Power said. “When it happens, you realize it’s not this impossible task so in that way you get a more comfortable feeling, more confidence and I guess more relaxed. But you have a very burning desire to win because you understand the feeling when you did and you want it again.
“I'm still motivated as all hell. I want to feel it all again. I want another championship, and another.”
Aero kits to add another dimension
The winner of the St. Petersburg race has gone on to win the championship four times, and since 1995 five drivers have won the season-opening race and gone on to win the series title.
Power also won on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit in 2010 and was runner-up to Dario Franchitti in 2011. He earned the pole in four consecutive years (2010-13). But precedent largely will be discarded this year with the introduction of aerodynamic bodywork kits designed, manufactured and supplied by Chevrolet and Honda.
There will be limited testing of the road/street and short oval aero kits entering the race weekend. Promoter Day sessions totaling 2 hours, 30 minutes on the afternoon of March 27 will precede a 45-minute practice March 28 before the three rounds of qualifications for the 110-lap race March 29 (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
“I hope it will be great racing again because one of the great things about IndyCar the last three years is how good and aggressive the racing has been with the way this car drives and isn’t affected too terribly by the turbulent air of the car in front,” Power said. “When you start adding winglets you can be dependent on little aero bits and disturbed air becomes more of an issue.”
Additionally, the field that rose to tie an Indy car record with 11 different winners in 2014 returns largely intact. Rivals are within Team Penske, too, with 2013 and ‘14 championship runner-up Helio Castronves, 2014 race winner and 1999 CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya and the addition of 2014 multiple race winner Simon Pagenaud.
“It never seems to get easier,” Power said. “Everyone learns more and things get tighter. What has been very cool has been IndyCar’s continuity of drivers from year to year. Now the same people are turning back up and all these young guys are seriously quick. (Jack) Hawksworth’s speed was very impressive, and the consistency of (Carlos) Munoz was very impressive, too. The whole series is so competitive. You just see that in the last two years, how many different race winners there were, how many different pole-sitters there were. There's nothing worse in a series where the same people win over and over and over, there's no competition. That's what is cool about IndyCar. You can be 22nd one week, then you can be winning a race a next week. I think that keeps the fans interested. That's how a series should be.
“It will be a tough year. You got to earn your meal ticket.”
Looking at how Power finished relative to his qualifying position:
Click to download the hi-res infographic
