If Will Power is going to win a third IndyCar Series championship, it’ll have to happen by overcoming a massive points deficit.
With three rounds to go, beginning with this weekend’s doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile, the 43-year-old Aussie trails championship leader Alex Palou by 54 points. If Palou adds even one point to that total after Sunday, he becomes the first back-to-back series champion in over a decade (Dario Franchitti, 2009-11) and will be his third title won over the last four seasons.
One very distinct advantage Power has over Palou is the fact the last three races are all on ovals, a track discipline Power has won on 10 times, including the 2018 Indianapolis 500, over his illustrious career. Palou has delivered some strong results on ovals with 15 top 10s over the last 18, which puts him level with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward for the most over that stretch. However, Palou has yet to win on one.
Power, along with teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, have kept Team Penske perfect on ovals, winning all four races thus far. Team Penske, in general, has been a force on ovals over the past three years, winning 12 of the last 15 contests — 10 of which are courtesy of Newgarden’s mastery.
With Power sitting second in the title race and the best shot to bring the Astor Cup Trophy back to Penske, the biggest question is if his teammates will do all they can to elevate him or race for themselves.
“I think if we have the cars to win, and we want to win the championship, yes, that’s probably what we should do with three to go,” Power said.
“We should probably be looking at how can we get the No. 12 car in the best possible position. Really that’s our only chance. We got three really good drivers — four really if you include Santino (Ferrucci, via Penske’s technical alliance with AJ Foyt Racing) — that are capable of running at the front.
““Yeah, that can take up a lot of positions. I’m the head of that group, we win the race, that starts to make things look possible,” Power said. “We’ll talk about that when we get to Milwaukee, see if that’s a possibility.”
And he wasn’t shy in sharing the significance of what a third championship would mean to him.
“Oh, yeah, tremendous, tremendous in many different ways,” Power said. “To win in this series, at this time, it’s so difficult. You get a third championship from a deficit of 54 points at this point, come back from a deficit like that, yeah, that would be amazing. It would be absolutely amazing. To finish on all ovals, as well, kind of going back to my early days, sort of unfinished business there. “Yeah, it’s a tough climb from here, but not impossible.”