Will Power has been driving for Team Penske’s dominant IndyCar squad for 11 years and has had his share of successes in recent years including a championship in 2014 and an Indianapolis 500 win in 2018.
A year after he won the infamous race at the Brickyard, the Australian finished fifth and saw fellow Penske driver Simon Pagenaud go on to claim his first Indy 500 win.
When asked about how it felt to have his long-time teammate experience the excitement he felt just one year prior, Power explained that nothing compares to his own victory.
“You understand how it feels. It’s a great achievement in this series. But you’re never that happy to see someone else win it, simply.
“There’s only one person who’s happy at the end of that month and that’s the winner. Everyone wants to win. If you’re happy about someone else winning, you’ve got a bit of a problem.”
Power has been racing in America’s top-level open wheel series since 2005 and has seen the series go through many changes and safety improvements.
A significant change to IndyCar this year is the addition of the Red Bull Advanced Technologies Aeroscreen that will be fitted to all cars. Power, like many drivers in the field, is in favor of the change and welcomes the added safety.
“It’s definitely in the safest place it’s ever been,” said Power. “Not only because of the windscreen, but also some other things that [the series] will implement.
“The fact that we only have two superspeedways makes it safer because it reduces the percentage chance of bad accidents because that’s where all serious injuries have happened.
“I would say from when I first started racing in the series it’s significantly safer.”
Despite two wins and a second place finish in the final four races of last season, Power still only earned fifth in the championship equaling his lowest points finish since 2010. Looking ahead to this season, he is determined to build on his late-season form and get off to a good start in 2020.
“[I] ended the season very strong. Back in a good place. Not that I was in a bad place, just everything started clicking. You know, it just does sometimes.
“I can’t tell you how many seasons it’s been with bad starts. I used to have awesome starts, so we want to have a good start this year.
“You can’t be thinking of points. You can never get into that situation.”
Power’s momentum continued into pre-season testing where he topped the time sheets at Circuit of the Americas last week with a time of 1:46.7603, less than one second off his pole-setting time from last season.
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