The Team Penske driver finished runner-up in the IndyCar championship standings three times in a row between 2010 and 2012 before finally clinching his first title in 2014.
He was also close to the title in 2015, ultimately finishing third, and has only once finished outside the top five in the standings - with ninth last year - in the intervening seasons.
The 41-year-old wrested the points lead away from Marcus Ericsson by finishing third in Saturday’s Indy Grand Prix road course race, and remarked afterwards that his experience will help make him psychologically stronger approaching the finale than in his earlier career.
“Absolutely, it’s so different to what it was back then,” he said.
“I just know the game so well, I’m mentally just miles ahead in every respect than I was back then. Just a tremendous amount of experience in this series.”
Of the 13 races held so far this year, Power has finished outside the top four only three times, the sort of consistency that he hasn’t found since his championship year.
“It's not necessarily the long game,” he said.
“It's just that sort of attitude switch where you know these races are long, the season is long, and you've got to make the most of every situation, even if you're fighting for like 12th.
“If that's your day to finish 12th, well, finish 12th, not 24th. It's certainly working very well.”
Power is nine points clear of Ericsson with four races to go, with Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon and Pato O'Ward still in contention. The Australian says “there's probably still five guys in the game”, but reckons it's “impossible to predict” if the same contenders will be in the fight come September's Laguna Seca finale.
“It feels like it's always going to go down to the last race,” he said.
“I expect to be having a fight at Laguna. We'll see how it plays out.
“Impossible to predict in this series: there's just too many fast guys, good teams, good drivers, everything. Try and pick a winner each week and try and pick a polesitter: impossible.”
Asked if the last four races at Nashville, Gateway, Portland and Laguna Seca will see him alter his approach, Power responded: “That totally depends on the situation: how you qualify, who's in front of you, where you're running, and where are the guys that you’re fighting – or you believe will be the drivers that you have to fight at the end. It becomes a little more obvious with three to go.
“The next couple races you've got to know, OK, these are definitely the lead guys that we're racing. We've got to cover them on strategies and such.
“[For now] it's still not completely clear, a lot of guys still clustered up.”
