The Australian ace, who has 41 wins and 68 pole positions to his credit, led the first stint of the race on the Firestone alternates, but found his car’s handling was wayward on his first set of primaries, and the wing-adjustment he called for at his next stop actually exaggerated the problem. Finally onto fresh primaries in the final stint, he was able to keep pace with Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Josef Newgarden who had charged from the back, but the pair of them were beaten into second and third by half a minute by Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.
Power admitted that even though he came into the season finale with a 20-point lead, his nerves prevented him truly relaxing or even deriving true satisfaction from beating Mario Andretti’s all-time IndyCar pole record.
“I couldn't really enjoy the pole yesterday because I was so focused on the race,” said Power who also won the 2014 title. “A lot of stress this weekend. I was pretty calm all year.
“Once I got in the car and we started rolling, it was fine. A bit sketchy in the middle of the race. I was digging deep, just, ‘I've got to give everything I can. I can't lose any positions here,’ and the car, the tires… yeah, it was interesting. Some sets of tires were really good, and some were not quite so good.
“But yep, mentally drained. Couldn't show the sort of emotion that I showed when I won the 500 [2018]. But it's been like a long journey over the year. I think it's pretty fitting that we just did another solid day, just a sort of long-game day like today. That's just been the story of our year.”
Asked further about the nerves, Power said: “Yeah, it was waking up at 3am a couple times over the weekend, and you can always relax yourself back to sleep, but it's obviously a big day. Everyone has put a ton of effort in.
“And you don't want to let it go. Those nerves make you perform at a high level. I had those nerves going into qualifying. It just pumps you up to another level. That's what it does for me.
“A couple of times in my career I've actually gotten in the car too relaxed, and it just doesn't work. I've been around long enough to understand the perfect amount of sort of nervousness you've got to have. You've got to have it… Your subconscious needs to understand the importance of what you're doing and then you can put yourself at another level.”
Power paid tribute to his crew, stating: “It's been a really focused, solid year all around. Great crew, finished every lap of every race. I look back at a couple of these years and some of the mechanical failures, some of the things that have gone wrong, it just shows when you've got the whole combination together, we're going to be there, fighting for the championship.”
Power praised Dave Faustino, who was his race engineer at Walker Racing in 2007 and KV Racing in ’08, before remaining a year longer at KV, and then joining Team Penske when Power signed up full-time for 2010.
“We just know each other well,” said Power. “We actually worked better this year together than ever, we really did…I think he's probably seen a slow progression of maturity, and this year he's seen the absolutely top level of that.
“We've got a lot of respect for each other. It's just, you cannot beat experience. You cannot beat experience. That's all I'll say. Every scenario that can happen to you to make a race go wrong has happened to me and him, and it happens to everyone, and just at this stage of your career, you just know the game so well and you just play on that experience.”
Power went on to praise Trevor Lacasse, his crew chief as “a great guy, a great human, and very good at his job. He keeps everyone calm, including me.” And gave credit to Adam Jarrett, his outside-rear tire changer, pointing out that despite him being in his first year, his crew were the quickest on pit lane.
Power admitted his single-minded focus on the championship meant he forced himself to rein in his natural tendency to go for victories.
“Nine podiums, that's pretty strong,” he said, “but I definitely gave up some wins just for consistency. Definitely could have attacked harder when I was on really good tires.
“St. Pete was one, on the restart. I actually just underdrove like you wouldn't believe to make sure that I finished that stint in a good position. I could have easily attacked and passed McLaughlin. Instead I actually lost a position on reds [to Alex Palou].
“Another one was Mid-Ohio – restart on reds. ‘[I could just attack here or I can end up…? I think I'll take third.’ Same with the second race at Iowa. Make sure the tires last, make sure I finish second. There's definitely some wins left on the table if you were going for that.
“But I said it from the beginning of the year. I said I'm playing the long game all year. I've never done that, and I'm doing it this year. I don't really care about the wins; I just want to win another championship. And I played that game. Maybe I go out next year and try to win more races.
“You know, yeah. If you want to win a championship, you've got to play a long game.”
Team Penske finished first, second (Newgarden) and fourth (McLaughlin) in the championship, amassing nine wins. Power pointed out that was hugely impressive given the closeness of the competition.
“The competition is just insane,” he said, “but what's maybe surprising is the gap we had to the field as a team. We just seemed to execute in every way. Not necessarily faster – well, we were faster in some respects, some races – but just getting it right, pitlane and on track.”
