Will Power ended his eight-year IndyCar Series championship drought Sunday at the Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, finishing the race third and winning his second career title in a remarkably consistent season.
So consistent, in fact, that he finished on the podium nine times, had a series-high of five poles — and broke his tie with racing legend Mario Andretti for the all-time most at 68 — but won just a single race.
“I think we could have won more races,” Power told For The Win. “But I had the most podiums I’ve ever had in season. To have nine podiums is crazy. That’s more than 50 percent of the races you’re finishing on the podiums.”
For the 17th time, a @Team_Penske driver is an INDYCAR champion.@12WillPower takes the checkered flag third and scores his second career title.#INDYCAR // #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/1VZtCyLlXA
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 11, 2022
The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet entered the season finale with a 20-point lead over teammate Josef Newgarden and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and a sizable advantage over Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner, and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.
Power, a 41-year-old driver from Australia, didn’t need to win the last race to claim the championship; a third-place finish clinched it regardless of how the others performed Sunday.
After his second championship, Power spoke with For The Win about his victorious season, the challenges of a long title drought and the incredible weight of IndyCar’s gigantic trophy.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Congratulations on your second IndyCar championship. What is the celebrations been like so far? Did you do anything wild Sunday night?
I did not do anything wild. I actually I had all my guys come to the hotel I was staying at, and, yeah, they had a few drinks and talked about the season and kind of enjoyed the moment. I don’t drink much these days. I just love the conversation. But I’m in my 40s, so you don’t really handle the alcohol — the next morning, you’re thinking [about] the next morning.
Obviously, there are tons of pictures of you with the Astor Cup trophy, holding it in your arms or over your head. How heavy is that thing?
It is pretty heavy. It is heavy. I mean, you can hold you can hold in one arm for a bit. But yeah, it’s, it’s a heavy trophy. Very iconic and obviously pretty cool, but you don’t want to hold it for too long.
It's been eight years since you won your last championship. How was the road to this one different compared with the last one in 2014?
It’s similar struggles. But, you know, I didn’t really have the dominance that I had leading up to the first one. The first one, I was winning a lot of races. I was always at the absolute front of the field.
The last eight years have been, particularly the last five years, still very competitive. But seriously, they’re extremely tough now, and there’s a different winner every race. But I have never stopped improving is what I will say — whether it’s the techniques of driving or the way I analyze data or the mental aspects. So, I have to say, drew from a pretty big toolbox this year with a tremendous amount of experience.
In the last eight years, did you ever start to doubt at all that a second championship would come your way?
I did, yep. I definitely started to wonder if I’d win another one, which is pretty natural because you have these seasons of being extremely fast. You win races and pole positions and lead a lot of laps, and it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason — whether it’s mechanical failures or a mistake here or there or getting taken out or whatever it may be. And that that went on for quite a while, obviously eight years.
I did have doubts, yep. But I also kept the faith I did. I really worked hard. And I never gave up, put it that way.
How do you cancel out doubts after so many years without a second IndyCar championship?
It’s in my competitive nature to just want to keep digging and working out how to do it. And I haven’t ever had an offseason where I’ve gone, “Well, I’ve got nothing to work on, I don’t know really what I can improve.”
There’s always something that you can be working on. And so I was always there in the background working away learning this, learning that, getting better. So it’s just a constant process. You never ever stop. You never stop working at it.
In one word, how would you describe your season?
Consistent.
How many more titles do you feel like you have in you?
I’m turning up every year I do it to try win a championship, which I have done for as long as I’ve been in a race car. So that’s the way it is, and I will continue to try and improve. I’ll never stop searching until I stop racing. So that’ll be the mentality going into next season, and I hope to be in a similar position to fight for another championship.
You're the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champ and now a two-time IndyCar champ. Which title is more challenging to win?
I think the IndyCar championship is more challenging because it takes a whole season of really good results and execution and getting everything right. The Indy 500 is also very difficult to win because it’s a one-off race, you have 33 cars.
What I will say the difference is you can’t really get lucky and win a championship. You can get lucky and win a one-off race like the 500. The 500 with a lot of prestige and amazing history that goes with it, so it’s almost bigger to win the 500. But the championship takes a season of really, really good execution results and hard work.
When you're celebrating those victories, is one more exciting than the other?
It just depends on where you are in your career because when I won the 500, I was quite disappointed with my career, that I’ve only won one championship. In that decade from 2010 to 2020, I had won more races than anyone, more poles, lead more laps, and I felt like I didn’t have that much to show for it. So winning the 500 was extremely satisfying, a lot of emotion in Victory Lane. This one was more kind of a enjoy the journey, enjoy the season a lot much calmer season for me. Different different for sure. Different times in my career.
What I would say is if I stopped racing right now, I haven’t got that desperation in me like I have to win this. It’s more, I’m really enjoying the craft and getting the absolute most out of it every weekend.
