When it comes to street and road courses, there are few that can say that they’ve got more wins than Will Power as Power always seems to impress when both left and right turns come into play.
After struggles hurt his championship chances last year, Power is hoping that this year street and road course success coupled with some solid oval performances to his first ever Verizon IndyCar Series Championship.
So far, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet is off to a good start as he picked up the win last weekend at St. Petersburg with a dominating performance as he led 74 laps on his way to victory. Power carries that momentum from the west coast to the east coast, posting a solid fifth quickest time in the Friday practice session.
“It’s not a bad day for Verizon Team Penske, but we need to find a bit more,” Power noted post-practice. “It’s ridiculously tight, but there’s a bit of a gap to (Simon) Pagenaud and (Sebastien) Bourdais. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it seems to be working for them. It’s hard work, and it was an unbelievable day. Tomorrow when we put on red tires for the first time, we know we’ll be faster, but it’s always a bit of an unknown because it changes the car.”
While Power may be off right now, don’t count the Australian out of contention as he has two wins and four podiums in his last six starts in California. If you add in the fact that he’s won three of hte last four events, Power is on a roll of momentum. However , while success may be sweet, Power says you can’t get to be comfortable with as you have to keep working hard.
“There’s so many good teams, good drivers,” he commented. “It’s just a good thing. It’s a good kick in the ass to have some bad runs. Not actually lack of pace, but just to have some bad runs, be in the back of the field. You just reset, just realize that you can’t leave anything on the table. You just can’t.”
