INDYCAR: Power Hoping Small Changes Will Deliver His First Title

If you were advising Team Penske’s Will Power on how to approach the upcoming season, what would you tell him to do?

Marshall Pruett | Posted March 21, 2013

Three tough championship losses have helped Team Penske's Will Power to mature as a person and learn more about what he needs to do to earn his first title. (Photo: LAT)

If you were advising Team Penske’s Will Power on how to approach the upcoming season, what would you tell him to do?

Do you tell the three-time IZOD IndyCar Series runner-up to keep doing what he’s been doing—that a variety of maladies and misfortunes have been to blame for losing out on a Hat Trick of titles?

Or would you recommend for the Aussie to make wholesale changes—to his mental approach and within the team—to come out ahead at the end of the 19-round championship?

Power has lost out on those three titles by a combined total of 26 points—the equivalent of a single seventh-place finish over a span of 49 races, giving rise to the belief that there’s no need to abandon his approach to motor racing.

But simply repeating the same thing year after year hasn’t delivered the goods for Power or team owner Roger Penske, so which direction is the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Wireless car leaning?

Power is now the fastest driver at almost every track the IndyCar Series visits, and has tightened up his oval performances as well. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

“It's kind of all those options,” he told SPEED.com. “Things have changed in the team. Things have changed obviously with me. My approach will be a little bit different, adding to the library of information that you have. Mentally, I’ve done a few things in the off season mentally and obviously we've done development with the car as well. A bunch of things changed so has everyone else. The team feels tighter than ever at the moment.

“So, yeah, it is up to us as a team; you can't say life or luck or any of that other stuff is to blame for not winning the championship. It's up to us. At the end of the day, that's it. As a group we need to win.”

Organizational changes within Power’s No. 12 program have also taken place with the most visible difference found at the crew chief position. The respected Billy Vincent, who helmed the No. 12 through 2012, will look after A.J. Allmendinger’s car while Matt Jonsson, who served as Ryan Briscoe’s chief mechanic, has moved across to lead Power’s pit crew.

Beyond the personnel changes, Power has recognized that greater success can be unlocked with a few tweaks to his grey matter.

Power’s mental fortitude has increased with every instance of adversity that has come his way: Some of those scenarios have been self-induced, while others have been visited upon him by others, but the end result has always been a more hardened Power at the next race. With a long six-month offseason to deal with, Power has continued to strengthen his resolve and focus on his own time, which should pay off when adversity strikes for the first time.

Another aspect of Power’s maturation this season should continue to manifest under the Team Penske tent and especially behind closed doors. It was 2009 when Power, then an unemployed driver, got the call to deputize for Helio Castroneves while the Brazilian’s tax evasion trial kept the three-time Indy 500 winner preoccupied in Miami.

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