Will Power is in the midst of a magical campaign of consistency in 2022.
That theme continued with a pair of podiums in last weekend’s doubleheader for the NTT IndyCar Series at Iowa Speedway. A pole sweep to move within one of tying the legendary Mario Andretti’s mark of 67 ignited the weekend. Then, the 41-year-old Aussie led 23 laps in the Hy-VeeDeals.com 250 on Saturday to finish third before going on to lead 80 laps and finishing runner-up in the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 on Sunday.
“Yeah, great weekend points-wise,” said Power, the 2014 NTT IndyCar Series champion. “Would have loved to have got a win here. Tough competition, man. You can’t let up one bit.
“Yeah, the car was really good. I probably could have been more aggressive in that second-to-last stint because it seemed like there’s a lot less deg. Must have cooled or the track took a lot of rubber or something. The track was really fast.”
Power has propelled the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet to six podiums through the opening 12 races of the season, which is already more than each of the last two seasons (five). He also has three fourth-place finishes this year. The one significant downside is the finishes in the other three races have been 15th or worse.
Regardless, he now sits second in the championship standings, eight points behind leader Marcus Ericsson (403-395) with five races remaining.
“Yeah, very consistent run this year really,” said Power, who also has one win this season (Detroit). “I mean, had a lot of podiums a lot of top fours. I know we got good cars here, so it was a matter of just being mistake-free. I felt like we were going to finish in the top five. That’s exactly what happened.
“Been trying to win around here (at Iowa) for a long time. Been really wanting to win at this place, but keep coming up short. Yeah, really happy with the weekend.”
So, what’s the plan moving forward in trying to capture the title?
“Yeah, just doing what I’ve been doing,” said Power, the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner. “Simple as that. We’ve been executing, not really doing anything special. Get on top of the qualifying thing because we cannot have what we had in Toronto. Definitely got the pace.
“Yeah, putting it together for the next – how many left – five. It’s getting down to the wire, man. Better bring your A game or I’m going to take it from you young blokes.”
