USA TODAY International Edition
Power won’t miss opener this time
St. Pete race absence was drag on 2016
Will Power sipped sparkling water from a blue bottle and ate salmon and vegetables at a sidewalk table along trendy Beach Drive NE on Wednesday, back in the harbor- side site of the Verizon IndyCar season opener for the first time since his 2016 season began and could have, but didn’t, end last season.
Forced to sit out last spring — at a street course where he has two wins and five poles — after crashing in practice and being diagnosed with a concussion that was ultimately attributed to an inner- ear infection and other health maladies, the Team Penske driver blitzed back into the hunt for a second championship by midsummer. Power won four times but was ultimately undone by a collision with Charlie Kimball in the penultimate race of the season at Watkins Glen International and a clutch failure in the final at Sonoma Raceway.
So returning to St. Petersburg on a media junket, he said, brought nothing but positivity for a driver who again expects to be a contender when the season begins March 12 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. And he feels the same about Team Penske, which won a championship last fall with Simon Pagenaud, saw Power finish second, Helio Castroneves third and former full- time driver Juan Pablo Montoya ninth.
With fourth- place driver Josef Newgarden replacing Montoya this season, Power is ratcheting up expectations that could be entirely realistic.
“I think it’s a year where Penske has a chance to finish 12- 3- 4 if everything goes well,” Power said.
Here’s insightful and humorous Power’s thoughts on some other series and team topics, serious and otherwise.
On how he would improve IndyCar’s recently announced push- to- pass regulations for street and road courses, where boosts are allotted in total time — 150 seconds at St. Petersburg, Belle Isle Park and Sonoma and 200 elsewhere — instead of applications during a race:
“I think it’s good. I’m glad they’re thinking about it. I still say they need to have one where on tracks like this or the short track, you have a no- reply, so the car in front cannot reply to you. That’s what they need. You couldn’t defend with a hit of the button.
“If you’re within a second of the car, the car behind can use it but not the one in front. It has to be electronic.”
On whether he would eventually allow his newborn son, Beau, to race:
“I think by the time he got to something like IndyCar, the safety would be so good it wouldn’t even ... I’m sure IndyCar will have a windscreen here real soon. Couple years, even less. I think they probably aim to do to something with the ( 2018) car since it’s a new body kit ( scheduled for first deployment next season).
“I think they’re ahead of Formula One in that respect. I think they’ll have a windscreen before Formula One, which is the last real big step in safety.”
On hazing new teammate Newgarden:
“We didn’t really do anything with Simon either ( in his 2015 Penske debut). It’s not that type of team, I guess. I guess we’re all too serious about winning and beating each other to think about it.”