Power has the will, and confidence, to win his first Indy 500
Will Power has just one blank chapter in his Verizon IndyCar Series notebook: Indianapolis 500 winner.
In all of open-wheel racing, it is this 500-mile race — 200 times around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — that is the most difficult to win.
Power, however, has shown supreme confidence throughout the month of May that this is the year he wins at the famed Brickyard.
There are numerous reasons why he should be the favourite to be drinking from the traditional quart of milk at the finish of Sunday’s 99th running of the self proclaimed “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Tops on that listis that he will be driving the No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet.
A Penske race car has won the Indy 500 a record 15 times — no other race team has even come close to that mark.
Penske also has the most accomplished set of drivers in IndyCar by far with two of its four drivers — Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves — already having their mugs sculpted on the Borg Warner trophy.
It was also the Penske team that Chevrolet trusted its testing to for the 2015 version of Dallara DW12 race cars. Right from the start of those offseason tests and in the first five Indy- Car races of this season, the Chevrolets have been the class of the grid, continually at or near the top of the speed charts.
Second on the long list of reasons why Power should win on Sunday is the driver himself.
In his first 10 seasons of racing in North America, Power has shown he could win races — he has notched 24 wins — but his ability to win a championship was always questioned.
It was a legitimate concern as Power racked up three consecutive second-place finishes when it appeared he had the big prize within his reach.
Last season, however, he put it all together to give Penske its first Indy- Car Series championship since Sam Hornish Jr. did it in 2006.
The confidence Power took away from that win has carried over to this season with a win and three top five finishes so far.
You could see the 34-year-old Australian’s new found self assuredness after the final practice for Sunday’s race, where he was the fastest car on the track, laying down a lap of 229.020 mph.
He almost dismissed the feat, saying essentially he had lots more left in the tank.
“(Being fast today) means nothing, really,” Power said. “It’s just a big draft. It’s more about how you can get through traffic than anything.”