LITTLE ROCK — Will Power has 18 victories since moving to America, where he is one of the most decorated drivers in open-wheel racing, but his resume has some glaring holes.
He’s never won an Indianapolis 500, and he’s never won a championship.
“I’d just love to win something, just one time win something of significance,” he said. “I’m so sick of it.”
The most dominant driver in IndyCar the past three seasons isn’t content with his results, even if he has quite a list of them. In 44 career starts since joining Penske Racing, Power has 15 victories, 20 poles, 24 podiums and has led at least one lap in 34 races.
“You think about his record with Penske Racing over the last three years, and he’s won almost one out of every three races he’s been in, and he’s been on the podium almost two-thirds of the time,” Penske said. “It really establishes him, from the road racing perspective at least, as the top driver out there right now.”
But Power wants more — a lot more — and his chance to cross the Indy 500 off his list comes Sunday, when he’ll start fifth. He goes into the race as IndyCar’s points leader and has won the past three races of the season.
So this might just be the year for Power to finally break through. Maybe it will be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the race his team owner cherishes above all over. Or, maybe it will be in the title race, which he’s lost the past two years to four-time champion Dario Franchitti.
Even if Power never wins another race — something the intense Australian often frets about — he’s still accomplished far more than he ever expected. He’d come close to quitting racing at the end of every season he spent in Europe, where he scraped together rides and racked up enormous debt in his quest to become a Formula One driver.
He thought for sure at the end of the 2004 season he was headed home to Australia for good to join the family canvas business, and again, something came along that kept him in it another year. Then came the call from America, from Derrick Walker, who needed an Aussie driver for his Champ Car Series team.
Power was reluctant to consider the offer, and he knew moving to the U.S. would probably put an end to his F1 dreams forever. But the ledger showed a deficit near $500,000, and the job Walker had available would have paid him a salary for the first time in his driving career.
So he took it, and he’s never looked back.
F1 driver Mark Webber believes Power did the best thing for his career. A fellow Aussie, Webber had helped Power financially over the years and the two were even roommates for a time in Europe.
“He was in a similar position to me, coming through the junior ranks, with very, very, very little finances and I was in a position to help a little bit, mainly because I could see the hunger and I could see how much he wanted it,” Webber said.
Webber credits the support team at Penske, where Power was hired in 2009, for helping the driver reach a new level. He was hired by the team as an emergency driver in case Helio Castroneves’ trial on tax evasion charges left him unable to compete, and Penske kept Power on even after Castroneves’ legal issues were resolved.
“He’s absolutely the benchmark in American racing, and on street circuits he’s virtually untouchable,” Webber said. “Mentally, he’s in a completely different league to what he was two or three years ago. The last two years, because he’s worked with quality people at Penske, it’s given him confidence and helped him achieve incredible things.”
There are still knocks on Power, unrelated to his failure so far to knock down a big victory. His weakness is clearly on ovals, and his 2006 race at Milwaukee while in Champ Car was his first event on anything besides a street or road course. So when he won last summer at Texas, it was proof that Power can succeed outside of his comfort zone.
“I think he’s close, but he needs to get more time,” Penske said. “Maybe some people take him for granted on the road course. But the fact there is less ovals now and our not being able to test on ovals makes a huge difference. In the old days, we had weeks and weeks and weeks of testing on ovals, and he’s never had that luxury.”
Power can also be his own worst enemy. On Thursday, he admitted that he finds it hard to relax. It’s cost him at times, and everyone around him is aware of that vulnerability.
“He does four things in life: He sleeps, he eats, he drives race cars and he worries. Those are the four things he spends the most time doing in life,” Penske President Tim Cindric said. “But his success comes down to his dedication to what he does.”
Part of that came after Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident in last October’s season finale. Power also was in that 15-car accident, and like Wheldon his car sailed into the catchfence and he broke his back for the second time in three years.
As the cars came to a stop on the track, Wheldon’s car was in front of Power’s, and Power could tell from his cockpit that Wheldon’s injuries were serious. He got out, walked away from the accident and never looked back.
“I think you have a pretty good think about life after something like that,” he said. “So, I try to enjoy it more now, because you just don’t know.”
Sports, Pages 21 on 05/25/2012