IndyCar ovals: From Will Power’s kryptonite to his strength

By Asher Fair | May 17, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 28: Will Power of Australia, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet poses for a photo after winning the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 28, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

IndyCar oval races have gone from Will Power’s kryptonite to his strength over the course of his career, highlighted by his Indianapolis 500 victory last year.

Will Power’s struggles in IndyCar oval races cost him three consecutive championships from the 2010 season through the 2012 season. Had it even been for a slight improvement in these races over the course of these three seasons, the 38-year-old Australian would be a four-time IndyCar champion as we speak.

Meanwhile, four-time champion Dario Franchitti would be a two-time champion and 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay would still be pursuing his first career championship in his 15th season as a full-time driver in the sport.

Power arrived at Team Penske (then Penske Racing) in the 2009 season, and he has driven for the team ever since. He became a full-time driver for the team and an instant championship contender in the 2010 season.

Until he finished in third place in the season’s penultimate race and penultimate oval race at Twin Ring Motegi, he had competed in nine road or street course races and six oval races in 2010.

In these nine road or street course races, Power earned five victories and recorded two second place finishes, one third place finish and one fourth place finish to give himself an average finishing position of 1.78.

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But in these six oval races, he recorded a top finish of fifth place and an average finishing position of 10.50. This average finishing position of 10.50 dipped to 9.43 after his third place finish in the race at Twin Ring Motegi.

Power entered the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 12-point lead (587 to 575) over Franchitti in second place in the championship standings. After finishing each of the season’s first 16 races, including seven oval races, Power crashed late in this race and effectively handed the championship to Franchitti, who won it by five points (602 to 597).

Power earned his first career oval victory in the 2011 season at Texas Motor Speedway, but this was hardly notable. The starting positions for this race were randomly selected, and the race was a half-distance, half points-paying race.

He entered the season finale at Kentucky Speedway, which became the season finale when the scheduled season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was canceled due to a crash that resulted in the death of Dan Wheldon, with six victories through the season’s first 16 races, including five victories in road or street course victories. He led Franchitti by 11 points (542 to 531).

But after leading the 200-lap race’s first 48 laps, Power was involved in an accident in the pits and was unable to recover. He still finished on the lead lap, but he finished in 19th place while Franchitti finished in second to win the championship by 18 points (573 to 555).

Power entered the 15th and final race of the 2012 season at Auto Club Speedway with an average finishing position of 4.20, three victories and an additional three podium finishes in the season’s 10 road or street course races, and he entered it with an average finishing position of 18.00 and a top finish of eighth place in the season’s first four oval races.

He entered this race with a somewhat comfortable 17-point lead (453 to 436) over Hunter-Reay in second place in the championship standings. But he crashed early in the race before watching Hunter-Reay go on to win the championship by just three points (468 to 465).

The 2013 season proved to be Power’s worst season since becoming a full-time driver for Team Penske, as he was never in championship contention. When he earned his first victory of the season, it had been nearly 16 months since he last won a race. He ended up closing out the season with three victories in the final five races.

Most notably, he closed out the season by winning at Auto Club Speedway to earn his first full-length oval race victory. It was this victory that propelled him to a strong 2014 season that resulted in him winning his first championship and earning another victory in an oval race by winning at the Milwaukee Mile.

Power only won one race, a road course race, in the 2015 season, but he finished in a career-high second place in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, just 0.1046 seconds behind teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.

Power won four more races, including another oval race at Pocono Raceway, in the 2016 season before going on to won three races in the 2017 season and three more races in the 2018 season.

Two of the three victories that Power earned in the 2017 season were oval race victories, as he won the races at Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway, and two of the three victories that he earned in the 2018 season were also oval race victories, as he won the Indy 500 and the race at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Four of Power’s five most recent victories are oval race victories despite the fact that road and street course races now make up an overwhelming majority of the schedule each season.

On top of that, he won the unofficial 2018 oval championship despite the fact that he crashed in two of the season’s six oval races. He has now won at least one race at four of the five ovals that are on the 2019 schedule, and his top finish at the other oval, Iowa Speedway, is second place, which he recorded in the 2016 season.

Additionally, Power’s Indy 500 victory marked the first time that he had finished the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in a position higher than he started it since he finished in fifth place after starting in ninth in the 2009 Indy 500.

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At this point, Will Power is a better oval driver than he is a road and street course driver. Over the course of his IndyCar career, he has turned his kryptonite, which cost him three consecutive championships, into his strength, a strength that nobody else can seem to match.