Rick Mears speaks from experience when he points to seat time, which breeds confidence, as the key components to success on ovals. It applies historically to Indy car drivers and, also in the context of qualifying, to Will Power.
The reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion secured his fourth pole of the season and sixth overall on an oval for the Firestone 600 on June 5 at Texas Motor Speedway, which tied Mears for fifth on the all-time Indy car list with 40.
“The ability that he’s always shown on the road courses he’s showing on the ovals. I always knew it was there; it was a matter of getting the seat time, getting the confidence and learning what the car likes on a speedway,” said Mears, a Team Penske consultant. “That doesn’t happen overnight on the speedways. It takes time, takes laps. It’s all coming together.”
Thirty-six of Mears’ earned poles were on ovals as diverse as Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Nazareth Raceway and Phoenix International Raceway. He turned 14 of his pole starts into victories.
“Most of what you learn, once you get that feel for the speedways it carries over to the others. Road courses are all different, but if a guy is quick on a road course he’s going to be quick on all of them,” said Mears, who amassed six poles in the 1991 season. “Once you learn and get the feel for it, what it takes you can apply it to all of them and then to tune to each individual track. He’s at that point he can do that.”
Power won the pole for the third successive year on the 1.455-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway to complement oval poles on a similarly diverse collection: Milwaukee Mile, Auto Club Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Iowa Speedway (in 2010, his first on an oval).
“I really look forward to coming to ovals. I enjoy them a lot,” said Power, whose initial Indy car pole came at Surfers Paradise on Oct. 22, 2006. “It's just a part of Indy car racing. You've got to be the best at all disciplines to win the championship.
“The series has really such a variety of all sorts of tracks as far as street courses, road courses, short ovals, mile-and-a-half high-banked ovals, even high-banked short ovals, superspeedways. You have to be good at all of that. I feel like every track I go to now I have a shot to win.”
Mario Andretti is the career leader with 67 poles (24 wins from the pole). A.J. Foyt is second with 53 poles (23 wins) and Bobby Unser is third with 49 (16 wins). Helio Castroneves is the active leader with 43 poles, including two this season.
Thirteen of Power's 25 career victories have come from the pole entering this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto, in which he won the pole in 2011 and won the race in 2010. Power trails championship front-runner and Team Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya by 35 points. Scott Dixon, who won the Firestone 600, is 43 points out of first.
“It's going to be interesting as it all unfolds," said Power, who was driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet with an injury thumb and wrist suffered in a Race 2 incident at Detroit. "You have so much experience involved in it, so many good guys that have all won championships, 500s, a lot of races. (I have to) focus a race at a time, don't even think about it.”
