Like Scott Dixon, Will Power will extend personal milestones if he can win his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race of the season. Eight races remain, beginning July 16 with the Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place.
Power is riding a streak of consecutive seasons with at least one race win (16) and most winning seasons overall (17). Dixon leads both categories with 18 and 20, respectively.
But like Dixon, Power took another step toward a statistical milestone last weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Power’s third-place finish in The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid was the 97th podium finish of his career. Only four drivers in history have reached 100, including Dixon, whose second-place finish at Mid-Ohio pushed his career total to 133.
Mario Andretti has the record at 144. Dixon ranks second, Power sixth.
Power entered the season with 94 career top-three finishes, tied with Helio Castroneves and only four behind Al Unser. Now Power is within one of Unser. Want more perspective? Among drivers competing at Mid-Ohio, Josef Newgarden has the next-highest total with 50.
The category’s top four: Andretti, Dixon, A.J. Foyt 119 and Michael Andretti 100.
Interestingly, Power said there was a point late in last weekend’s race where he didn’t know his running position. He started seventh but lost three positions in the race’s first corner. Then Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist collided ahead of him in Turn 6, both going off the track and effectively out of contention. So, there were a lot of early ups and downs for the Australian.
“The last I knew at the start I was P9 and then, obviously, the whole sequences went on,” Power said.
Power similarly lost track of his position in last year’s race at Mid-Ohio, but that was a case of passing so many cars. On the opening lap, he spun out of 21st in Thunder Valley, then went on the charge amid a 27-car field. He clawed all the way back to third by race’s end.
This performance was more methodical. Power cycled to second place behind Dixon on Lap 29 and on the strength of turning his fastest lap of the race and receiving a stellar pit stop, he was solidly in fifth place. Power never dropped beyond sixth and even led a lap ahead of his second and final pit stop of the day.
Power called his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet “real fast.”
“Solid day, no mistakes,” he said. “I think if I had got a bit better start, I could have been … it’s hard to say.”
Power stopped himself amid the dominance of race winner Alex Palou. Dixon was mighty strong, as well, giving Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 finish.
Palou led 48 of the 80 laps for his third consecutive race win, pushing his series lead to 110 points. Dixon is second as the season heads to its official second half.
Power, who is 151 points out of the series lead in seventh place, almost certainly won’t repeat the championship he won last year, the second of his career. So, at this point his focus will be on winning at least one race and extending his series record of 68 career poles as he doesn’t have one of those this year, either. Remarkably, his best starting position this season is seventh (twice).
“Not much more we could have got out of the day,” Power said of Mid-Ohio. “(Third place) was kind of what we had.”