For Will Power, It’s Business As Usual
Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
After 17 years, Will Power has a new employer. Instead of driving the iconic No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Power will now pilot the No. 26 TWG AI Honda for Andretti Global beginning with this weekend’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Despite his tenure at Team Penske for so many years, Power maintains it’s been business as usual integrating himself at Andretti.
“Not that difficult. It hasn't been, like -- yeah, it's just a part of my life now. It's not like -- I will say there is some funny things, like when I walked in, they have all the driver suits hanging up for the day here at content day. The Verizon suit is the first one you see. Same suit I wore last year. Looks exactly the same. It was, oh, no, that's not me.
“Yeah, but it's pretty normal. It's just business as normal for me. It's about competition.”
Prevented by his contract with Penske to have anything to do with Andretti until the first of the year, Power maintained his physical fitness program - but that was about it.
“Yeah, it was strange,” Power noted. “Yeah, couldn't really do anything with Andretti. Did do a commercial during that time.
“You know, I guess I had everything ready to go the day that I could go there. Obviously went straight there on the 2nd, made a seat, and then went testing a few days later.
“Just my normal off-season preparation, that sort of stuff, was going on fitness-wise. Spent time with the family. Yeah, it was some nice time off.”
As much as he would’ve liked to have just jumped right in with the Andretti team after signing with the them in September, Power knows he has to stay patient.
“Yeah, it's really difficult to understand, like, are we missing anything? Are we good or bad? We won't know that until we actually have our first race, I believe. But the end of the first race weekend you'll start to see, as you always do, okay, we need to work on this, this, this and this.
“Until you're getting into those pressure situations where things can go wrong or in a competitive situation where you kind of see where you really stack up, it's really hard to tell, so you're just putting everything in place to execute the best you can and then start working from there.”
Power believes Andretti Global already has all the ingredients to be a championship contending team.
“Just being around the shop, they definitely have all the ingredients. They have enough people. They have some very smart people. The group on my car is incredibly experienced.
“Just looking from the outside before I got there, I was like, Penske has the best pit stops. They train a lot and obviously have a good coach and so on, so I think that would be an area that I could see a lot of focus needing to be on, which it looks like it has been anyway in the off-season.
“Improvement on short ovals, road courses. I would say at Penske we needed to improve on road courses, as well.
“I look at Andretti, I think their street course stuff is the best in the business. They're sort of hot and cold on the road courses, and the short ovals. I have a ton of experience with short oval cars and developing them through the years with Penske to get to a point where we were very dominant, so to me, we're in a very good position.
“It's definitely going to be improved upon from last year. Like we're already a good team. Everything they're doing and have done, to me they'll just be better, and it will just continually get better. I can just see the list, see the list of things that are getting done there. It's only going to get better.
“That's why I've said I believe the team will be the best team in the next three years.”
Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou has won the championship four times in the last five seasons. The only driver to beat Palou in that stretch was Power in 2022. Power admits beating Palou in ’26 won’t be easy.
“He's just so rounded. There's not a weakness basically. I can't see a weakness with this guy. He's very strong. Obviously, Ganassi is also executing really well, pit stops and car setup and so on.
“Man, he's a tough guy to beat. It's possible.
“I don't see anyone standing out except Palou,” Power added. “You're not even looking at the team standing out. When I look at the teams they're all pretty even across the board for that front group. It was just one guy extracting the most out of his car, and it was Palou. If you took him out of the equation, it's not like the other Ganassi guys are as dominant as he is.
“I think you almost need to be looking at the driving stuff more than the car stuff, honestly, like what is he doing as a driver to extract the most out of it.”
Power, who turns 45 on Sunday, holds the all-time INDYCAR SERIES record for pole positions at 71. He says it’s his love of competition and passion for racing that keeps him motivated.
“I just love competing. I love doing this. It's really enjoyable. I've got a ton of experience. It would be a pity to stop when you're really still on top of your game. A lot of work, 20 years of work, 20 years of INDYCAR racing and still able to win races and poles. It's just very difficult to do in this series.
“That's sort of why I keep going.”
Armed with a multi-year contract with Andretti Global, and 45 career wins to his credit, Power admits he has his sights set on 50.
“That's the goal, yeah. To get to 50 would be very nice. That is possible, too. Get three wins this year or four, you have a really good year, you're right there.”
As far was his relationship with Roger Penske these days, Power claims he has no ill will over how things ended with the team.
“Man, Roger gave me a great career. They just had this situation -- he offered me a year. It wasn't like, you're not coming back. He offered me to come back.
“But pretty far down the road at that point. Yeah, the relationship is good. I'll always be grateful for what he did for my career and what he's done for the sport. I was lucky to drive for that long, and I could have continued, but I wanted sort of a longer term contract, and also for myself, I wanted to know what can I do on another team.
“Yeah, tremendous respect for Roger and the whole organization. I'd definitely like to beat him but I want to beat everyone.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.