Following his fourth victory of the season this past weekend, Penske driver Will Power is holding every advantage in the race for the 2014 championship. He’s 39 points ahead of second place driver Helio Castroneves in the standings, and he’s the defending champion at both of the remaining races on the schedule.
Power dominated at the Milwaukee Mile Sunday afternoon to claim his first career short oval victory in the IndyCar series and took a big step closer to the championship. The Aussie no longer tries to survive at oval tracks but approaches them with the “go for it” mentality he’s previously saved for road and street courses.
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With two races remaining and the finale at Fontana counting for double points, I’m not quite ready to hand the championship trophy to Power, but it will be difficult for anyone to take it from him. Castroneves is the only real threat, and I’m not sure he’s as hungry as Power is to take the title.
It’s almost as if Power’s 2014 title push began last year when he said the focus was on going for it, pushing for wins and not worrying about the championship after falling out of the title hunt. That attitude scored him a victory at Sonoma, which included the memorable encounter between a member of his pit crew and Scott Dixon’s car. Power was able to forget about that and held off late challenges to take the win.
He went for it again in the final race at Fontana, saying afterwards on the two-mile superspeedway, “It’s the most satisfying win of my life. That is the most satisfying thing I have ever done. And I wanted it so badly all year”.
When you couple the momentum gained from the victory at Milwaukee and heading into the final two races as the most recent winner, you have a focused driver and team with their ultimate prize in sight. I don’t see anyone snatching it from them.
As we get to the late stages of the season attention also turns to next season as drivers and teams look to solidify plans for 2015.
Andretti Autosport apparently feel they can expand to a five-driver team for next year. Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay has a new three-year deal with the team and it’s reported that Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz have their plans solidified. Canadian James Hinchcliffe along with another driver are wanted by the team but not all details are in place yet.
For Hinchcliffe it was another weekend of frustration at Milwaukee. He set a fast time in practice, then backed his car into the wall. During the race they ran well at first but bobbled during a pit stop that set them back — the car’s handling went awry and they never recovered.
The Oakville, Ont., driver’s post race comments summed up the race and also his season. “It’s unfortunate — a bit of a missed opportunity and we have to get to the bottom of why.”