“What happens if I have an accident?” Powers sobering IndyCar decision

When he felt his lap belts come off and made his way to pit road just twelve laps into the season finale in Nashville, Will Power knew immediately his IndyCar title hopes were over.

But it was only after the race, when the topic came up again, that he had the sobering thought that in an accident he might have been “thrown out of the car”.

“It actually just appeared [out]a failure, it didn't just come loose, it just went off,” Power told a group of media outlets, including The Race.

“I was in the middle of a fight and then I felt it and thought to myself: 'Yeah, that's not right, I have to go to the box.'

“Later in the race it happened again. So it was a defective seat belt, a defective buckle or whatever.

“[It was a] a pretty bad situation, really, because I didn't even think about, “Man, what happens if I hit the wall?” If it just bounces off, a little bit of pressure comes from my body, I could be thrown out of the car.

“So, yeah, I didn't think about that after we plugged it in. 'Did it not fit properly?'. But after the second time, I thought something was wrong.”

Power, who confirmed he had never had such problems before, made it to the end of the race, but while the problem was being fixed, he was initially five laps down and dropped to the back.

In the end, he reached the finish line eight laps behind in 24th place and last of the racers.

“It's a strange detail in a closure we've used so far,” he added. “What happens if I have an accident at some point? Was it just a faulty closure? I don't know.”

“I know we have to check this very carefully because if something is faulty, it is a serious matter for the manufacturer.”

His Penske team is continuing to investigate the problem.

Power finished the season with the same number of points as any other driver (three), but still felt like an underdog heading into the finale in Nashville, where he was considered the only realistic contender for the title, Alex Palou, because he needed at least a top-three finish to overtake his Ganassi rival.

This belt problem, along with the fact that Colton Herta won the race and Scott McLaughlin finished fifth, caused Power to drop from second to fourth in the final standings.

Ultimately, a spin in the penultimate race in Milwaukee was the decisive moment – on a day when Palou was virtually sidelined by a pre-race battery issue. Without that spin, Power could have closed the gap much further and significantly eased the pressure on his shoulders to score a result in the final.

Another crucial mistake was the collision with his Penske teammate McLaughlin in Toronto while battling for the top five, and then there were the crashes in Iowa and the Indianapolis 500. Palou didn't have a perfect season, but it seemed that only perfection could defeat him, and all of his competitors dropped too many points.

Herta, who ended up second in the championship, retired from the Indy 500 despite having a really strong car, and spun out in a race in Detroit where he had taken pole.

McLaughlin, who passed Power but remained third overall, also crashed at Detroit and hit Power at Laguna Seca. Neither was perfect enough to dethrone Palou.

Nevertheless, Power looks back on his season with pride.

After winning the title in 2022, 2023 was a disaster for Power and racing took a back seat as his partner Liz suffered serious health problems. He admitted he considered quitting racing because he was worried about whether his children would have parents and because he had to deal with some of the most difficult questions you can face in life – the kind of questions that make racing seem trivial.

With Liz bouncing back and racing this year, Power is back in form as his record shows, he just felt he hasn't found the same balance between aggressiveness and consistency as he did in 2022, when he only won one race but was extremely consistent.

“Very satisfying,” he said about his season.

“Three race wins, one on an oval, a couple of wins on road courses. Also had a dominant win [at Portland in August].

“I feel like my race pace on the road and on street circuits is always very good. It's just about getting to the front and using it.”

“It's just a good year for the whole team. Of course we would like to win the championship and I think we all had the potential to do that. It's just that Palou is very good; very, very good. He's very level-headed. He's a tough guy who's hard to beat.

“So if you beat him in a championship, you've done a good job.”

Power should know – he is the only one to beat Palou in a championship since the now three-time champion joined Ganassi in 2021.

Palou’s stunning record

Palou, who finished 11th in Nashville, won in 2021, 2023 and now 2024, becoming the first two-time champion in a row since Dario Franchitti won the title three times in a row with Ganassi from 2009-2011.

Palou said Franchitti told him he now had to win three titles in a row – which Palou joked he would start doing next Monday.

But Palou's successes are no joke. He has won three titles in four seasons – a feat that only 13 drivers have achieved before. He is in his fifth year in the IndyCar series and is only 27 years old.

It's not the perfect or most direct comparison, but it took six-time champion Scott Dixon, Palou's teammate, 13 years to win three titles. And that title also meant Palou surpassed Power and Josef Newgarden, who have two titles.

The speed with which he set this record is truly impressive and there is little sign of this run coming to an end.

While he made a rare mistake and crashed in Iowa, he can hardly be blamed for other problems in 2024 – like being knocked out by Newgarden in Detroit, which ended a streak of top-10 finishes by Palou in the previous 24 races.

He also had an average finishing position of 2.5 – yes, you read that right – on road courses. His numbers are incredible.

The Race asked Palou what he plans to do next given his success. Does he have long-term goals or is he just trying to win the next race, and the next, and the next?

“I love having the opportunity to win races and championships,” he said.

“I didn't set out to win four or five or anything like that. Winning three IndyCar championships is unreal to me. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be in this position.”

“I take one race at a time, one lap at a time. For me, every lap I do is the most important of my life. I do the same thing at every race. Hopefully we can continue to win races and championships.”

The only significant change for Palou at the start of the 2024 season was that he became a father last December. Other drivers have talked about how having children makes you more focused because you have to manage your time better.

It obviously influenced him.

“They say winning is the best thing in life, I agree. [with]he said. “They say being a father is the best thing in life, and I agree with that doubly. But when you experience both in the same year, it's really something very special.”

“It was obviously an incredible year of learning. Maybe I slept a little less. I couldn't sit on the simulator and play video games as much as I used to at home.

“It was incredible. I wouldn't change anything about what I'm experiencing right now. It was the best thing to have her there for my first win this year on the Indy circuit, to have her celebrate today.”

Every year we try to look for something that could throw Palou off track.

In 2022, he was sued by his own team when he tried to sneak his way to McLaren, which certainly didn't help him in the second half of the season. But it seems like ages since Ganassi and Palou have been at loggerheads with each other, as they fit so well together. That shows why Ganassi fought so hard to keep him.

Last year he won despite a contract dispute with McLaren after he ultimately decided not to stay with Ganassi, and this year he won despite McLaren launching proceedings in a commercial court in the UK for breach of contract and possible damages.

He has overcome these problems off the track over the past two years, so they seem to be over – at least as far as their impact on him behind the wheel is concerned.

Next year will see significant changes at Ganassi, with an Indy NXT program (formerly Indy Lights) and a new technical collaboration with the Meyer Shank team, which has worked with Andretti since 2022.

When asked by The Race how Ganassi plans to maintain his form despite these changes, team owner Chip Ganassi replied, “That’s a good question.” (Thanks, Chip!)

“I guess it'll be Monday before we get to that. Right now I think we'll just have a little party tonight.

“I don't think it's a big challenge for us. Basically, we're turning our sports car team into an Indy NXT team and we'll see from there.”

“We still have a great group of engineers. We still have a great group of guys. Bringing a technical partner like Mike Shank on board is a good thing for our team, and I hope it's a good thing for his team.”

“I look forward to it.”

It's a sobering thought, but it's hard to imagine anyone else being able to take the IndyCar Series away from Palou unless he has numerous reliability issues and a perfect challenger.