LONG BEACH, Calif. — For the second NTT IndyCar Series race in a row, Team Penske veteran Will Power rallied from a poor starting spot to a respectable finish.
Three weeks ago, at the Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, Power advanced an impressive 15 spots through the field to finish in sixth place. This week on the streets of Long Beach, in the 50th running of the famous race, Power went one better, turning a 13th-place starting spot into a fifth-place finish.
What made both these efforts so impressive was that each race ran devoid of caution flags — the first time this has happened back to back since races 12 and 13 of the truncated 2020 season — both races were run on the Indianapolis Grand Prix road course.
“Oh man, yeah, it’s a very good day,” Power told Frontstretch. “It was pretty straightforward. It wasn’t like any trick strategy. We just had to do a lot of passing on track and, you know, I just regret not starting up further again. It’s 3 weeks in a row, but that’s the way it is and it’s a very tight field. It’s very tough in qualifying, so we’ll keep digging.”
Power has two previous victories at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with the very first of his, to date, 44 career wins coming at the famed circuit, all the way back in April 2008. His other victory came four years later in 2012. Power also has three poles (2009-2011) and six total podium finishes at the circuit to go along with his pair of wins. Not surprisingly, at a track where he has seen a good degree of success, he was more than aware of the importance of this race for IndyCar, especially in its 50th running.
“I feel like we’re lucky to come here,” Power said. “It’s one of the best venues on the beach, it’s an iconic track and very challenging. It’s always a good race here and a great crowd, so I feel privileged to be a part of so many of them.”
Headed to Barber Motorsports Park in three weeks for the fourth race of a 17-race slate in 2025, a track where he has two victories (2011, 2012), four pole positions, five podium finishes including a third-place finish in 2023 and a runner-up spot last year, Power struck an optimistic but cautious note, in keeping with the way his nascent season has unfolded to date.
“I was really fast at Barber,” he said. “I’ve been fast in every practice this year, so I think the goal will be to execute in, qualifying and to give ourselves a shot at a win, so that’s definitely going to be on our mind.”
Danny starts his 12th year with Frontstretch in 2018, writing the Tuesday signature column 5 Points To Ponder. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.