Team Penske title contender Will Power starts fourth for Sunday’s 206-lap season finale at Nashville Speedway, and with a significant 33-point deficit to championship leader Alex Palou, he’ll need all the help he can get to overcome that gap and secure his third NTT IndyCar Series title.
It wasn’t the pole position he’d hoped for, but Power was the recipient of a significant gift as Palou stumbled in qualifying. And with a grid penalty of nine positions looming ahead of the race for an unapproved engine change, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver will start 20 spots behind Power — deep in the field of 27 cars — and be forced to motor forward to maintain his championship lead.
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All Power can do is try and race his way to the front and hope Palou stays mired back in the midfield — or worse — and see where the fortunes fall for his No. 12 Chevy team.
“We’re just gonna do our thing tomorrow, and hopefully have great cars in the race,” Power said. “Couldn’t do any more than I did in qualifying there. That’s all it had. And you know, obviously wasn’t good enough for pole, but we’ll attack tomorrow. It’ll be what it’ll be, and whoever wins deserves it.”