IndyCar: Power and Dixon Share Thoughts on the Championship Run

The media met with the drivers this morning to start the final race weekend of the NTT INDYCAR Series 2022 season.

Will Power, the Team Penske driver of the no 12 Verizon 5 G entry, is leading the point race with 523 points.   The Aussie has only won one championship in 2014 but has had four runner-up finishes in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016, all with Team Penske.

AR1 asked him what his feeling was for this weekend.   “Ready”, Power replied.  “It is going to be an interesting weekend. It is a  pretty tough track with the low grip.  I am hoping to roll off pretty good.”

AR1 asked him what was the most memorable moment and his worst memory of this season.

“The win in Detroit was my best moment of the season.  Just as a whole, this has been a great, enjoyable season.  It would be fantastic to finish it off here.”

“We have a great group of guys on the car.  Great team effort.”

” I am lucky to be in this situation.   It sucks turning up to the last race and you not in contention.  You don’t get to have pressure always and it I will take it.  It is a good pressure.”

“My worst was the Road America race.  I had a bad day there.”

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing driver of the no 9 PNC Bank entry, is tied for second place in the points with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.  Dixon is hoping to achieve his seventh championship of his career.

AR1 asked the Kiwi what his best and worst moments were this year.

“I feel good about being only 20 points out.   Definitely, I think we are in a good position.  Obviously, you always want to be leading at this point.  20 points is definitely an annoying number.  The race is certainly going to be interesting.”

AR1 asked if missing the fast 6 for qualifying this season has  helped Dixon with the fact he starts the race with more alternative (red) tires.

“In Portland, that definitely changed our race a little bit.  Getting to the fast six earlier in the year seemed to be an easier progression.  I feel like as a team our workhorse package is not great. Especially for extracting the speed for qualifying.”

“Alex did a great job in Portland to just breakthrough.  But if you look at the data for the segments and sectors, none of our cars were in the top 12.  We need to work on that.”

AR1 asked what his worst moment of the season was.

“Probably the Indy 500, for many reasons.  Obviously losing the opportunity to race for the win both and the points deficit.  We lost 76 points alone to Marcus (Ericsson) in just one race.   The championship would have looked rather different if we had a top car.”

My best moment was Toronto.   I good weekend for us.  The milestone of equaling Mario Andretti’s win record was a big deal.  It had been 20 something races since he had a win from the previous year.  And Nashville, breaking the tie breaker for wins was a good one also.”

Interesting to note, that only Power and Dixon have completed every lap for every race this season.

Lucille Dust reporting live from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.