Will Power has identified which IndyCar milestone he wants to reach next, after matching Mario Andretti’s all-time pole record at Gateway Motorsports Park.
The Team Penske driver’s two-lap qualifying run at St Louis yielded the 67th pole position of his IndyCar/Champ Car career, meaning no one stands above him on that metric in top-level North American open-wheeler competition.
Power leads the series by three points with just two races to go in 2022, even if he has just the one race win in the year to date, from 16th on the grid at Detroit.
That took him to 41 in total, including two in Champ Car and another in Champ Car machinery at Long Beach in 2008, consolidating fifth position, all-time.
On that metric, he is now just one behind Mario Andretti’s son Michael, and that is the Queenslander’s next target.
“I need to tie Michael in wins; that’s one win away,” he said, when asked what he wants to achieve next.
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Already this year, there had been a major change in the all-time rankings, namely Scott Dixon drawing level with Mario Andretti’s 52 race wins with his Toronto victory, then moving into a clear second all-time, behind AJ Foyt’s 67, when he held off Scott McLaughlin in Nashville.
Dixon holds the record of seasons with at least one win, and consecutive season with at least one win, now up to 20 and 18 respectively, while Power sits at 16 on both metrics, in a tie for fourth on the former and outright second on the latter.
Asked if he can get pole number 68 before the season is out, at either Portland or Laguna Seca, the 2014 IndyCar champion said, “Yeah, absolutely.
“The next two qualifying sessions have to be very good qualifying sessions,” he added.
“Yeah, that totally is going to be the goal.”
Power notched up his 60th pole in 2020 and started the current campaign on 63, by which time he and while he felt Andretti’s benchmark was in sight.
However, he was still nervous about reaching it until getting both Iowa poles courtesy of his two-lap qualifying run (the first half of which counted as qualifying for the Saturday race, and the second for the Sunday).
“[It was] something I’ve had my eye on for a while,” recounted the 41-year-old.
“I think when I got to 60, I was like, ‘This could be possible.’
“When I got the double pole at Iowa, that’s when it became really realistic,” added Power.
“The year before I had one pole; I think the year before that I had three.
“It was getting increasingly harder to get pole position; I was kind of thinking, ‘This is going to be pretty hard to beat.’
“But the double pole at Iowa was real key. Yep, great team, great engine, great crew.
“That’s what I’ve had. I’ve been lucky.”
The Portland event starts this Friday, September 2 (local time).
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