LEXINGTON, OH — Will Power started seventh in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. He fell to ninth by the end of the opening stint. It was far better than last year when he started 21st and spun which dropped him to last.

He’d rebound to finish third.

This year, he finished third again. However, it was vastly different. This time, he had no clue he was even having a shot at a podium and was kind of taken back when his team told him that at the end of the Honda Indy 200.

“Yeah, I didn’t know where I was the whole race because the last I knew at the start I was P9 and then obviously the whole sequences went on,” Power admitted.

He had a great opening strategy to stretch his primary tires to Lap 30. With the four cars in front of him on alternates, running his first stint long gained him four more spots back to have him fifth at the end of the first sequence.

Power was solid from then on. He benefitted from Pato O’Ward being on a three-stop strategy, Colton Herta speeding on pit road and Graham Rahal plagued by two slower stops to allow Power to capitalize on their misfortunes to finish on the podium for the 97th time of his career on Sunday.

“Yeah, real fast. Solid day. No mistakes,” said Power. “I think if I got a bit better start, I could have been — it’s hard to say. Obviously Palou is very quick.

“Yeah, not much more we could have got out of the day. That was kind of what we had.”

Power said he felt good to snag his second podium in three races, but knows that it’s going to be difficult to catch Alex Palou in order to repeat as a series champion.

“Yeah, obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but I don’t think — that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in a championship this year,” said Power who now trails by 151 points in seventh. “He is so on point in every respect, in every respect.

“He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series to be extremely fast, which there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, the qualifying.

“Just from a strategy standpoint as well, which I know it’s the first time he won a championship. That group on that car is very smart. Like, they’re putting it all together. Yeah, it’s an absolute team effort, but he is also nailing it.

“It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”

Power also said that his Team Penske team seems to be missing it a bit in comparison to the Ganassi’s in general. Ganassi went 1-2 on Sunday and have won 5 of the 9 races this season.

“I think Ganassi in general seems to have a very good package right now all-around. So they’re a tough group, tough group. All good drivers. Obviously a very strong team. I think we all have a little bit of work to do.”