SALINAS, Calif — The 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season has been a challenging one for Team Penske’s Will Power. The defending series champion didn’t have the offseason that he was hopeful of. In what should have been a months long celebration, was met with a months long anxiety induced health scare.

It wasn’t him that was dealing with his health, it was his wife Liz. It was a frightening time. She spent weeks in the hospital dealing with some scary health related issues that I’ll let the family keep to themselves. At times, it wasn’t looking good.

For Power, Liz is his rock. She’s the stir that stirs the drink in the Power household. She keeps Power in the right mindset to do great things on the race track. The 2022 championship?

Credit that to Liz.

See, after the 2021 season ended, Power was down on himself.

He was coming off of his worst season in the sport since 2009. A ninth-place finish in points on the heels of just 1 win and 4 total podiums ensued. That was the only time in the previous 13 seasons that he didn’t have a top 5 finish in the final standings.

He knew of his abilities but was starting to doubt. Was this the new norm?

Then a comment by his wife Liz turned this focus a whole different direction. She told him not only was he going to get at least 5 poles and become the all-time NTT INDYCAR Series pole winner for the upcoming 2022 season, but he was going to hoist his second Astor Cup championship trophy that September too.

“She said, I believe — because there’s probably a time where I was disappointed in something or just saying like — talking about my career or something,” Power said. “She goes, I believe you’re going to beat Mario’s record this year and win another championship. That’s what she said. Legit, she said that.”

Power said he remembers exactly when and where he was with this moment occurred. He was in the kitchen.

“Yeah, I do. We were standing in the kitchen. I remember it exactly,” he notes.

That confidence his wife has in him did wonders for his psyche. So he came to St. Pete back in February of 2022 with a new fresh mindset. It paid off. Power began the 2022 season with 5 straight top 3 finishes.

Even in the midst of that, he wasn’t winning. Liz kept reminding him what she said that past winter.

“She said that a couple times in the year, and it actually gave me confidence,” Power continued. “It actually like — that’s how much faith I have in her gut feel. It kind of made me feel, okay, yeah, she’s said things like this before. Like the 500, she said, I believe you’re going to win one. I think you’re going to win one.

“Even before this weekend, she said, I know you’re going to do it. She said that. I know you’re going to do it. Man, it’s so much pressure — not pressure, but everything has got to go right. But deep down, I was like, I know how life flows at times, and I kind of thought that this could happen.

“But yeah, she said that. Yeah, she has a good gut feel, a good gut feel for things.”

It paid off. Even with those nights that he woke at 3 a.m. the calming sense that he had from Liz helped him endure in the long game in the end.

“Yeah, it was waking up at 3:00 a.m. a couple times over the weekend, and you can always relax yourself back to sleep, but it’s obviously a big day,” he says. “Everyone has put a ton of effort in, and you don’t want to let it go. Those nerves make you perform at a high level.

“I had those nerves going into qualifying. It just pumps you up to another level. That’s what it does for me.

“A couple of times in my career I’ve actually gotten in the car too relaxed, and it just doesn’t work. I’ve been around long enough to understand the perfect amount of sort of nervousness you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have it. You’ve got to have it. Your subconscious won’t perform to what you want it to if you don’t. Your subconscious needs to understand the importance of what you’re doing and then you can put yourself at another level.”

This wasn’t the first time his wife had a good feel on how Power’s career would go either. Every step of the way she’s predicted where he’d land even when it didn’t seem at the time he’d become a 2-time series champion for Team Penske.

“I mean, legitimately told me to sign the contract for A1 GP, didn’t have anything else,” said Power. “Then she told me to get out of that contract because Penske or Ganassi might call you. I was just like, there’s no way, but I did it anyway. I don’t know, I just did it. Then sure enough, she goes, yeah, Helio just got arrested. I’m like, what? What? Derek is down there, he’s talking to Roger — no, it was uncanny. Unbelievable. She actually talked me out of that contract. Yeah, I did end up with Penske. It just blew my mind. How could she know that? She didn’t know, she just felt that.”

Now, she was fighting for her life. She’s not only his wife, but the mother to their son. So you can forgive Power’s mind for being elsewhere. That rock wasn’t by his side. A driver that lives in his head a lot, didn’t have his rock there to keep him right.

Now, he was the one doing that for her. He had to play not only dad, but mom and counselor too. He had to be strong. He had to do what he had to do for his family.

“Yeah, it’s been a real slow process. It’s a tough situation because if she’s in a situation where I’m not sure what’s going to happen with her, like I was at the point where I probably shouldn’t be racing,” Power admitted on Thursday at Laguna Seca. “You don’t want your kid to grow up without parents. That was actually going through my mind at times.”

When that’s on your mind, it will affect your on track results.

Power has 10 top 10 finishes. Last year he had 13. There biggest difference is in the top 5’s. He had 12 a season ago. That’s down an astounding 7 to 5 top 5 finishes this time around.

“Yeah, it was a tough year,” Power said. “It was a tough start for me personally actually with what was going on with my family. That kind of continued all the way even in Road America, had a bit of an issue again.

“It certainly affects your preparation and your mindset, that it does hurt you. Not an excuse, but I know how tough this series is, and you can’t have any sort of issues off the track if you want to be good on the track.

“All in all, ultra competitive series, so it’s not hard to lose ground in the championship. Just takes a couple little mishaps and suddenly you’re trying to claw back.

“Yeah, definitely an off-season of reflecting on what went wrong, thinking about it, mental approaches, see what we can do coming back.”

Luckily, he says things have improved significantly. Liz is much better. The family is happy. He feels certainly a lot more comfortable being at the track again.

Now, with Sunday marking the 17th and final race of the season, can he do what Alex Palou did a season ago and end the year on top?

 Power has won at least one race every season since 2007. The defending series champion is winless in the first 16 races run in his championship defense. He’s almost out of time.

Palou went winless for the first 16 races a year ago before winning the season finale. The only time someone went winless was Scott Dixon in 2004. Ironically enough, that’s the only season since 2003 that Dixon didn’t win a race during.

Can Power avoid their company?

“You’ll fight pretty hard, I know that,” Power said on being winless. “You’ll fight pretty hard. If there’s someone there on the last lap, last corner, you haven’t got a win, yeah, certainly will be floating through your mind about what you might just do (smiling).

“But, yeah, obviously a lot about our qualifying and sort of being at the front. Definitely not going to race like it has done.”

Champions And How Long It Took To Win The Next Season

2022 – Alex Palou 16 races – won the 17th and final race

2021 – Scott Dixon – won the 3rd race at Texas

2020 – Josef Newgarden – won the 6th race at Iowa

2019 – Scott Dixon – won the 8th race in Belle Isle

2018 – Josef Newgarden won the 4th race at Barber

2017 – Simon Pagenaud – won the 4th race at Phoenix

2016 – Scott Dixon – won the 2nd race at Phoenix

2015 – Will Power – won the 5th race in the Indy Grand Prix

2014 – Scott Dixon – won the 15th race at Mid-Ohio

2013- Ryan Hunter-Reay – won the 2nd race at Barber

2012 – Dario Franchitti – won the 5th race in the Indy 500

2011 – Dario Franchitti – won the season opener at St. Pete

2010 – Dario Franchitti – won the 6th race in the Indy 500

2009 – Scott Dixon – won the 3rd race at Kansas

2008 – Dario Franchitti – went to NASCAR

2007 – Sam Hornish Jr. – won the 7th race at Texas

2006 – Dan Wheldon – won the season opener at Homestead

2005 – Tony Kanaan – won the 8th race at Kansas

2004 – Scott Dixon – winless

2003 – Sam Hornish Jr. – won the 12th race at Kentucky

2002 – Sam Hornish Jr. – won the season opener at Homestead

2001 – Buddy Lazier – won the 6th race at Pikes Peak

2000 – Greg Ray – won the 7th race at Phoenix

1999 – Kenny Brack – won the 4th race in the Indy 500

1998 – Tony Stewart – won the season opener in Disney

1997 – Scott Sharp – won the season opener in Loudon

Power’s 41 career wins rank fifth all-time. However, he’s running out of time. It’s down to one last shot on Sunday.

He has finished 2nd, 26th and 3rd in his three Laguna Seca tries though.