Power: Fluctuating qualifying form improves racing skills

Power, who leads the championship by three points after seven of the 17 rounds, came from 16^th on the grid in yesterday’s race at Belle Isle to be leading by Lap 14, and he went on to score his 41^st victory. In April at Barber Motorsports Park, the #12 Team Penske-Chevrolet made a similar climb from 19^th on the grid to finish fourth.

Although Power is aiming to beat Mario Andretti’s all-time pole-winner record – he’s currently three behind – he says that fluctuations in qualifying form have upped his judgment in raceday situations.

“When I used to qualify on pole very often and start at the front very often, you're not racing in the pack very often,” he said. “Now rarely am I right at the front for qualifying. Sometimes. But no one is consistently at the front anymore: it's just too tough.

“So you're racing around other cars, you get very good at that, too. You get very good at restarts, good at judging where you should be. That's something I missed out early on in my career because I was so fast, I was in the front, I was always leading.”

Power who has finished in the top four in six of the seven races this season, said he had made a slight mental shift last season, but it had been masked by misfortune, causing him to finish only ninth in the championship.

“I certainly perfected that sort of mental place you need to be in, decision-making and such,” he said. “But that was there last year. It's just that I had a lot of unfortunate things happen that really put me out of contention in some big races, in some races where I was top three for sure, so it wasn't obvious.

“It looks like a big change, but it's not a big change. I've had years of this. I'm so experienced at it, I understand the game so well. I'm just executing as you should at my experience level. You're getting everything right, like all the details.”

Power said that his opening two stints of the Detroit race, where he built a 20sec lead on primary Firestones, to give him sufficient margin to retain the lead when he had to nurse the alternate-compound tires in the third stint, reminded him of the ‘zone’ he used to access regularly in qualifying.

“It's hard to get to that place,” he said. “I used to be there a lot when I was younger. But, yeah, it's just one of those zones where everything's clicking so well, you're 100 percent in the middle… It's that flow state. You can't make a mistake, you don't make a mistake. Just so much space there to play with it, like manipulate it. It’s hard to explain.

“But I would get in that state for qualifying often, pump out some pretty ridiculous laps. That was today: that was the race for me. In a really good spot.”

Power said that key to his revised attitude is that he’s “not disappointed with bad results anymore” because he’s learned to roll with Fate’s punches and appreciate his opportunities.

“That's one thing that has changed with me: I really don't care,” he said. “I don't have to put anything more up on the board. I could stop right now… So I haven't got that pressure. I just don't care anymore. I'm just enjoying it.

“I massively care about my craft. I want to do it absolutely properly. But I don't care about a bad result because it is a part of the game… I'm extremely lucky to be doing what I'm doing, just fortunate that I'm in this position to race cars and get paid for it. It's insane. Compared to what you could be doing... It can always be worse.”

This attitude he put down to being in his 40s.

“You know you're not going to be around. Once you've been on this earth for 40 years, well, that went pretty quick! So the next 20 of being able to do stuff is going to go real fast. So who cares? Enjoy it, enjoy it. It gets faster and faster. It's ridiculous, the years…

“That's why you don't sweat it on the bad days because they do come back. You just relax and let it come to you. It feels like it's the way life rolls: it never is perfect. It just isn't. It's not built for humans to have perfection.”

Power, whose current Penske contract expires at the end of 2023, said that the pressure he felt as a young driver has dissipated, and that now he just derives pleasure from his racing.

“I'd say there's freedom in not caring, not having to add to anything you've done,” he mused. “That's the feeling I have. I could stop now and be satisfied with what I've done. Anything else you add on to that is a bonus.

“You don't have the pressure of, ‘I'm only two years into my career and I have to try to make a living out of it.’ It doesn't matter. I could stop now and it would be OK.

“But I'm still performing at a really high level, probably better than I ever have. So just enjoying that. Trying to extract the most out of it is the enjoyable part of it.”