ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Will Power pondered retirement last year as his wife battled a near deadly staph infection that had the Australian wondering if he needed to focus on his family’s future.
“She almost died,” Power said. “You start thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m going to have to stop now, take care of my son.’ “
His wife has recovered and Power is back in victory lane.
Power was joined by wife Liz and son Beau in victory circle Sunday after he earned his first win in two years. He ended a 34-race winless streak and moved to the top of the IndyCar points standings.
The 43-year-old pulled ahead for good on the 49th of 55 laps and beat teammate Josef Newgarden by 3.2609 seconds on the 14-turn, 4.014-mile course to win for the first time since the Detroit Grand Prix on June 5, 2022. Power has a five-point lead over reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou as he seeks his second championship in three years.
Power won the 2022 title but was distracted by his wife’s health issues during last year’s winless season.
“I have to say I’m a better driver again this year than I was in ’22 when I won the championship,” Power said. “Last year was sort of a stall-out here. Not much I could do. Spending a lot of time at home, looking after Liz, making sure everything was going well for her. [Now I’m] back to Liz helping me. She is a big part of my preparation. She does a lot for me. We’re back as a team again.”
Power won for the 42nd time in the series to tie Michael Andretti for fourth on the all-time wins list. They trail A.J. Foyt (67), Scott Dixon (58) and Mario Andretti (52).
Newgarden was second and Scott McLaughlin third to give Team Penske a sweep of the podium — its first since 2017.
Newgarden finished second in a backup car one day after spinning off the track and crashing his Chevrolet hard into a barrier during the final stages of qualifying Saturday.
“It was a real team effort to put a new car together,” Newgarden said. “Everybody pitched in… really rewarding, I think, for the entire crew when you have to go through something like that, put it all together, we finish 1-2-3, it’s as good as it can get.”
After a rainy Saturday caused a wet track for much of the qualifying rounds, conditions were ideal for Sunday’s race.
The sweep continued Team Penske’s successful run since getting rocked by a cheating scandal in April. Newgarden was stripped of his season-opening win at St. Petersburg nearly six weeks later when IndyCar discovered Penske’s three cars had an illegal version of…
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