Photo Credit: Carrie Ellis
Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, has had a few poles for the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Course but has never been able to capture the checkered flag. Before second practice was cancelled in the afternoon session on Friday, Power was the fastest man on the track.
The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Champion says the track is a very interesting one.
“We finished second a couple times,” Power stated. “It’s just about nailing it. Obviously yellows play a big part. If it goes yellow and you’re stuck out, you go to the back, which is one of the worst things about this series, and it has to change. I say it every week. But it won me a race in Toronto, and it probably won me a race in Detroit, and I still say it’s wrong. “But hopefully it’s dry for qualifying. I think that’ll make it — I wouldn’t say more interesting. There’s a way to make it really interesting, but for us we’ve got a good car on the dry, so we’re open to that. So this way we’ll be ready.”
Rain came and cancelled not only the rest of the second IndyCar practice but all on track activity on Friday. It also will wash away any rubber from the tires that was laid down on the track and it will be totally green. This could have a huge effect on teams for qualifying.
“Yeah, this is probably the one track that evolves more than any other track,” Power quoted. “There’s no other track that has a lap time evolution of like five to six seconds. I mean, that’s what this track does. So that will make it very interesting. It will be very green when we go out to qualify. I guess we get to practice, so that might rubber it up a little. But it seems to somewhat reset every session anyway, but I’m sure rain is going to make that worse.”
The Australian driver laid down a time only a few seconds faster than the record that was set last year. Power feels sometime this weekend the record will be broken but only if the track will remain dry.
“Um, yeah,” Power said. “Obviously the cars are just getting faster and faster. It’s not like the track is getting faster. It’s just amazing how much speed we have in like Turn 11 and Turn 1 now. It’s close to flat — it’s not flat, but it’s at that horrible limit where it’s not flat. You know, you hold your breath kind of lifting. It probably looks spectacular from the outside. But yeah, it’s definitely going to be a lap record broken.”
The Toowoomba, Australia native, after missing the first race of the season to an inner ear infection, has come back late in the season winning four races to currently sit second in points behind teammate Simon Pagenaud.
“Well, you’re definitely looking at the situation and the points because it’s very obvious to us what we have to do and that’s finish ahead of Pagenaud in particular because he’s got such a chunk of points ahead of us,” Power added. “ You know, it’s a no-brainer for us. Maybe for him it’s a little different. He’s got that cushion, so do you take a risk, do you not. But for us we just have to. We have to keep going. Not that you take any stupid risks, but we understand that week in, week out, you’ve got your aim, you’ve got your goal.”
