A familiar sight. Will Power crossing the finish line, all alone. Three straight races — three straight celebrations in the winner’s circle for Power.
The likable 31-year-old has left the last three races on top, with the trophy and top prize money. He’s especially tough on road courses. And now he’ll head into the Indianapolis 500, ‘the Greatest Spectacle in Racing,’ with momentum.
It’s hard to discount and hate on what Power has done. But it’s not good for the sport.
IndyCar has always had it’s power teams — like Penske, Andretti and and Ganassi. They have the money, resources, knowledge and thus attract (and can pay) the best drivers.
Now week after week, especially on road courses, Power has been the guy and that trend continues.
Whatever happened to parity and unpredictable endings that are made for TV. Endings like the 500, where J.R. Hildebrand’s crash and Dan Wheldon rode home to victory. The sport needs diversity, they need uncertainty.
I’ve gone on record, for a while, about my lack of interest in road courses. They are built for drivers and teams like Power and Team Penske. Slow speeds, lots of turns and expected results are not exhilarating.
This is a tough situation to fix because the biggest problem is money. Some teams, like Sarah Fisher’s, struggled to even acquire new cars and engines. Finally they did, rightfully so. I want to see other guys in victory circle…guys like Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan, or Alex Tagliani.
On the bright side, festivities for the Month of May are right around the corner. And there’s nothing quite like the Indy 500.