Will Power wants to stay with Team Penske as contract negotiations wait

2025 Indy 500 winner Alex Palou on win: ‘There’s nothing like this’

Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou secured his first IndyCar win on an oval track with his first-place finish at the 2025 Indy 500.

• Will Power is racing the 2025 season without a contract, and he’s been the best among Team Penske’s drivers with five top-6 finishes in seven races.
• Power is one of the most decorated drivers in Team Penske history. The 43-year-old shared where his head is at in the midst of an uncertain future yet racing so well.

MADISON, Ill. — Ahead of the start to Will Power’s contract season with Team Penske, then-team president Tim Cindric told IndyStar substantive talks would start immediately following the Indianapolis 500.

Four months since then, Power has crashed out on Lap 1 of the season opener, only to hold the points lead among his teammates through seven races while nabbing five top-6 finishes — second only to dominant IndyCar points leader Alex Palou. Coming off a season where he fought down to the finale for the championship and totaled as many wins and podiums as any driver in the paddock at 43 years old, Power maintains he’s in the best shape and form of his 21-year career.

And yet, with Cindric and the rest of the IndyCar program’s leadership team sacked in the wake of Penske’s illegally modified attenuators in the days leading up to the 500, and still without a win this season, Power maintains he doesn’t yet feel safe or secure enough to know he’ll be back for another stint at his racing home since 2009. With Cindric no longer running point on driver contracts — and seemingly no one appointed to that role in the weeks since — Power said his talks now directly involve Roger Penske, whose present plate includes trying to win Le Mans for the first time, securing a new IndyCar race at Mexico City for 2026, solidifying the entire 2026 IndyCar calendar and knighting his IndyCar team’s next leadership group.

“He’s so busy. I think we won’t know until after the season, if you think about what he’s got to do now,” Power told IndyStar of when he might have an idea regarding his future with Team Penske in IndyCar. “But you can’t lose focus. You’ve got to keep digging. I love this. I love driving, man. I love this sport, and I’m very good at it.

“I’ve done it a long time, so I want to keep doing it here.”

Team Penske has traditionally made any driver hirings or swap news public once a season ends, and no driver in Power’s position would be able to publicly talk about anything substantively until then anyways. Leaving Power truly uncertain on his future until September would leave one of Team Penske’s most successful IndyCar drivers ever high and dry, if the seat was suddenly yanked out from underneath Power, in a year there appears to be very few highly competitive seats up for grabs.

But until that contract is set in front of him, it leaves Power feeling as if his weekends at the track are important opportunities to do himself a favor and make the decision all the easier for Penske to bring him back — or all the more difficult to tell him farewell.

“Yeah man, I need to win some races. I need to win some races,” Power said. “It’s always big. It doesn’t matter if you beat your teammates. You’ve still got to win. Those guys have long contracts.”

In nine starts at World Wide Technology Raceway, the site of this weekend’s IndyCar oval action in Sunday primetime, Power has taken pole four times, but it’s been teammate Scott McLaughlin securing the top starting spot each of the last two years. It’s been four years since Power has stood on the podium after the checkered flag at WWTR, a track where teammate Josef Newgarden has won four of IndyCar’s last five stops and where McLaughlin has finished fourth, third, fifth and second in his four visits.

This weekend represents an obvious opportunity for that first win of the year that seemingly would go a long way in determining Power’s future, but he’ll have his hands full just battling his teammates and, of late at WWTR, he’s been the odd man out. A year ago, he admits he forced the issue a bit too much on David Malukas, leading to a late-race accident that set Power back and eventually led to the restart crash that ended his day in 18th.

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Finding that balance between jumping at a prime opportunity and taking what the race and the weekend is giving him is what Power’s focused on most.

“I’ve been around long enough to where you understand yourself and the mental game, and you just know that all you can do is your best, and that’s it. That’s all that needs to be in your mind,” Power said. “I think everyone, not even just in sports, just understands that in life, things just play out the way they’re supposed to, and if you’re doing the best job you can, that’s all you can do, and that’s sorta my mental approach.

“Just no desperation. I know what it takes to win a race and how that can play out for you, and I know that getting desperate and trying to make something happen usually doesn’t work out. There are times where you might need to take a bigger risk if you’re not in position to win the championship, but I’m always taking the long game. I want to sit back and find that sweet spot, that nice balance.”

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