Will Power summed up his and Team Penske’s season as a tough, tough year after the Australian suffered an engine failure in Sunday’s Honda at the Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course presented by the All-New 2026 Passport. Power started the race from 22nd place and says he was hit at the start of the race before eventually retiring with an engine failure.
Despite ultimately finishing 26th in the race, Power remains the only Team Penske driver in the top ten in the championship, in 9th place.
Will Power On what happened:
“An engine failure there. I got hit at the start as well, which should damage the floor, but I think it was going to be okay. It didn’t feel like it’s handling badly. Oh, man. Tough, tough year.
On resetting for the next race:
“Well, we’re doing that every weekend at the moment. Just every weekend at something, but people go through these ones. See it all the time. It’s just, one of those things.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet finished 27th What happened?
“I either had a massive rear lock up and spun, or I got touched. Initially, it felt like I just locked the rears all of a sudden out of nowhere unexpectedly — or, I got touched. If I didn’t get touched, just a weird freak massive rear lock, which is bizarre. Tough to not be out there. Hopefully, we can fix the car. I don’t think there is a lot of damage. I’d like to get back out there even though we’re out of this thing. It’s a shame having a fast PPG car and support from Team Chevy. I want to be in the mix.”
How do you recover after a string of bad luck?
“You just move onto the next one.”
Newgarden heads to Iowa next weekend in 19th place in the championship on 142 points. Scott McLaughlin who started the race from 21st came home in 23rd place.
“It was a long, hot day inside the Odyssey Battery Chevy, for sure. Felt like we could have finished somewhere between eighth and 12th but had a tire de-laminate on the final run. I don’t know, this has obviously been a very tough year for everyone, but this team doesn’t quit. Team Penske doesn’t have these years often, but we will be stronger because of it, that’s for sure. We are going to Iowa with absolute confidence that we will win there.”