In two out of three of those 'losses' the victor was the same guy, so I don't think Power has any jinx. And Hunter-Reay won more races this year. I think a better way to look at it is Power has been in the title fight in the last round of all three of his Penske seasons.
Falcadore even if Vegas had counted last year, Power loses. He was caught up in the accident.
I cannot think of any circumstances where that race might have counted. My "shameful" comment was more along the lines that Indycar in their press releases have started to back track the series and state the second last round in 2011 was now actually the last round, writing it as if the Las Vegas race hadn't happenned at all. It's factually wrong and insulting to Dan Wheldon's memory. Indycar said in their press material this month this was the third year in a row Power led the points coming into the final round and describing the 2011 Kentucky race as the final round. Just distasteful.
As mentioned elsewhere above his teammate had a similarly narrow loss the previous year. Power's words were that the team were jinxed on ovals not him generally.
Off the direct subject but is Will Power related to the Power family from Victoria who have been midget racers for many years?
Will is the son of Queensland open-wheel veteran Bob Power, who has a career racing open wheelers that started in the 60s, that hasn't stopped yet. A front runner in Australian Formula 2 during its resurgent hey-days of the 1980s in a Kaditcha, then a Ralt, he goes back as far as Holden grey motor specials and is still racing today, using a 2006 Mygale to teach the youngsters of Queensland Formula Ford which way to go.
His Mygale is a colour scheme look-alike of Will's 2011 Dallara IR5. He's brilliant.
I'm not sure, Lee, but I think he's the son of Bob Power, who raced F2 etc and emanates from Brisbane.
Towoomba Ray, not Brisbane.
As for Will Power, wasn't it Derrick Walker who brought him across to America with the Aussie Vineyards Champ Car team? I assume the recommendation from an old Penske associate came in handy when the Captain needed someone to fill in for Castroneves in 2009.
Yep. Joined Walker Racing in late ;05 as the relationship between the team and Marcus Marshall was breaking down and Will had run our of cash to support a World Series Renault bid with Carlin Motorsport but in the meantime gave A1 Team Australia its best race finish in A1 Grand Prix in a pretty dismal history of that team. Did the '06 and '07 seasons with Walker picking up a couple of wins before joining KV Racing in 08 for the merged championship, winning the last Champ Car race at Long Beach '08.
He had a second place in his second race for the Captain in '09 and had won a race before the end of the year then cracked his back shunting at Sonoma, hitting an unsighted spun car. He's won 15 races in three and a half seasons at Penske, but only one on an oval.
Edited by Falcadore, 19 September 2012 - 08:54.