DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Will Power casually walked through the near-empty fan zone at Daytona International Speedway in a simple, white firesuit void of any Penske or Verizon Wireless logos. One of the winningest drivers in IndyCar history was practically unnoticeable at an unfamiliar track where few should have recognized the Australian.
And yet suddenly a crowd grew out of nowhere.
“Will Power! When you put your foot on the gas in an IRL car, there's no stopping you," one man gushed as he clamored for a selfie.
Others handed him diecasts of his iconic No. 12 Team Penske car for his signature. They heaped praise and admiration and offered Power a warm welcome at his first Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race. He will drive for 75 Express, a team owned by fellow Australian Kenny Habul, in the GTD Pro class next week.
It was the confidence boost Power didn't know he needed.
“It feels good just to be recognized,” he told one fan.
Power had driven for Roger Penske since 2009 and set the series record for poles (71), built a career that has him ranked fourth on the all-time wins list with 45 victories — one of them the Indianapolis 500 — and won two IndyCar titles.
But that math couldn't compete with the clock and Power, who turns 45 on the same day the IndyCar season opens March 1 in St. Petersburg, simply doesn't have much time left on his racing career. It led Team Penske to choose 24-year-old David Malukas as his replacement, a transition more than a year in the making, but a lack of transparency forced Power to twist in uncertainty for almost the entire 2025 IndyCar season.
With Power still at the top of his game, Penske late last season was apparently prepared to offer Power a peace offering of a one-year contract extension. But the damage to Power's ego, pride and mental state already had been done; he told his boss of nearly two decades that he wasn't interested.
Power instead signed a contract with Andretti Global, now owned by TWG Motorsports and Dan Towriss, a group eager to add his veteran leadership in its bid to return the organization to the top of IndyCar. Spurning a return to Penske did not sit well with the boss, who held Power to a contract that ran through Dec. 31 and essentially parked him from starting with Andretti until the first of this year.
Malukas, meanwhile, was in Penske merchandise and getting a jump on his new job the entire time Power was sidelined, unable to do anything with his new team.
Power, a career Penske loyalist who meets every definition of “Penske Material,” has been crushed by the way his parting played out and the animosity he felt from his former organization through the final four months of last year.
The ramifications may come back to bite Team Penske, which is coming off one of its worst seasons in years: Power rang in 2026 by going for a run at midnight on New Year's Eve decked in Andretti gear. He was in the shop two days later to meet his new team, sit in the seat of his new car and start working on a campaign he's determined will make Penske regret writing him off.
“There's nothing more I want to do this year than beat Penske every single weekend,” Power said. “And I understand why I wasn't allowed to start at Andretti until now because we're only two weeks into the year and we are already working very, very hard on everything we need to get to work on.”
Towriss in another coup snagged Ron Ruzewski, one of three Team Penske executives fired during an Indianapolis 500 cheating scandal, as team principal of its IndyCar team. Ruzewski and Power know Team Penske inside and out and bring priceless knowledge to an Andretti organization that last won the IndyCar title in 2012.
One of Power's first acts at the start of January was to ask Ruzewski for a team meeting that included teammates Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood and the Andretti leadership to discuss priorities and debrief Power's first session in his new Honda, a test earlier this month in Phoenix.
“Will is one of the nicest, greatest guys in the series and one of the most pure competitors in IndyCar and I absolutely adore him,” Kirkwood said. "He's already been great for us in just a few weeks. He works day in and day out to make sure he's one of the most competitive drivers in the series and that's a drive I think we all hope to have.
“He definitely feels like he has something to prove, and combined with Ron, well, there's no doubt the two of them are going to greatly help improve Andretti's short oval program.”
Power concurred.
“Already on it,” Power said. “Roger was very shrewd in not letting us get started until the start of the year because he knows how much information we are bringing into Andretti.”
He has secured a townhome in Indiana to be close to the race team while he keeps his full-time home in North Carolina. He spent an entire day in the Honda simulator earlier this week before heading to Daytona for his first time participating in the most prestigious endurance race in North America.
Penske rarely allowed Power to compete in events outside of IndyCar but had approved Power to race in the Rolex in 2023. The entry fell apart when Power's wife developed a staph infection that nearly killed her and he had to withdraw from Daytona as he sat by her hospital bedside.
He finally is back in a bucket-list event for Power but with mixed emotions. He believes these two weekends spent at Daytona are cutting into the time he could be working with his new Andretti engineers. And, his life has changed completely from where he was three years ago as a veteran Penske driver with a sense of security from the loyalty he'd given to that program for so long.
The rest of the IndyCar field is intrigued to see what Power delivers this year at Andretti because they believe he never has been more motivated.
“He's going to be very fast, very good, especially on road and street courses,” former Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin said. “I know what Will's like and he's very regimented in terms of what he likes and how he likes things and what he can offer to Andretti. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on the pole at St. Pete.”
It is those assets that Towriss was looking for as he begins his second season as the full owner of Andretti. He has been disappointed openly at Penske's stance in refusing to allow Power to work until the start of January, particularly since Team Penske has been working with Malukas for months.
“He's coming in with an insane worth ethic. He thinks about racing all the time,” Towriss said. “We want to win and if you want to just have a job or just work at a race team, then go somewhere else. Come here with us because you want to be part of something and build something special. We know we got that in Will Power.”
This story has been corrected to show that Will Power has 45, not 71, career IndyCar Series wins.
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FILE Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power, of Australia, poses with the Borg-Warner Trophy during the traditional winners photo session on the start/finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 28, 2018, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
