One of the talking points of the preseason and at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding earlier this month was the status of Will Power past 2025.
Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Power is in a contract year with Team Penske at age 44, and he has said numerous times he still has the speed and desire to stay with the most successful team in North American open-wheel racing history, his full-time home since 2010.
Power proved his point by leading a private test Tuesday, March 11 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. This wasn’t an Open Test, so no times and speeds were released, but 19 of 27 full-time drivers in the series turned laps on the rolling, 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course, which hosts the Children’s of Alabama INDYCAR Grand Prix powered by AmFirst on Sunday, May 4.
So, it’s time for some itemized deductions:
Power Bounces Back
Teams always have different goals for test sessions, so it’s tough to get a true read on the time sheet. Some top times are set on low tanks in qualifying trim in cooler conditions; other drivers and teams focus on full fuel runs when the track gets hot and slippery.
But there’s no doubt Power had to feel good about leading the test by slightly more than a tenth of a second over Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward.
Besides the fact it’s a contract year, pressure mounted a bit higher on Power after he was eliminated from the season-opening race at St. Petersburg in a crash on Lap 1. He’s 26th in the standings, already 46 points behind St. Pete winner and two-time defending series champion Alex Palou.
There still are 16 points races remaining, so it’s not even close to panic time for Power and his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske team. But there’s no doubt leading the charts with his best lap during the cooler morning temperatures on a green, grippy track will breathe wind into Power’s sails heading into the next event, The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix on Sunday, March 23 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Christians Rise Up
It was a good day to be a Christian on Tuesday in Alabama.
Danish drivers Christian Rasmussen and Christian Lundgaard ended up third and fourth overall, respectively, in the test. Rasmussen was less than two-tenths of a second behind leader Power in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet, with Lundgaard slightly more than three-tenths behind Power in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Rasmussen’s speed opened eyes, but it’s a continuation of progress he continues to make with Ed Carpenter Racing. 2023 INDY NXT by Firestone champion Rasmussen had a solid start to his second season with ECR at St. Petersburg, finishing 15th after qualifying a disappointing 24th. Only O’Ward (11 spots) and Alexander Rossi (10) advanced more places from the green flag to the checkered at St. Pete.
Lundgaard also continues to make a smooth adjustment to his early days at Arrow McLaren after spending the last three full seasons at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He qualified fifth and finished eighth in a steady debut performance for the Papaya People in St. Petersburg.
This was Lundgaard’s first time in the No. 7 on a road course, as he only tested last fall on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval and earlier this year at Sebring – which features concrete runways and asphalt, more like a street circuit – and raced on the street circuit at St. Petersburg.
Rinus Renaissance Continues
Rinus VeeKay was the last driver earning a full-time ride for the 2025 season, named as one of Dale Coyne Racing’s two drivers in mid-February after spending his first five seasons in the series with Ed Carpenter Racing.
VeeKay delivered the DCR its first top-10 finish since September 2023 when he placed ninth in his debut with the team at St. Petersburg in the No. 18 Honda.
That strong start continued Tuesday at Barber. VeeKay ended up fifth, slightly more than four-tenths behind Power, despite limited running in the morning due to an issue and continued adaptation of the car to suit VeeKay’s driving style.
After a year of instability created by a rotating cast of drivers, it appears DCR may have found a new foundation for resurgence with VeeKay in the cockpit.
Hybrid Changes Barber Balance
There’s another good reason for so many teams to test at Barber besides the fact the series is racing there in less than two months: This is the first race at the immaculate facility in which the hybrid unit will be used on NTT INDYCAR SERIES cars.
The hybrid was introduced last July at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, about two months after last year’s race at Barber.
As at all tracks new with the hybrid, drivers and teams need to adjust setups to counter the shift in weight balance by adding the hybrid unit to the bellhousing in the rear of the car.
Barber Provides Fitness Test
Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing explained another benefit to testing on the undulating 2.3-mile circuit at Barber – it’s a great test of a driver’s fitness.
Barber features plenty of rises and drops that lift and compress a driver’s body while strapped into the cockpit, and the numerous high-speed corners also place tremendous G-forces on the driver’s neck, arms, hands and torso. Remember, INDYCAR SERIES cars don’t have power steering.
Rosenqvist said Barber rivals WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – and its famed Corkscrew turn complex – as the most physical track on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule.
“If you’re fit around here, you should be good for the rest of the year,” Rosenqvist said.
FRO Pushing It
Pushing the limits is one way to find performance in a test, and it appears Rosenqvist danced on the edge of a lightning bolt in the morning and afternoon sessions at Barber.
Rosenqvist went off track in Turn 2 in his No. 60 SiriusXM Honda fielded by Meyer Shank Racing in the morning and then made heavy contact with the wall in Turn 1 during an incident in the afternoon session. Rosenqvist was unhurt.
Swedish driver Rosenqvist ended up 16th on the speed chart and turned only 40 laps due to the incidents, far fewer than any other driver.