Will Power has won at Portland International Raceway three times in the last six races held there, including back to back victories in 2024 and 2025. He has never won at his adopted home track of St. Petersburg in 18 tries. Ask him why one circuit gives up wins so easily and the other refuses, and the honest answer is that racing does not always follow logic. But Power, 45 years old and in his first season away from Team Penske after 17 years with the organization, needs Portland to make sense again this weekend more than it ever has before.
Power has not won a race after his triumphant 2025 Portland drive, a stretch now standing at 14 races. That victory, in which he led 78 of 110 laps, arrived at a critical moment: Roger Penske had not offered him a new contract for an 18th season together, and Power’s win supported his own argument that he could still win races in a field this competitive. He left Penske for Andretti Global anyway, taking over the No. 26 Honda from Colton Herta, who moved to Europe to join Cadillac’s debut Formula 1 program as a test driver.
A Career Built on Numbers, Now Stalled at One Track
Power’s total of 45 career wins ranks fourth on IndyCar’s all time list, behind only A.J. Foyt’s 67, Scott Dixon’s 59, and Mario Andretti’s 52. He also holds the series record for pole positions with 71, a mark that includes his 2018 NTT P1 Award at Portland. Those numbers describe one of the most accomplished drivers of his generation. They do not describe a driver who has gone winless in every race after changing teams.
That gap between Power’s resume and his current form is the story of his first Andretti season. The results have not matched the talent on obvious display in qualifying and in flashes of race pace, and the 14 race drought has stretched into a stat line Power would not have accepted at Penske, where winning was treated as the baseline expectation rather than the goal.
Why the Move Happened
Power has said the decision to leave Penske came down to more than a contract dispute. Roger Penske reportedly delayed negotiations through most of 2025, waiting to see whether Power would deliver the organization’s first win of the season before committing to terms. Power grew tired of the wait. He has described the choice to sign with Andretti as one he “knew in my gut” was right, even with the uncertainty that comes from switching a car, a crew, and an entire working relationship after nearly two decades in one place.
Josef Newgarden, Power’s former Penske teammate, called the departure “extremely sad” when it became official, a reaction that reflected how unusual it was to see Power in different colors after so long. Team orders, engineering relationships, and pit crews built over 17 years do not transfer with a driver, and Power’s uneven first season at Andretti is, in part, the visible cost of starting over at 45 in a sport that rarely rewards patience.
Portland as the One Constant
What has not changed is Portland International Raceway itself, and Power’s command of it. He calls the 1.964 mile road course a personal favorite, and the results back up the sentiment: five career wins there, three in the last six runnings, and a qualifying and race pace advantage that has held up regardless of which team fields his car. If there is one weekend on the 2026 calendar where Power’s Andretti tenure was always likely to look more like his Penske years, this was it.
The stakes extend beyond one result. Portland opens what INDYCAR is calling the season’s stretch run, six races across five weekends to close out the championship. A win here would not just end Power’s drought. It would give Andretti Global momentum heading into a run of races where every point separates contenders from also-rans, and it would hand Power proof, in front of a paddock that has watched his winless streak build, that his first year away from Penske was a transition and not a decline.
The Rest of the Portland Field
Power is not racing in a vacuum this weekend. Alex Palou arrives with an 83 point championship lead and a chance to build toward a fourth consecutive title, though he cannot clinch it in Portland with five races still to follow. Palou has been strong at the track historically, with wins in 2021 and 2023 and a pole in his first Portland start for Chip Ganassi Racing. David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood sit 83 and 87 points back respectively, the only two drivers within reach of Palou, though neither has finished on the Portland podium in past visits.
Christian Lundgaard enters with the best average finish on permanent road courses in the series this season, a mark that edges out even Palou’s own number, built on wins at the Indianapolis road course and Road America. Graham Rahal, who took his most recent series pole at Portland in 2023, has quietly strung together top five finishes at road courses all year.
Andretti’s Own Stakes in Portland
Power’s result this weekend carries meaning for Andretti Global beyond one driver’s personal drought. The team built its 2026 lineup around the idea that Power’s experience and Kyle Kirkwood’s title chase could push Andretti into contention with Ganassi and Penske, and Kirkwood’s position 87 points behind Palou keeps that plan alive heading into the stretch run. A Power win at Portland would give the organization two drivers with real momentum at the same time, a combination Andretti has rarely managed across recent seasons.
The team also has a direct storyline tied to Colton Herta, the driver Power replaced. Herta left Andretti to join Cadillac’s debut Formula 1 program as a test driver, a move that opened the No. 26 seat and closed one chapter of Andretti’s roster while opening another. Andretti’s decision to pursue a 45 year old, two time series champion rather than a younger replacement signaled how much the team valued Power’s experience on road and street courses, the exact kind of layout Portland represents.
A Career Entering Its Final Stretch
Power has never been shy about discussing his age relative to the rest of the grid. At 45, he is racing against drivers half his age, some of whom grew up watching him win championships. His response has consistently been to point at the stopwatch rather than the birth certificate: pole positions and lap times do not care how long a driver has been racing, and Power’s qualifying pace at Andretti has remained competitive even as his finishing results have not matched it.
That gap between one lap speed and full race results is often the first sign of a team still learning how to support a new driver, rather than evidence the driver himself has slowed down. Crew communication, setup preferences built over 17 years at Penske, and race strategy calls all take time to align with a new engineer and a new set of teammates. Portland, a track where Power’s raw speed has translated into wins regardless of which colors he wore, offers as clean a test of that alignment as any race on the calendar.
A Weekend That Means More Than Points
For most of the Portland field, this weekend is about championship math. For Power, it is about something closer to validation. A 21st season in the sport, 19 of them with at least one win, now includes a stretch where the win column has stayed empty for longer than at almost any point in his career. Portland will not erase that drought if he loses again, and it will not guarantee his adjustment to Andretti Global is complete if he wins. But for a driver who has built his identity on being unmistakably fast at the tracks that suit him, there is no better place to find out where his first year away from Penske actually stands.
