PRUETT: A long championship journey for Power & Faustino

If you watched Will Power earn his first and long overdue Verizon IndyCar Series championship on Saturday night in Fontana, there are probably a few visuals that stood out throughout the evening.

We had Will's wife Liz chewing away at an empty water bottle throughout the race, wringing its little plastic neck to release her tension, and by the end of the 500-mile event, fans were actually stopping Liz to take photos with the poor thing. Then there was Will's mom, Marge, who travelled all the way from Australia to watch her boy race for the very first time, and the TV cameras couldn't get enough of it.

Once the race was over and the championship celebration began, team owner Roger Penske and team president Tim Cindric were also featured prominently on the broadcast as Team Penske's first IndyCar title since 2006 made the headlines. All four rank as key figures in the 33-year-old's success, but one person was missing – the man with the greatest influence on Power's rise at Team Penske.

Below the stage and well clear of the spotlight, Power's race engineer David Faustino stood alone, wearing a look that ranged between utter satisfaction and dazed disbelief. As Power did interview after interview, Faustino spent time tending to the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Chevy as took the steering wheel Power had perched atop the car and placed it safely in the cockpit. Then he looked over each of the Firestone tires to assess their condition, inspected the bodywork for damage, and when he was done, a sense of great satisfaction seemed to wash over him. It was a splendid, private moment for one of the most talented engineers in the paddock. Eight years after their journey began, Power & Faustino had finally become champions.

Their relationship dates back to 2007, two years before Power joined Penske's illustrious program, and in that span, they've formed one of the most successful driver/engineer combinations in open-wheel racing. They won their first race together at Walker Racing (ABOVE), went on to take fourth in the Champ Car World Series championship, and continued at KV Racing the following year in the IndyCar Series.

Power almost spent 2009 in limbo until he got the call from Penske to fill in for Helio Castroneves who was busy tending to personal matters, and after he'd healed from the nasty crash suffered at Sonoma Raceway, the Aussie went into the 2010 season with a familiar face on the timing stand.

Barring 2009, Power and Faustino have been inseparable, and after a string of runner-up championship performances for The Captain, Faustino says the long and winding trip he's been on with the newly-minted champion has been a career-defining experience.

"I was working for Conquest Racing, they were downsizing from two cars to one so I was looking for a job and got hired on at Walker Racing and I didn't know for sure what I'd be doing there," Faustino told RACER after the stage cleared Saturday night. "Will had been Alex Tagliani's teammate the year before, Simon Pagenaud was coming in, and they were needing an engineer. Will and I just clicked, although we didn't know who would be engineering who, but we did a test together and we just clicked. From there, we've just been hardworking, honest guys with each other. We're not skirting around any issues. Getting together at Penske, we knew it was going to be our time. We'd never have better equipment, better staff, better resources and better support. It's all you could ask for in my position."

The speed and potential of Power and Faustino was evident from the moment they joined forces at Walker Racing, and at Team Penske, the duo seemed to delight in crushing the opposition on road and street courses. 10 wins across 2010 and 2011, including a victory on the Texas oval, signaled Power as a champion waiting to be crowned, but shortcomings in his oval game, and a need to push harder than necessary in some instances, saw mistakes and inexperience derail his title bids.

Power, Faustino, and the entire No. 12 Verizon Wireless Chevy team were galvanized by those defeats, but with the overall competitiveness of the IndyCar Series continuing to increase, Power's mental fortitude was also called into question.

"Those three years of finishing second..." Faustino said as his voice tapered off. "After a few years of that, it makes you doubt that you can do it. You wonder when the bad stuff is going to happen. Will can get himself in those troughs of thinking we've run some good races so something bad is going to happen next or whatever. His speed was never the issue. I think we now know to persevere and keep going, and I think that's what's so great about winning the championship this year. We know, and he knows the bad stuff doesn't have to happen."

Having just recorded his most consistent season in IndyCar, Power's path to the championship was aided by newfound maturity in the cockpit. That maturity was gained by learning from his mistakes, according to Faustino, and the 2012 Fontana event where Power crashed – conceding the title to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the process – is where the rebuilding process began.

"Crashing here was disheartening," he added. "Losing by such a small margin to the Ganassi guys after having such large leads was hard to swallow, and then the crash and seeing Hunter-Reay and the Andretti guys celebrating made us take a harder look at ourselves."

"The haste we had in 2012 is what did us in that year. It was way too early to try anything, and Hunter-Reay was in our sights; we didn't have to pass him. Reflecting on that built a level of maturity, and tonight we saw him slowly chip through the field. Also from our side on the team, we saw Will learn and we learned too. We've all benefitted from that event."

Power has gradually built up his performance on ovals. (LAT photo)

As close as Power might have been to earning a championship in his first few seasons with Team Penske, the 2012 season finale revealed the gap was much greater than anyone expected. It led Power to start 2013 with a new and somewhat loose approach – a byproduct of not wanting to repeat the same processes and mindset that had produced three runner-up finishes. The experiment showed moments of potential, but Power was effectively driving outside of his natural state and by the Indy 500, he reverted back to what had brought him close to winning a championship hat trick.

With any hopes of glory gone before the 2013 season reached the halfway point, Power and Faustino focused their efforts on addressing the Aussie's greatest weaknesses.​ The need to set blazing lap times – to win every lap of practice, qualifying, and the race – took a backseat to making the best season-long choices. Rather than trying to make a statement in each session, proving he could earn the points necessary at each round to capture the championship became the most important goal. Zeroing in on Power's oval limitations would also transform him into one of the series' few all-rounders capable of winning at any track at any time.

Take Power's ridiculous skills on road and street courses, add in what he was missing on ovals, shed the race-winning outlook in favor of a championship-winning mindset, and the 2014 IndyCar title was in Power's grasp from season opener at St. Pete. Simply put, the championship was his to lose, and despite his track record, Power didn't fumble the ball on the goal line.

"He can win anywhere now," Faustino confirmed. "He's way more well-rounded because of his oval experience, and actually, street courses have been more difficult because of the format. We only have 45-minute sessions now, and people picture Will as this crazy, do-a-lap guy, but actually, he builds himself up. So on these low-grip street circuits, it's actually more difficult for him now because we get very little time before we go right into qualifying, whereas before, he had more time and could work into a rhythm where we saw some of those incredible laps come from.

"We've had more ups and downs. Little mistakes have cost us, and if you're off by a tenth, you're way back. Then Helio has stepped things way up, Juan's been incredible on ovals, and it's our job to grow and feed off it. So it has been up to him to learn from all of those things and improve."

Power reckons going back to the basics with Faustino this year also played a role in earning his first championship.

"Dave and I think very similar," he told RACER. "I think this year I really knuckled down and focused hard on what I wanted from the car and to give him the feedback he needed to get the most out of me. It's the same type of thing we did in 2007 and I just wanted to channel as much of that as I could. I look back at [2007] as one of my fondest years, the first year I worked with Dave. And then we had a lot of heartbreak in between – three times – and I just feel so happy for him, for us, to get it done."

Another change within Power was obvious this season as his manic sense of urgency to win at all times was replaced with a healthier state of mind. His fiery passion was unchanged, but the thought of collecting solid points with a third- or fourth-place finish was no longer an uncomfortable concept.

"I think the biggest thing for me was not being in the championship last year was understanding how hard I could push and getting back to the way I did things when I was younger," said Power. "It just took time to get back to just driving and letting the results come on their own."

Three wins, 15 top-10s and eight top-5s later, Power won when it was possible, grabbed handfuls of points when it wasn't, and with Faustino's help in the chassis setup department, became one of the best oval racers in the series. Transformed from an incomplete enigma to IndyCar's total package, Power demonstrated he's taken a page from former rival Dario Franchitti, who perfected the championship-winning blueprint the No. 12 team used to such great effect.

I've said for many years that once Power figures out how to earn his first championship, a title-winning beast could be unleashed and Faustino agrees.

"I think we might have seen that happen right now," he said. "When Will is able to relax, he's mega. I think being behind three races ago at Milwaukee and knowing we were going to run things hard, going through Sonoma where things almost went according to plan and keeping our composure here, I definitely think we're seeing a different Will Power and winning this championship should only help when we go after the next one."

Power deserves all of the headlines and accolades he's received for winning the championship this year, and for the team-first Faustino, taking credit for his part in Will's big breakthrough doesn't come easy. As a kid who first grew interested in the engineering side of motor racing by tuning the suspension on his remote control cars to learning about geometries and springing through his love for mountain biking, Faustino's put in just as much time and effort honing his craft as his star driver.

Power has longed to be hailed as the best Indy car driver since graduating to Champ Car, and after so many close calls, it's only fitting to see him join that elite group with Faustino at his side.

"We know the effort we put in, so when you have the results that match up to the effort, it means a lot," said Faustino, who admitted it will take a while before seeing the words "championship-winning engineer" in front of his name. "We all put so much effort in – it's huge, it's huge. I just feel good that Will got his first championship. He's FAST. He's come so far. He deserves to be champion and now he's earned what he deserves. That's what makes me the happiest of all."​