By alley - Sep 18, 2016, 11:35 PM ET

INDYCAR: Power - 'It was just Simon's year'

Will Power paid tribute to Penske teammate and rival Simon Pagenaud after finishing championship runner-up to the Frenchman in the season finale at Sonoma on Sunday.

"When it's your year to win a championship, it's your year," he said. "It was just Simon's year, through and through. Everything fell well for him. He just did the things he needed to do – this weekend he got pole, led the laps, made it as difficult as possible for me. He just did a great job."

Power fought his way into title contention after being forced to miss the opening race at St. Petersburg on medical grounds, and said that he was happy with what he'd achieved despite his runner-up status.

"I think Simon was going to be tough to beat as far as the championship goes," he admitted. "Maybe we could have beaten him for the win, but I doubt it if everything just played out as it was. But it was still a very strong year. Four race wins. I won a 500-mile race. Not the right one, but still a 500-miler. I've had much more frustrating ends to seasons than this, I can promise you that."

Power went into the Sonoma weekend as the underdog, trailing Pagenaud by 44 points at the start of the race after the Frenchman secured a bonus point for claiming pole on Saturday. He'd climbed up to second – albeit some distance behind his rival – when his car slowed with a gearbox problem.

"Basically I shifted, the gears didn't engage properly, then it got stuck in gear, then it wouldn't shift, and then it went into anti-stall mode at the hairpin because it got down to a certain rev," he explained.

"It just wouldn't get out of anti-stall mode. Stayed in neutral. It's dangerous – that's a fast section. I was really worried. There was nothing else I could really do.

It was frustrating at that point. You just want it to click into gear and go, [but] it wouldn't. You just watch people roll by. That's it, championship's over."

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