Penske's winless streak in focus as IndyCar returns to site of Power's most recent win

Fight like hell over the last three races and try to keep everyone’s spirits lifted. That’s the approach being taken by defending Portland IndyCar race winner Will Power as Team Penske’s 14-race winless streak arrives at the site of his last victory.

He’s also fully aware of the ticking clock – the season end on August 31 after Portland, Milwaukee, and Nashville are run. It’s three chances left for himself and teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin to prevent Penske’s first winless season since 1999 where a dry spell of 54 races that started in 1997 is looked upon as a turning point in the organization.

“I won last year and we're pretty strong in qualifying the last couple races here,” Power told RACER. “These next three, they're all pretty good for us. I won last year here and Josef was on the podium in third. Scott won here in ’22 so we know what’s possible. We have a shot to win any of these next three races, myself and my teammates. Who knows how it's going to play out. It has been a very strange year, but you can’t let yourself give in. There’s no way. It’s a fighting mentality you have to bring all the time.”

Maintaining that mentality has come with some challenges. Across the three cars, Team Penske has recorded 14 DNFs (did no finish), the most since 1998. The average finishing position for Power, Newgarden, and McLaughlin is 14.5, which is the worst since 1999’s 16.6.

The same is true for team-wide qualifying performances which sits at an average of 11.6, also the worst since the 19.4 of 1999. And there are more stats that underscore how unfriendly 2025 has been for a perennial championship contender where losing its three senior most leaders when they were fired in May by Roger Penske is only part of the lingering ordeal.

The inner fight, as Power describes it, isn’t simply for chasing victories. It also involves fighting against human nature when faced with sustained and compounding disappointments.

“It has affected people within the team, as it always does,” he said. “When we're doing well, everyone's up and in good spirits. But obviously, it's been a tough year on the engineers and the crew because they lost three key people and they had to take up the slack and got a lot put on them. It’s been bit tough from that perspective for them.

“But team is a very well-oiled machine and has got a lot of good processes in place. But man, it's motorsport. You just sometimes have these years. Even when you’re winning races but enough bad things happen, there's not much you can do about it.

“You’ve just got to keep digging. Keep looking for improvements and what it takes to win. I know what it takes to win. But I also know what I can and can’t control, and I've never seen it where you have all three team cars have been so unfortunate. You just want to get a win for the team and put an end to it.”