Will Power back in Victory Lane 1 year after wife nearly died: 'We're back as a team again.'

ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – Will Power can’t do this alone. Victories like Sunday at Road America — the 42nd of his IndyCar career, tying him with Michael Andretti for fourth all-time, and his first in two years — don’t come without hard work from those closest to him, from strategist Ron Ruzewski, to longtime engineer David Faustino and, perhaps most importantly, his wife, Liz.

And a year ago, the most important piece to that puzzle was missing — left at home in North Carolina with her mother and the couple’s son, Beau, after Liz began hallucinating just as the Powers were about to leave their Mooresville, N.C., home for a private plane that was to take them to Wisconsin.

The chartered flight became necessary in the wake of Liz’s lengthy recovery from a staph infection in her spinal column in January 2023. Flu-like symptoms that began around Thanksgiving gave way to a debilitating fever that reached 106 degrees in early January, when she was rushed to an emergency room.

Doctors performed emergency surgery. She almost died on the operating table.

Power backed out of what was supposed to be his Rolex 24 hours debut within hours of that surgery, his IndyCar title defense still six weeks away. But his wife’s recovery came with multiple setbacks — including a pair of 911 calls and an overnight hospital stay in the week leading into the 2023 season-opener.

For one of the few times since they met and fell in love around racing, Power arrived in St. Pete that weekend “lonely” and out of sorts. With his wife still bedridden and on antibiotics, the next couple of weeks for the Powers were critical for Liz’s long-term outlook.

As he hopped into a race car that spring, not wholly unconvinced he could lose his wife at any time, Power wasn't in a place — mentally and physically — to put his No. 12 Team Penske Chevy on the absolute knife’s edge to reach a championship level of performance, consistency and speed.

The fastest driver the sport has ever seen went a full season without a victory for the first time in nearly two decades and logged just four podiums. And when things went horribly wrong, it was almost nightmarish.

During Saturday morning practice at Road America a year ago, Power was clipped by Scott Dixon and sent hurtling into a concrete wall, leaving his car a mangled mess. Power jumped out of his crashed car, flashed Dixon a pair of middle fingers, lumbered over the fellow series veteran, grabbed him by the scruff of his fire suit and shoved him. Moments later, he was on TV almost yelling into the camera, barking at track officials for the conditions of the venue’s runoffs and saying Romain Grosjean should “be punched in the face” over an unrelated incident.

A time zone away, his wife, who normally calms Power during moments of frustration ahead of on-camera interviews, could only stare into her TV in disbelief.

It’s why Liz was brought to tears Sunday in Victory Lane and why her husband grabbed her face with both hands and gave her such a passionate kiss in the middle of his interview with NBC. This win was different — both a long time coming and one he wasn't certain they’d be able to share.

How he did it: Will Power gets first win in 2 years, leads Team Penske podium sweep

“When that was going on, you start thinking, ‘Should I be racing at all? If something happens to Liz, and then something happens to me, is she going to get better? What’s going to happen?’” Power said Sunday, reflecting on his tumultuous 18 months on and off the track. “‘The doctors said that this could come back any time, so should I be racing?’ That was the thing that was planted in my mind last year.

“You certainly don’t perform at your highest level, because you don’t want your son to have no parents. It’s tough wrestling with that. Ultimately, if she wouldn’t have been getting better, I would have stopped. I would’ve stopped for my son, simple as that.”

Liz returned to the track last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 500, but her health took a nosedive weeks later. In those frantic moments last summer, as Power left his family for a private plane meant to whisk all of them off to Road America, he wondered if his wife’s condition had reversed seriously enough to warrant that internal dialogue once again.

“We were getting in the car. Had booked a private plane, because that’s the only way she could travel, and we get in the car, and she looks down and says, ‘Look at all the worms in that cup,’” Power retells of Liz's hallucination.

Her husband froze, and then called his mother-in-law and formulated a hasty plan. Liz, her mom and the Powers' son would stay in North Carolina, and he stormed out of the driveway for the plane.

“All weekend, she’s going back-and-forth with the doctors. As it turns out, she mixed some medications, and that’s how it all started, the hallucinations,” Power continued. “I wondered, ‘Should I race or not?’ And then you crash bad. That’s why I was angry. Anything set me off. I was grappling with all that.

“Once they put the metal plates in (during the initial surgery), and you have that infection in your blood, it can stick to the metal and come back. You wonder, ‘What’s going to happen?’ There were continual blood tests, and you’ve just got to be on top of it, and if it comes back, you have to be very quick to have the antibiotics to reduce it. And the doctors said it could come back anytime.”

Following that miserable Road America weekend, Power snagged his third podium of the year, tacked on three more top-5s and swept the poles for the Iowa doubleheader weekend. Still, his seventh-place finish was one of just two he’d had in his Team Penske career worse than fifth.

Kicking off the first season of a new multi-year extension this season, Power seemed to have rediscovered much of his most recent championship-clinching form, but until Sunday, he was without a much-needed victory while battling Chip Ganassi Racing’s two-headed juggernaut of Alex Palou and Dixon, among others. Before he crashed out of his year’s 500, Power had qualified second three times in five races and logged three runner-up finishes.

Liz on husband's 2nd IndyCar title: 'Knew he'd be back ... didn't know it'd be this long'

Unlike a year ago, the sense of urgency wasn’t nearly as overwhelming, but lingering, simmering frustration had been there for weeks. Power stalked his teammates in third for the bulk of the race, almost out of the conversation as Scott McLaughlin, and then Josef Newgarden, led, but he was ready for the moment. Power pounced on a perfect overcut call for the final stint.

Exiting the pits with a 2-second gap on Newgarden with 11 laps to go, Power was never seriously challenged. And with the win came a five-point edge in the championship race over Palou, the defending champion whose titles in 2021 and '23 sandwiched Power's most recent.

“I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen. I’ve been diffing all year, and sometimes it just works out,” Power said of his breakthrough victory post-race. “Just back in that flow again, except we have to win more this year.

“That’s one thing I was a little cautious of in 2022 at times, where I felt like I needed to push the envelope a little more, but there’s a fine line. I think Palou is the one that nails that perfectly with aggression vs. risk.”

It was from Palou’s first title in 2021 that Power said a year later he learned to settle for top-5 finishes on any given weekend. It’s how, with just a single victory, but 13 top-6 finishes and nine podiums, he was able to outlast Penske teammate Newgarden’s five victories in 2022.

With six race winners through seven races this season, his single win will do for now. But with Dixon already owning two, Palou having shown a year ago he’s capable of rattling off three in a row, and a run of short ovals to close the season upon which Newgarden has dominated the past three years, Power knows that won’t be enough.

And that’s OK, because he can dig deeper this year. In the best shape of his life, equipped with a sharper mental game and now battle-tested off the track, Power seems unfazed with it all. These wins mean more, because they represent an opportunity at a career and a life that in 2023 he wasn’t sure his family would ever have again.

“I just came in way more prepared like I normally am, just back to how I prepare for every year, which is constantly improving my craft,” Power said. “I have to say I’m a better driver again this year than I was in 2022 when I won the championship.

“Last year was sort of a stall-out. Not much I could do. Spending a lot of time at home, looking after Liz, making sure everything was going well for her, and now I’m back to Liz helping me. She is a big part of my preparation. She does a lot for me. We’re back as a team again.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Will Power shares Road America win with wife Liz, who nearly died year ago