Despite missing the first race of the season, Will Power has made it clear – he is determined to contend for the Verizon IndyCar Series Championship.

The Australian has worked his way up to third in points, just 75 behind leader Simon Pagenaud.

“It’s defiantly going well right now,” Power told POPULAR OPEN WHEEL. “Obviously we have to track down a pretty good lead so if we gotta continue to finish ahead of the 22 [Pagenaud] and get strong results if we want a shot at the end.”

Knowing there’s a lot of ground to make up, Power says the key is finishing ahead of his Team Penske teammate on a weekly basis.

“Like, there’s no ‘I can settle for fourth place,’” he said. “You have to push as hard as you can.”

This weekend is the perfect opportunity to continue gaining ground as Pagenaud hasn’t run well at Toronto recently. Meanwhile, Power has finished in the top 10 in each of his last three Toronto starts and won this race in 2010.

Due to hotel construction, pit lane has been moved from the frontstretch to Turns 9 through 11, which has made drivers and teams adjust their strategy.

“It’s actually changed, the track, so it’s a hard race to win,” he said. “You have to have a lot of things go your way on race day,” Power explained. “It’s quite difficult.

“Obviously pit road is not as straight as it was as there’s a couple bends in it. I think it’ll be interesting on race day to see how it goes when everyone pits under yellow.”

EMAIL ASHLEY AT ashley.mccubbin@popularopenwheel.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @ladybug388

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of PopularOpenWheel.com, its owners, management or other contributors. Any links contained in this article should not be considered an endorsement.