Any teams questioning whether Will Power is "good enough" to sign for a 2026 IndyCar seat, "just go back to last year and you'll f**king know".
That was a calm but admittedly passionate Power's take following last weekend's Portland race after he ended his Penske team's winless run, which had threatened to match its worst season in 1999.
Now, despite being a two-time champion, Indianapolis 500 winner, Penske's top scorer this year and its most consistent driver, and having run Alex Palou close in the 2024 title fight (that's the "last year" effort he's referencing), Power still doesn't have a new contract with the team and will be able to talk to other teams from the end of August onwards if an agreement with Penske isn't reached.
He has said as early as June that he expected his future not to be resolved until the last round of the season or later, and has admitted previously it's a stressful situation to be in.
"I'm driving the best I ever have, simple as that," said Power.
"I'm not slowing down. I am not slower, I am faster. My toolbox is still big as far as understanding the cars, racecraft, all that.
"I never stop working at it. It's a passion. I love it. That's why I'm still winning."
Asked directly about his future, he repeated: "I have no clue. I don't know. Yeah, nothing else to say, man. I don't know."
He's sounded helpless in recent months, which is sad as he doesn't deserve to be in this situation.
Is Power really driving better than ever?
It's clear that sixth, 11th and 18th for Power, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden is not good enough for Penske in the championship and that the team has had its struggles.
Power has not been without errors this year, but in a season where Chevrolet teams only have three wins, it's clear not everything has worked out as planned.
"Just driving down pitlane, seeing each crew so happy we finally got a bloody win, both team-mates came to victory lane, I was just happy for the group because it was just an unusual year for us," said Power.
"It is not from a lack of performance. That capability has been there every weekend. It's just been one of those years. You have them.
"We were capable of winning every weekend. It's a great group. It's a great group. I know people think after May, that things changed.
"You've still got all those very good processes in place, great people. The talent is very deep there. You've got people that step up and can totally do the job.
"Yeah, never count out Penske, man."
Power mentioning May references the scandal which emerged from Penske having modified rear crash structures on two of its cars in Indy 500 qualifying and the team's senior management was fired in the wake of that debacle.
But outside of that, maybe Power and Penske couldn't have won every weekend like he says, but certainly on most tracks and especially at ovals and street courses there's some truth to the fact that plenty of things outside Power and Penske's control have happened.
And without even breaking down pure performance in race weekends, Power was taken out on the first lap in St Petersburg, had a tyre failure at Gateway, a fire in his car at Mid-Ohio and engine failure at Iowa, all out of his control and meaning before Portland he only had two third places to show on his podium record this year.
If you give him the points for finishing where he had started those races mentioned above, all out of his control, he'd have 423 points and be third in the championship.
Of course, others have suffered ill-fortune as well and that's a very rudimentary calculation, but combined with Newgarden coming close to wins earlier this season, there's some logic to Power's claims that the team has been much better than it has looked and it has been just ‘one of those years'.
It's really hard to say if he's driving better than ever. But one final supporting point: we know how good Newgarden and McLaughlin are, and Power has been a level above this year.
What should Penske do?
Power is Penske's only winner this season, its highest scorer, its most consistent driver and the only driver in the field to beat Alex Palou over a season since the latter joined Ganassi in 2021.
If there's ever been a no-brainer decision to sign a driver to a new contract, it's this one. Power should get an apology for this being strung out so long and a big, big pay rise.
David Malukas appears to be the most likely replacement but he's proven inconsistent at Foyt despite his high peaks. Clearly he's a brilliant talent, but he's not an immediate and obvious upgrade on Power.
Getting Malukas in would no doubt aid his development, but it's not like Power is the third-best driver in this Penske team and easy to dismiss. By most measurable statistics he is clearly the team's best driver right now and delivers.
Anything other than a one-year extension would be silly for Penske.
Where could Power actually go?
Power has maintained that he wants to remain at Penske, but when asked if he felt if he had done everything he could to impress and put the decision in the hands of the decision makers at his team he replied with a grin: "I don't know, man. Maybe it's my decision."
Covering IndyCar's silly season has been an easy job in recent months because the whole series is on hold for the outcome of Power's negotiations with Penske.
Andretti, Ganassi and McLaren are all off the table for Power and sticking with their line-ups, while Ganassi-affiliated Meyer Shank is very, very likely to continue with Marcus Armstrong and has Felix Rosenqvist set for next year.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan might be Power's most likely option outside of Penske and is known to admire the Penske driver. But RLL currently has all three drivers under contract next year. Graham Rahal and Louis Foster are set to stay on. It could look at removing the poorest performing of the three, Devlin DeFrancesco, but only if there's a mechanism in his contract.
Also, typically RLL requires some funding for its third seat, and although Power hasn't discussed this publicly, he's likely to want a decent salary and why shouldn't he? He should be paid as one of the best drivers in the series.
Foyt would likely have a seat if Malukas goes to Penske, but despite people adding two and two together, Power going the other way is unlikely.
Cost is what makes the other options look unviable. Juncos Hollinger Racing could keep both Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb, or jettison both, but is unlikely to have the budget for Power and would more likely go for a younger and cheaper option.
Prema has both its drivers signed to multi-year options, and Coyne might well be the second most realistic option after Rahal but has the same issue that it would need to find a budget and its own budget is one of the smallest on the grid.
Cost is the biggest factor in a move away from Penske, and what Power would be willing to accept to stay in the series.
What has Penske said?
Jonathan Diuguid has only given one interview since becoming Penske's new IndyCar president (The Race has asked!) so his appearance in the Portland press conference after Power's win was a good chance to quiz him.
But before you get excited about that, he expertly dodged questions about Power's future.
"Will's future is about 30 minutes old from winning a race," said Diuguid.
"His future's definitely bright. He did an amazing job today. Looking forward to the last two races of the season."
When later pushed on Power, he said: "I'm not going to discuss that today. I'm going to focus on the win, the team performance. Like you mentioned before, winning can do a lot of things. It's very positive for our programme.
"We're going to reap all the benefits of that as we head to Milwaukee."
Since taking over in July Diuguid has had to fight the fire of Penske struggling to achieve results in the IndyCar Series.
He shares Power's view that the team's on-track performance has not been the issue.
Asked if May's controversy was its biggest setback, Diuguid said: "May seems quite a long time ago.
"I think the team's performed well at a bunch of races. It just hasn't all come together. Today it did.
"Really proud of the team. The same people are the same ones that have won an average of seven races for the past three seasons. This year it hasn't come together for us. Today it did. Really proud of the group. We showed we can do it."
He added: "With the turbulence the team has experienced in the past months, to have the dedication and support of all the team members that we have, that is rewarding to me, that they believe in the team like Will mentioned many times, believe in our processes, in what we do, believe in how we approach race weekends."
Speaking of processes, Diuguid said Penske has changed some things recently that have helped the team, but didn't specify what those were.
"I can definitely say over the past three or four events, the group, both the engineering office and the shop floor, have changed how we approach some things," he said.
"I think that's brought performance over the past couple events specifically and hopefully it will for the last two."
