IndyCar titlist Scott Dixon has tips that could help Will Power

SONOMA, Calif. -- Will Power would do well to listen to Scott Dixon talk of completing a Verizon IndyCar Series season with a championship.

Dixon has done it three times; Power none despite three good chances.

"Coming down to the last two or three races, if you're in the championship fight, I think those are the times when you've just got to do your job," Dixon said Sunday as the series took its first look toward the finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. "It's just another race.

"You've got to try and do what you did at the other races when you won."

Power, 33, doesn't have to replicate last year's season-ending victory at Auto Club Speedway. He just has to be a contender as he's been all season, with wins at St. Petersburg, Detroit's Belle Isle and the Milwaukee Mile and four other podium finishes.

The mathematics of deciding this championship are complicated given that a 500-mile race awaits, but Power has a 51-point lead over Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves. The finale will award double points.

That's not as much of a cushion as Power could have had before spinning and finishing 10th in Sunday's race at Sonoma Raceway, but it's a healthy advantage.

Castroneves' best chance to swap places with Power would be to dominate Saturday night's MAVTV 500 from the pole and have the Australian finish outside the top six. Castroneves can't win the title if he finishes close to Power or behind him.

"We are still in it, and we know what we need to do now over the 500 miles," said Castroneves, who has won three 500-mile races in his career, all at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay are still eligible for the title, but barely.

Pagenaud is 81 points out of the lead, which means he needs a miracle along the lines of him scoring maximum points and Power finishing in the bottom four positions without scoring bonus points (one for winning the pole, one for leading a lap, two for leading the most laps).

Hunter-Reay, who trails by 92 points, will be eliminated if Power is among the race's 22 starters.

Defending IndyCar champion Dixon trails by 103 points and is out when Power gets in the car for the first practice.

Or, as Dixon put it, Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay need "a meteorite to take out" Power.

"From what I imagine," Dixon conceded, "it's a huge longshot."

Power has been in this position three times previously, and each time someone else left with the trophy he hoped to clutch.

-- In 2010, Power's 12-point lead over Dario Franchitti was overturned largely because Power crashed in Homestead-Miami Speedway's Turn 2 of Lap 144. He finished 25th.

-- In 2011, Power entered what was to be the final race of the year, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, trailing Franchitti by 18 points. When that race was cancelled after 12 laps when Dan Wheldon died in a 15-car crash, the previously held race at Kentucky Speedway became the finale. Power hadn't capitalized there, finishing 19th as Franchitti was second.

-- In 2012, Power entered the finale at Auto Club Speedway with a 17-point lead over Hunter-Reay and was ahead of him on Lap 56 when he spun into the Turn 2 wall. Power eventually settled for 24th place. Hunter-Reay finished fourth and captured his first title, by three points.

Power has more cushion this time, but there are more points at stake, too. Someone could walk away with 104 points by scoring the maximum number of points in the Fontana race. Power must cover however necessary.

Castroneves hasn't had the obvious late-season missteps, but he also has been a series bridesmaid three times and close to the title in other years. None have come amid the expected 100-degree conditions expected in the Los Angeles area this weekend.

"It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out," Dixon said. "For them it's going to be a massive relief because they're people that have come close many times and never been able to achieve it."