IndyCar Series champion Will Power says inescapable anxiety nearly made him give up the sport that made him famous.
After thrice finishing second in the series between 2010 and 2012, he finally claimed the title in 2014 for the prestigious Team Penske outfit.
Success continued, but a cloud hung over his head that he couldn’t escape.
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Riddled with anxiety, he contemplated quitting the sport on several occasions in 2016 – another season that saw him finish as the runner-up.
In a new documentary following Power’s bid for a second IndyCar Series win, the Queenslander revealed the constant dread he faced.
In the end, his wife, Elizabeth Power, who had played a pivotal role earlier in his career, kept him on the straight and narrow.
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“I’ve certainly been through a lot,” Power said in the documentary, Fight to the Finish.
“Since then, in 2016, I almost stopped racing because of severe anxiety at some point there, struggling a lot.
Will Power breaks IndyCar pole record
“In 2016, there were times when my wife had to convince me to race. I remember, right before a race at Iowa I’m calling her. She was driving to the track. I said, ‘I’m calling it. I’m going to see Tim Cindric (team boss) to tell him I’m done. I can’t race. I can’t race anymore’. And she just convinced me, ‘Just get in the car, start the race, and see how you go’.
“That happened a few times that season. What I was having, getting into the car, just blew my mind that I was actually able to do it. It took time. It didn’t feel normal until ’18, so ’16 and ’17 were pretty tough years for me. Pretty tough.”
Following the documentary’s release, Power said he received a lot of feedback from other anxiety sufferers.
Although an unpleasant period in his life, the 42-year-old said he found ways to cope and became stronger as a result.
“The feedback I read in comment sections and all that, a lot of people identify with the anxiety thing – it seems to be very big in our society these days,” he said.
“Me personally, these days, honestly going through all that in ’16, ’17, it made me very mentally strong. Through meditation and stuff, just working out mechanisms to deal with it, which I’m sure a lot of people go through.
“At some point you have no choice but to because there’s no escape to it, nowhere you can go, because it’s just there all the time.
“It’s made me – going through that tough time – very mentally strong. I feel able to deal with situations better than I would have before that.”
Power weathered the storm of a turbulent IndyCar Series season-opener, finishing seventh on the streets of St Petersburg.
IndyCar returns on April 3 at Texas Motor Speedway for round two.
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