Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Reigning IndyCar champion Will Power anticipates his protege Myles Rowe could be on the grid in 2025.
Power, who debuted in CART in 2005 and won his first IndyCar title in 2014, has a multi-year contract with Team Penske so could race against his protege.
Rowe started off karting indoors in an Andretti facility (a franchise from the same family behind the IndyCar team), and after moving to outdoor karting crossed paths with – and seriously impressed – Power.
In 2017 he made his single-seater debut and won in wingless cars, but lacked the budget for a prolonged presence in single-seater and stopped racing. After Power’s team boss Roger Penske took over IndyCar several years later, a Race For Equality & Change initiative was launched and Power pointed his superiors to Rowe.
Rowe returned to motorsport aged 20 two years ago in USF2000 with Force Indy, a team that is part of the RFE&C programme. He won a race, but when Force Indy moved to Indy Nxt for 2022 it left Rowe crowdfunding to stay racing.
Penske’s sponsorship helped him secure a USF2000 seat with Pabst Racing, initially on a round-by-round basis, and he maximised the opportunity by winning five races and finishing just six points short of the title.
Rowe was quick to land a USF Pro 2000 promotion with Pabst, and comfortably leads the 2023 season with five wins. Formula Scout asked Power about Rowe’s recent success.
“I still have a lot to do with his career. And he’s just killing it. Very, very happy and impressed,” replied Power. “I expect him to be in Indy Nxt next year and if he did what he did this year he’d be in IndyCar in ’25. That’s the plan, and he’s doing the business. That’s the main thing. I’m excited to see [what happens next]. Very, very, very excited to see it.”
He added: “I already do see him quite a bit. We talk, I’ll call him and see him at the track and he’s a pretty smart kid. He’s got to understand how tough it gets once you start getting to these upper levels. Because the further up you get, the better the drivers are, the tougher it is. And in particular, when you get to IndyCar now, that is extremely hard.”
Power has raced karts while in IndyCar, and launched his own karting brand in 2020. That project has now stopped.
“I don’t sell [the chassis] anymore. I think they’re using the name in Australia, still selling it there, but I don’t have anything to do with it. I actually race a different kart brand. The reason is I just did not have time to do a good job with that stuff. I had to be fully committed to racing and I just had to let it go.”
It was handed over to Billy Vincent, McLaren’s director of competition for IndyCar, and he “turned it into the MPG brand and team”.