After being cleared to drive by IndyCar medical officials, Will Power returned to action on Wednesday, testing his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara-Honda at Mid-Ohio. The Australian said he has no lingering issues from his crash last weekend at Iowa Speedway
"It's good to be back out there in the Verizon car," said Power, who was credited with 21st place in the Iowa race and enters July 10's Honda Indy Toronto 20 points behind championship leader Dario Franchitti. "It was a hard hit at Iowa, but I didn't actually get knocked out or anything. I just had a headache for the first night and some neck soreness. I needed to get checked out by the IndyCar officials and it was more precautionary than anything, but that's good, because you can never be too careful.
"Every driver does a test, called an ImPACT test, at the beginning of every season. It basically tests your reflexes, your memory and so on. Then you have to go back and do that test again if you have an incident like what we had in Iowa. I took the test (June 28) and the doctors cleared me to drive."
Before competing in an IZOD IndyCar Series event, drivers are required to establish their baseline data by performing the 30-minute, computerized ImPACT test, measuring a range of neurocognitive functions including memory, reaction time, attention span and other cognitive abilities. If a driver suffers a head injury, doctors will perform the test again and compare the results to the driver's baseline, significantly improving the ability to diagnose the severity of the injury and better prescribe treatment.
"I'm glad we got the chance to test here at Mid-Ohio to get ready for the road courses coming up," Power said. "Now I'm looking forward to going back to Toronto next week and trying to defend our win there with Verizon Team Penske."
Power will test again for Penske at New Hampshire, alongside Pippa Mann (driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan) on July 5.