Detroit, MI
2025 Detroit Grand Prix: Team Penske’s Will Power on IndyCar, and racing in his 40s
Detroit — As the 2025 IndyCar season gets underway, 44-year-old senior statesman Will Power of Team Penske is celebrating his 20th year in the open-wheel sport. With the Detroit Grand Prix less than three months away, Power says the sport has never been stronger.
“It’s been great to watch the series evolve and get to the point where it is at right now with incredible depth of teams and drivers,” said the two-time champion and driver of the No. 12 car in an interview at a sponsor event at the Garden Theater. “With a (broadcast) partner in Fox that is promoting us tremendously — more than I have ever seen. It’s great to see.”
The addition of Fox as the motorsports’ exclusive, 2025 broadcast partner has been a big boost for the sport. The partnership has paid immediate dividends with the season-opening race in St. Petersburg March 2 gaining 45% more viewers than a year ago.
Credit Fox’s relentless promotion of the series (the only North American pro motorsports series with an exclusive TV network partner) on programs like Super Bowl LIX, with ads featuring top drivers including 34-year-old, reigning Indy 500 champ Josef Newgarden, 2024 champion Alex Palou of Spain, 27, and Mexico’s charismatic Pato O’Ward, 25.
Australian-born Power and six-time IndyCar winner Scott Dixon from New Zealand are the oldest full-time racers in the field.
Power enjoys the multi-generational talent in the sport. “(Younger drivers) have always pushed me very hard, and I’m constantly having to elevate my game. I’ve never stopped learning on how to be better. It’s kept me competitive with guys who are 20 years younger than me. I feel like I’m the best I’ve ever been right now.”
The Aussie, who won his last championship in 2022 at the tender age of 41, gives credit to improved diet, exercise, and recovery regimens for extending the careers of professional athletes into their forties.
“You have these people who just specialize in almost reversing aging actually with things you can take and do,” he smiled. But most of all, he credits determination.
“People put an age limit on it and expect people to start falling off at a certain age. I think if you set that in your head and stop working at it, then you will plateau. I believe probably the most important thing is the desire to be competive. If you’re just complacent and picking up a paycheck, you won’t be competitive. To me it’s a lot to do with attitude.”
While a win at Memorial Day weekend’s Indy 500 is the sport’s Super Bowl, the June 1 Detroit Grand Prix one week after the 500 is an important date on Team Penske’s calendar.
“Being a Chevrolet-powered team, it’s a very important event for us because they have been great partners,” said Power who has finished second and sixth in the two Detroit races since it moved downtown from Belle Isle. “To be running around the downtown in Detroit — the home of Chevrolet, the home of Roger (Penske) — it’s a good race to win.”
The tight, rough street course — coming just a week after the 240-mph banking of Indianapolis is a testament to the variety of tracks that IndyCar drivers must race to win a championship. The series is widely regarded as one of motorsports most challenging.
“(Detroit) is a hard one to win,” said Power, who scored the last win on the Belle Isle course in 2022. “It’s quite a difficult track, it’s hard to stay out of trouble and survive. That’s the sort of race that it is and the sort of track that it is.”
At Thursday night’s Accelerate Detroit sponsor event, he previewed a video of his 2024 qualifying lap to be shown to the evening’s audience. Of the four street courses that IndyCar races on its 17-event schedule, Power allows how Detroit is the toughest.
“(It’s) very narrow in spots (and) bumpy. I think it’s great for racing because you have a massively long straight so you can get runs on people. It seems to create mayhem which fans love — though not necessarily drivers, it depends where you are in the field,” he laughed. “No joke, multiple time during the lap you are less than an inch from the wall.”
Like sister open-wheel racing series Formula One, IndyCar last year moved to a hybrid powertrain to be in sync with the electrification plans of its manufacturing partners, Chevy and Honda. Unlike F1, the IndyCar system is not a full battery-electric system. It uses supercapacitors between the engine and gearbox for total drivetrain output of 900 horsepower.
“It’s added weight, its more power and torque,” said Power. “It hasn’t affected things too much, it’s quite a simple system. You push a button out of the corner to switch it on, you push a button to switch it off. I wish they would open up the technology a little more where we could play around with some of that stuff, but now. . . you can regenerate more energy which means more reverse torque when you brake.”
Power did not finish the season’s opening race in St. Petersburg, but his Team Penske teammates, Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, finished third and fourth. The next IndyCar race is in Thermal, California, on March 23. Tickets for the Detroit Grand Prix are on sale at www. https://www.detroitgp.com/buy-tickets/tickets.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
But we also can’t ignore the drastic fall-off from the Dolphins’ offense. Partially because of injuries to Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill over the past two seasons, the Dolphins have finished 22nd and 25th in scoring offense in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Injuries can be used as an excuse, but the greatest coordinators find a way through the adversity.
Beyond that, there are questions about his philosophical and schematic fit. While the Lions have built their offenses on grit and physicality, McDaniel seems to favor speed and finesse. But maybe that’s exactly what the Lions need. Detroit has two speedy players in Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, who could probably be utilized more creatively, and it’s hard to imagine anyone better than McDaniel to do so.
McDaniel also has a very long coaching history with a lot of different coaching influences and schemes—including his closest coaching guru: Kyle Shanahan. The 49ers head coach has a scheme that is both more congruent with what the Lions do and much more adaptable.
On this EMERGENCY PODCAST, our crew debates the fit of McDaniel in Detroit, along with our thoughts on the Lions’ other known candidate: Commanders quarterbacks coach David Blough.
Before that, Erik Schlitt, Ryan Mathews, and I discuss our biggest takeaways from Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ end-of-season press conference, including the future of David Montgomery, whether Holmes really took accountability for his mistakes, and our confidence in him moving forward.
You can catch our discussion in the embedded podcast below or on any podcasting platform you’d prefer. Just search “Pride of Detroit.”
You can also catch video of the show over on our YouTube pages. Here are the links:
Will Tigers trade Tarik Skubal before free agency? MLB insider speaks
USA TODAY Sports baseball insider Bob Nightengale joins “Days of Roar” podcast to answer several questions about Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, who can become a free agent after the 2026 season.
The Detroit Tigers and left-hander Tarik Skubal did not agree to terms on a one-year contract for the 2026 season before the 8 p.m. deadline Thursday, Jan. 8, to exchange salary figures in the arbitration process.
Skubal filed at $32 million; the Tigers filed at $19 million.
It’s a difference of $13 million.
An arbitration panel will review the case during a hearing scheduled for late January or early to mid-February. The arbitrators must determine whether Skubal is worth more or less than the $25.5 million midpoint. If he’s worth more, they will select his $32 million proposal; if less, they will select the Tigers’ $19 million proposal. The panel isn’t allowed to choose a salary in between $19 million and $32 million.
The Tigers operate as a file-and-trial club in salary arbitration under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, meaning there won’t be further negotiations with Skubal regarding a one-year contract. A multi-year contract could still be negotiated, but it’s highly unlikely.
Skubal – represented by agent Scott Boras – reaches free agency after the 2026 season. The 29-year-old is positioned to become the first pitcher in MLB history to receive a $400 million contract.
If the two sides were to reach an agreement before a hearing, it would likely be a one-year contract with a player option, thus maintaining Skubal’s path to free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.
The reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner was projected by MLB Trade Rumors to receive $17.8 million in his third and final year of salary arbitration. He previously earned $2.65 million in 2024, then $10.15 million in 2025.
Why couldn’t the Tigers and Skubal agree on a salary for 2026?
The arbitration case for Skubal is unusually complex, thanks to a rarely used provision highlighted by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Because Skubal has more than five years of MLB service time, he isn’t limited to comparing himself only to past arbitration-eligible players. Instead, he can compare himself to any player in baseball.
Those unique rights allow Skubal – who has five years, 114 days of service time – to point to MLB’s highest-paid pitchers (such as Max Scherzer’s $43.3 million per year from 2022-24 or Zack Wheeler’s $42 million per year from 2025-27), arguing that his elite performance warrants a salary in that range – not in the $17.8 million range, as projected by MLB Trade Rumors.
That’s what pushed the Tigers and Skubal to an arbitration hearing.
[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Days of Roar” your go-to Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]
The current record for the largest one-year arbitration contract belongs to outfielder Juan Soto, who agreed to $31 million with the New York Yankees for the 2024 season.
If Skubal wins the arbitration hearing, he will surpass Soto and claim the new record with his proposed $32 million salary. If Skubal loses, then he will earn the $19 million salary proposed by the Tigers.
There are two other arbitration records on the line.
The highest-paid arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander David Price, who earned $19.75 million with the Tigers in 2015 – his fourth year in the arbitration process as a Super Two qualifier. The largest raise for an arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander Jacob deGrom, who surged from $7.4 million to $17 million – an increase of $9.6 million – with the New York Mets in 2019.
Those records for pitchers will belong to Skubal – but only if his proposed $32 million salary is selected by the arbitration panel. He will fall just short of the records if the panel selects the Tigers’ proposed $19 million.
Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball.
More notably, he is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
In 2025, Skubal registered a 2.21 ERA with 33 walks (4.4% walk rate) and 241 strikeouts (32.2% strikeout rate) across 195⅓ innings in 31 starts. He made the All-Star Game for the second time in his six-year MLB career.
Skubal became the first back-to-back AL Cy Young winner since right-hander Pedro Martínez in 1999-2000, leading the AL with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and a 2.21 ERA in 2025.
The Tigers haven’t been to an arbitration hearing since right-hander Michael Fulmer in 2019.
Fulmer lost the case, receiving the Tigers’ proposed $2.8 million salary rather than his requested $3.4 million. Before that hearing, the Tigers hadn’t participated in an arbitration hearing since 2001 – and the Tigers haven’t lost a case since 2000.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon during the season and Tuesday afternoon during the offseason on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen has signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Colorado Rockies.
It’s the first signing of the offseason for the Rockies under new president Paul DePodesta. The deal includes a $9 million club option for 2027.
It’s the fifth straight winter that Lorenzen has signed a one-year deal following a seven-season tenure with the Cincinnati Reds.
Lorenzen, who turned 34 this week, signed a free-agent deal with the Tigers before the 2023 season. He made 18 starts and was selected for his first appearance in the All-Star Game before being dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline for infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee.
After a strong start with his new team that included a no-hitter, Lorenzen was moved to the bullpen and pitched sparingly in the postseason.
He found a quiet reception on the free-agent market, agreeing to a discounted one-year deal with the Texas Rangers before the 2024 season. He was traded to the Royals at the deadline and pitched well down the stretch, going 2-0 with a 1.57 ERA in 28 2/3 innings with his new team.
He re-signed with the Royals in 2025 and put together another solid season, posting a 4.64 ERA in 141 innings with 127 strikeouts and 39 walks.
Colorado is known as an unforgiving home for pitchers, and the Rockies lost a league-worst 119 games in 2025.
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