Benefield: There is an 'I' in team in IndyCar

Sonoma Raceway, one of the toughest road courses in the 18-race Verizon IndyCar Series, will be the site of a brewing battle between teammates this weekend. Yes, teammates.

Being teammates in auto racing is different from being teammates in football or basketball. Your paycheck might be signed by the same guy and the paint job on your ride might look like your teammates’

The two drivers with the best chance of taking the series crown - Australian Will Power and Helio Castroneves of Brazil - both drive for Team Penske. Must make for an awkward pre-race team meeting.

The two will square off this weekend in the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, the second-to-last race of the series and a crucial outing for both Power and Castroneves.

After taking the series lead earlier this month at a race in Ohio, Power heads into Sonoma 39 points ahead of his teammate.

When asked what fans should expect from that dynamic this weekend, driver James Hinchcliffe of Andretti Autosport said spectators will likely see “people trying to take out Will.”

“This is his domain,” he said of the driver who has dominated the demanding course in nearly every one of his recent appearances.

“It’s going to be interesting. This obviously a place where Will is traditionally very strong. He’s going to be hoping to have a great weekend and really try to add to the points lead heading into Fontana.”

Power has owned this track. He won in Sonoma in 2010, ’11 and ’13.

He has also crashed horribly. In 2009 he broke two vertebrae and suffered a concussion in a blazing crash that ended his and a fellow driver’s season early.

It is not in Power’s nature to dial it back, to race for just enough points to secure a championship in Southern California, drivers said. Power will race to win.

The team dynamic in IndyCar is a unique one. Drivers are teammates, they share course information, debrief on engine and car results. Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya, sitting fifth going into this weekend, called team meetings “an open book.”

But only one car can cross the finish line first. No one is going to let up at the line to let a guy in the same-colored car cross first.

That said, fans should not expect any wheel bumps between cars with similar red-and-black paint jobs.

“I think the No. 1 rule at Penske is ‘Don’t take out your teammate,’ ?” Montoya said. “If your teammate is passing, you give them room.”

Even for Power, who has dominated on the Sonoma track in years past, the unique - and difficult - layout of the raceway will make for some scintillating views Sunday.

The 2.3-mile, 12-turn course will take drivers through blind turns, elevation changes and 85 laps of racing acknowledged as hair-raising among drivers.

“It sucks you really hard, it’s blind and scarier than hell,” Montoya said of one of the turn sequences.

Think of it as the track taunting drivers.

“How brave are you?” Montoya said.

“It kind of makes for good racing. Cars are all over the place, tires fall off a lot,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s so hard to be consistent because it’s so easy to make a mistake when you are driving in those kind of conditions. We whine about it all of the time but it actually makes the show really good.”

Showtime is this weekend. Qualifying is Saturday and the real show starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com and on Twitter @benefield.