grabsTwo DNFs in the last two Verizon IndyCar Series races have left defending series champion Will Power needing a lot of things to go his way if he is to have any chance of retaining the title he finally won last season.

Power enters the Iowa Corn 300 this weekend one point behind Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves, 16 points behind Scott Dixon, and 70 points behind points leader Juan Pablo Montoya.

There are four races left in the 2015 schedule. The finale at Sonoma has double points up for grabs, meaning the maximum haul for a driver winning all four races would be 250 points.

It would, however, take a series of dramatic events to bring Power, or for that matter Castroneves or Rahal, into the title battle, as not only would they need multiple instances of ill fortune to overcome Montoya who has been remarkably consistent this season, they would also need similar bad luck to hit Dixon who certainly has a history of coming from behind in a title battle late in the season.

Unless he is unable to start any of the remaining races, Montoya is guaranteed at least another 25 points, and likely more, given that when there are 24 cars in the race, as there should be this weekend, the last place finisher will gain six points (or 12 points in the finale). This means that even were Montoya to crash out on the first lap of all the remaining races without being able to rejoin, Power would need to gain a minimum of 96 points on the Colombian driver.

Photo: Chris Jones / INDYCAR

That, of course, is the most extreme scenario and one that is unlikely to pan out. It seems most likely that Power's two accident-induced DNFs, at the MAVTV 500 and ABC Supply Wisconsin 250, both of which saw him collected in a crash with another driver, sounded the death knell to an inconsistent title defense which had already included three races in which Power finished outside of the top-10.

Team Penske have surprisingly never won at Iowa Speedway, but all the evidence of the season so far would suggest that Montoya is the most likely of the team's drivers to end that record.

Although Power will not throw in the towel yet, it is more than likely that any serious challenge to Montoya gaining his second American open-wheel crown 16 years after his first will come from Dixon.

Follow @VAVELIndyCar on Twitter for coverage of this weekend's Iowa Corn 300, and don't miss our IndyCar Twitter chat on Tuesday, July 28 from 6-8 pm ET.


Emma Hoole is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section.

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Emma Hoole
I love motorsport (especially Indycar and WEC), football (soccer), history and reading.