IMSA: Penske acknowledges DPi interest

If talks continue heading in the right direction, Team Penske could return to take part in IMSA's new Daytona Prototype international formula. Although nothing has been signed, according to Team Penske president Tim Cindric, the ALMS, IndyCar, and NASCAR champions have been actively discussing opportunities with DPi manufacturers.

Roger Penske's last factory-supported sportscar program involved running a Porsche-powered Daytona Prototype in 2009 (pictured below, Marshall Pruett photo) but multiple sources have pointed to a possible link between Penske and Honda for a 2018 DPi program, and while Cindric declined to elaborate on those talks, he says ongoing conversations are taking place with multiple manufacturers.

"I think relative to what [Honda's] plans are, that is something I am not going to speak to because there's other manufacturers that have gone back and forth in terms of what their plans are for the future," Cindric told RACER. "For us, specifically at Penske, we always said we wanted to try to go sportscar racing. I like what is happening in IMSA as far as their [DPi] change is typically opportunity.

"We've been approached by multiple manufacturers about being involved at some point in the future. We like the fact that it's for an overall win and not a class victory type thing. As appealing as some of the GT programs are, they are really not what our business model is about right now."

Converting interest from a manufacturer into a full-fledged factory DPi program will be the real challenge, in Cindric's estimation.

"How many of them actually jump into it I think is a bigger question, and it is probably a better question outside of us. We've talked to some of these guys for years and they can never get across, whether it is the budget approval or the marketing programs, they can't quite put it all together," he said.

"I guess the future will tell us which way all that goes," Cindric surmised. "We are interested in being part of it at a factory level, there's no secret to that, whether it is specific to them or anyone else. There's been talk about [Honda] and others being involved in sportscars in the future, no different than they were before. For us, nobody has said, 'Hey, we are going.'

"As I said before, we have been approached by different manufacturers, but none of them have the green light to say that they are going. It seems more of an exploratory stage right now for the ones that have approached us. It's pretty late in the game for 2017 if you don't have a program yet."