Penske confirms Petit Le Mans entry

Team Penske's sportscar return will begin with an entry at Petit Le Mans next week, the team has confirmed.

Penske will field an ORECA 07-Gibson for Juan Pablo Montoya, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud, giving the team a full race weekend as a dress rehearsal ahead of next year's DPi campaign with the new Acura ARX-05.

"We've had this race on our radar for some time, but we wanted to wait until we were able to get our drivers some testing at Road Atlanta prior to committing, as it is a very fast track and these cars are very different to drive from an IndyCar," said Team Penske President Tim Cindric in a statement.

"Unfortunately, we confirmed this the hard way as we have had to totally rebuild our car after an incident during testing last week. ORECA have bent over backwards to be sure we receive everything we need as they understand the importance of this race as our team prepares for the debut of our Acura ARX-05s at the Daytona 24."

Cindric said that Montoya was a natural pick due to his having carried much of the testing load of the new Prototype, while Castroneves – who remains widely-tipped to join Montoya as a permanent fixture in Penske's 2018 sportscar line-up – and Pagenaud were chosen because of their previous experience with Prototypes at Road Atlanta.

"It will be fun to work with Juan again," said Castroneves, who has five previous Prototype starts with Penske, including a class victory at Petit Le Mans in 2008.

"The car is a blast to drive as it has lots of power and an incredible amount of downforce. The last time I ran at Petit, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the winning team in our class. It was one of the highlights of my career. Now, I'm looking forward to that challenge again and I'm sure it will be fun racing with these guys in this setting."

Pagenaud, who built a deep sportscar resume prior to arriving in IndyCar, described the opportunity as "a bit of a homecoming".

"[Prototypes] are great cars to drive, and to be paired with Juan and Helio in an endurance event is going to be a lot of fun," said the Frenchman, who won the IndyCar season-finale at Sonoma two weeks ago. "This is a chance for me to help Team Penske prepare for next year, while seeing what things we can learn and where we can improve right now."