2025 IndyCar season outlook: Team Penske

With the first practice session of the new IndyCar Season due to begin at St. Petersburg on Friday, it’s time to start ramping up for the launch with a look inside each of the 11 teams.

What’s new, what’s different, and what has stayed the same? We’ll find out from each team, continuing after Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with our final entry, Team Penske.

2024 ACHIEVEMENTS

To understand where Penske is starting in 2025, let’s begin with a look back to where it ended in 2024.

• Drivers’ championship: Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevy, eighth place. Two wins, two poles, six top threes, seven top fives, eight top 10s, nine races led for 137 laps, running at the finish of 14 out of 17 races. Average starting position of 7.3, average finish of 12.8.

• Drivers’ championship: Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevy. Third place. Three wins, five poles, seven top threes, eight top fives, 12 top 10s, 10 races led for 637 laps, running at the finish of 15 out of 17 races. Average starting position of 6.4, average finish of 9.2.

• Drivers’ championship: Will Power, No. 12 Chevy, fourth place. Three wins, zero poles, seven top threes, seven top fives, 11 top 10s, eight races led for 366 laps, running at the finish of 15 out of 17 races. Average starting position of 6.7, average finish of 8.6.

• Entrants’ championship: No. 2, 8th (earned a Leaders Circle contract), No. 3, 3rd (earned a Leaders Circle contract), No. 12, 4th (earned a Leaders Circle contract).

McLaughlin was Penske's highest-placed driver in 2024. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

2025 DRIVERS

• No. 2 Chevy: Josef Newgarden

• No. 3 Chevy: Scott McLaughlin

• No. 12 Chevy: Will Power

2025 KEY POSITIONS

• Team Owner: Roger Penske

• Team President: Tim Cindric

• Managing Director: Ron Ruzewski

• Team Manager: Kyle Moyer

• No. 2 Race Engineer: Luke Mason

• No. 2 Race Strategist: Tim Cindric

• No. 2 Chief Mechanic: Chad Gordon

• No. 3 Race Engineer: Ben Bretzman

• No. 3 Race Strategist: Kyle Moyer

• No. 3 Chief Mechanic: Trevor Lacasse

• No. 12 Race Engineer: David Faustino

• No. 12 Race Strategist: Ron Ruzewski

• No. 12 Chief Mechanic: Matt Jonsson

MAJOR CHANGES

• There’s almost nothing of interest to mention in terms of year-to-year changes. Tim Cindric pulled back from his oversight of Penske’s NASCAR and IMSA programs, but nothing has been modified on the IndyCar side, where his same role as team president and as Newgarden’s race strategist continues in 2025.

• Swapped chief mechanics between the No. 3 and No. 12.

• One of only two teams with the same driver lineup as 2024 (Andretti Global).

• One of only two teams with the same driver race engineer pairings as 2024 (Andretti Global).

• Enters the second full year providing technical support to AJ Foyt Racing.

THE MISSION AHEAD IS TO…

Go two positions higher in the championship. No team has been more accomplished at winning the Indianapolis 500 in the modern era than Penske, with 10 victories since 2000. And no team has held such a remarkable record at the 500 over that span while routinely coming up slightly short in winning Drivers’ titles.

Granted, there’s nothing unimpressive with Penske’s eight championships since 2000, but its rivals at Ganassi have 12, and during the current Dallara DW12 era that began in 2012, Ganassi has seven -- and five of the last seven -- to Penske’s five. The 2020s have been Ganassi’s decade, earning four of the last five titles, and that’s where Penske’s mission is clear. The team is an instant favorite to win a third consecutive Indy 500, but can it rise to demonstrate it’s the best team across the entire season?

Among its gaudy stats, that’s the only real achievement waiting to be earned. This is the most complete team in IndyCar; there’s not a three-driver line-up in the series that comes close to what this trio can and does routinely achieve. And yet, it’s also a slight problem.

Newgarden has made the Speedway his own for the past two years. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

Penske took eight wins -- a whopping 47 percent -- last season, more than any other squad, which would normally allow a team to clinch the drivers’ championship.

The issue, if that’s the right way to put it, has been the lack of a streaky performer within Penske’s camp. McLaughlin wins. Newgarden wins. Power wins. But there’s been no significant separation between the three, and that makes battling singular contenders like Alex Palou and Colton Herta a challenge.

Where Palou and Herta -- the runaway performers within their respective teams last season -- were relatively unbothered by their teammates in terms of taking away points and wins, the Penske drivers rose and fell throughout the year and were unable to mount individual fights to stop Palou from securing his third crown. Power came the closest but had a nightmarish close to the season and watched as McLaughlin ascended to third in the championship to lead Penske home for the second time since 2023.

For a Penske driver to break through and win the championship, they’ll need to break free from their teammates. Trading wins among each other and gaining limited ground on the non-Penske contenders, is the problem to solve. Granted, if Penske’s trio end up holding an edge over Ganassi and Andretti and Arrow McLaren, the others won’t matter and the title will be settled among themselves. But if that advantage doesn’t appear, someone will need to step forward and take control.

Newgarden’s Main Task: Find the calm fury that propelled his 2019 championship. He’s gone from Dark Josef, the angry and outburst-y guy, to a more centered version of himself, and that could be the key to earning his third title.

Newgarden spent most of last year on the defensive, responding to attacks — both perceived and real -- after the push-to-pass ordeal, and in hindsight, he didn’t have the look of someone in the consistently balanced state that produces champions. With less drama to process and manage, Newgarden could be unstoppable.

It’s the fluctuations that have derailed his championship ambitions in recent years; high highs and low lows, which is the opposite of what will deliver a third crown. If he can keep getting to victory lane and take a Palou-like approach to settling for podiums and top fives when winning isn’t an option, Newgarden is the next champion.

McLaughlin’s Main Task: More of the same. He might be IndyCar’s most complete driver, which is a crazy thing to consider since he’s among the least experienced open-wheel drivers in the series. Road courses, street courses, big ovals, and small ovals, he’s either a winner of or a top threat to win at all four, and within his own team, he had more poles and led more laps than Newgarden and Power combined in 2024.

Where Newgarden needs to make some changes and level up to regain his title-contending status, McLaughlin’s ready to go now. No changes. Just keep doing what he’s been doing, but with another year of experience and with another year working with race engineer Ben Bretzman, and McLaughlin’s primed to seriously contend for his first championship.

Power’s Main Task: Defend the 12. Power’s in a first-time scenario at Team Penske where Penske signed his eventual replacement in David Malukas, assigned him to develop in the Foyt’s second car, and has him on standby for 2026 if Power doesn’t deliver a title-contending season in the final year of his contract.

Power's work in the No.12 isn't done yet. Chris Owens/IMS Photo

Power’s job is to prove he’s the better choice than Malukas and earn an extension. It’s a wild concept; one has 44 wins, 70 poles, two championships, and an Indy 500 ring. The other has straight zeroes in every category. Nonetheless, Power needs to just be himself. He’s as locked in on the approach to a new season as he’s ever been, and isn’t lacking in confidence or inner fire to go and get a third championship.

The end -- at Penske, at least -- is coming, and Power’s tasked with moving the finish line to no sooner than the conclusion of the 2026 season.

THOUGHTS FROM TEAM PRESIDENT TIM CINDRIC:

On Power’s contract: “We're open-minded on all that. I know him pretty well and think a lot of him. We just want the best for him, and from a timing perspective, I think it'll be similar to Josef’s situation last year, where we get through Indy and figure out where we're going.”

On McLaughlin and Newgarden: “They are all very determined for different reasons. There's a lot of continuity within all those groups. When you look at Scotty, he's trying to achieve firsts, and he's paid his dues. He’s evolved on the ovals. He's winning on the ovals, obviously sitting on the pole with the Indy 500 and leading laps there. He has a sense of confidence. And he’s had a lot of time to reflect on the times in which you need to try and gain a point here or there.

“I think he's poised for a championship; he's finished the highest in points of our two cars the past two years. Obviously, he knows how to race for a championship from V8 Supercars So I think you'll see him walk into the season a bit more calculated on that front, just knowing what it takes here. He understands that a lot better now.

“Josef, sometimes he has to balance the all-or-nothing mentality with the championship mentality. And I think if we can find that balance… my advice to him is, ‘Don't go away from the all-or-nothing mentality on the ovals, because that's what gets you there. And you have to race that way to succeed at the highest level. And he's shown that, and it's paid dividends for him.

“And then on the road and street courses, take that mentality when you're going to gain more than a point or two, and otherwise, you know you have to let pit cycles and all that do some work for you. Don’t try to do it all by yourself or all at once.

On Malukas: “Our responsibility is to put the best available driver in our race cars, and whether that's him or Santino [Ferrucci], or anybody else, there's nothing that precludes us from doing that. From David's perspective, he's a kid that said, ‘Hey, I want to drive for one of the most successful teams,’ and he's expressed an interest in driving for ours at some point.

“No different than other drivers, but now his relationship now is much closer to at least understanding who we are and vice versa, and being able to interact with our group. No different than what Santino did last year. There’s an understanding too, with Larry Foyt, that whether it's people or drivers or whatever else, we’ll work together to develop them.

“How those things evolve, or how those relationships evolve, who knows, but David is certainly someone we're looking at going forward. It’s not a concrete thing, but it's an easy thing to assume.”