For a team that’s won 244 races, 17 championships, 305 poles and 20 Indianapolis 500s over the past 5 decades in IndyCar, the 2025 season is a bit of a mystery for Team Penske. That struggle continued on Sunday at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, the iconic 4-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Chip Ganassi Racing continues its dominance, with Alex Palou on the top step of the podium for a sixth time this season. He finished more than two seconds ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who edged out A.J. Foyt Enterprises Santino Ferrucci by less than two-tenths of a second, with 24 of the 27 cars finishing on the lead lap. The Spaniard drove a clean race, managing as he did at Indy, to avoid numerous incidents that took out Josef Newgarden, Sting Ray Robb, and Robert Shwartzman. Ganassi’s Scott Dixon led the most laps (27) among the 9 lead changes during the race.
A number of full course caution flags caused teams to adapt their strategies early and often and it wasn’t until Scott Dixon pulled in for a splash and go that Palou, who had led just 4 laps up to that point, took the lead for good on lap 53.
Ferrucci’s car ran out of gas shortly after crossing the finish line. He pulled to a stop on the grass just before turn one where a fan tossed him a Miller Lite to help him celebrate his third place finish.
But one big question lingers after the long, hot, competitive day in Elkhart Lake…
In a spec series where teams and drivers make a huge difference, what’s going on with Penske? While Ganassi, Andretti, and McLaren drivers consistently find the podium and continue to rack up the points, Each Penske driver has had just 1 podium finish in 9 races (all of them 3rd place). Currently Penske’s drivers are running 7th (Power), 8th (McLaughlin), and 17th (Newgarden) in the championship after finishing 3rd (McLaughlin), 4th (Power), and 8th (Newgarden) last year. Just as tellingly, they swept the podium at XPEL Grand Prix in 2024.
All you have to do is look at the number of points the three full-time drivers of each team have accrued to see that something isn’t right. Especially considering two of their three drivers have won multiple championships, and McLaughlin certainly is capable of it. (We’ll talk about RLL another time).
Team Driver Points
Ganassi: 758 Honda 6 wins
McLaren: 631 Chevy
Andretti: 600 Honda 3 wins
Penske: 524 Chevy
RLL: 324 Honda
Some of it can be attributed to racing luck. At Thermal, Power was run into by DeFrancesco ending his race early. Then in St. Louis, Power had a tire failure taking him into the wall. And, Newgarden’s crash on that same oval with Louis Foster was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s nothing that could be done about any of those incidents.
The team has had a couple of mechanical issues end promising runs. Newgarden had made an incredible run from the back of the field to top 5 in the Indy 500 before a fuel pressure issue ended his day. In St. Louis, McLaughlin was running near the front when his rear suspension broke. These could be just bad luck. It also could be an oversight in preparation. While mechanical failures still occur, they don’t happen with the regularity they did years ago.
And then there are the uncharacteristic mistakes from what is arguably one of the best driver lineups in the series. Power took himself out of the race early in St. Pete when he ran into the back of Siegel on the opening lap. McLaughlin described his crash at Indy as a rookie move. Newgarden’s spin into the wall in turn 14 at Road America was another unforced error by a Penske driver, and there have been more.
It’s also looking like the Honda engine has an advantage over the Chevy, with 9 straight wins to start the season. But that still doesn’t explain the points differential between the Penske and McLaren drivers.
Obviously, the pressure to succeed is intense. The scandal that moved two of their three cars to the back of the grid after what appeared to be a solid qualifying effort at Indy, and last year’s push-to-pass kerfuffle have only added to the mix. The removal of team president, Tim Cindric, managing director, Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer before the Indy 500 had to be done, given the circumstances. But it’s not as if the team was producing stellar results before that.
David Hovis, head of IndyCar media relations for Team Penske, told us that losing 120 years of experience has affected the team. But, they have a lot of technical ability on the team and it does create an opportunities for others to step up.
And that may just be what Team Penske needs right now. Since 2022, when the team finished 1st, 2nd, and 4th in the IndyCar drivers championship, they’ve watched Ganassi drivers win more races, with Alex Palou winning both championships. Maybe it’s time for a bit of fresh thinking to turn things around. The twin Iowa races will be an important bellwether since Penske drivers have won 5 of the last 6 races there. I know I’ll be watching and I’m sure the rest of the IndyCar world will be as well.
