2026 Preview: Team Penske

Note: This continues a series of 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com. The season starts Sunday with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (noon ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Starting Lineup: Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet), Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet), David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet).

2025 in Review: The season was easily the organization’s most difficult since 1999. Topping the list of challenges were penalties issued and served to the cars of Newgarden and Power during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge which led to the release of three longtime members of senior management, including team president Tim Cindric. The season started innocently enough with McLaughlin winning the pole in St. Petersburg and Newgarden finishing the race on the podium in third place, but there wasn’t much to celebrate for quite a while thereafter. The team’s next podium placing didn’t come until the fourth race when McLaughlin finished third at Barber Motorsports Park. Power then finished third with McLaughlin fourth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in Round 5. The penalties at Indy forced Newgarden and Power to start 32nd and 33rd, respectively, with McLaughlin 10th. None of them led a lap in the race, and they finished 16th (Power), 22nd (Newgarden) and 30th (McLaughlin), with McLaughlin crashing on the front straightaway ahead of the green flag to become the first driver out. It was the first time since Roger Penske’s team returned to the “500” in 2001 that it didn’t have a top-15 finisher. The next two months was a period of regrouping before Power won at Portland. The veteran of 17 seasons with the organization admittedly struggled with his future in limbo; in September he announced his decision to join Andretti Global for 2026. Newgarden ended the season with a win at Nashville Superspeedway. They finished ninth (Power), 10th (McLaughlin) and 12th (Newgarden) in the standings. As for Malukas, he finished second in the “500” as AJ Foyt Racing placed its two drivers in the top five (Santino Ferrucci was fifth). Malukas also finished fourth in the second race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader and had three front-row starting positions (second at Detroit, Milwaukee and Nashville). Ironically, he finished 11th in the standings, squeezed between McLaughlin and Newgarden.

New for ’26: Power has been replaced by Malukas. The organization's outlook is significantly improved given the way the last part of last season went. In the offseason, several leadership positions were filled (Dave Faustino is now the team’s technical director with Ben Bretzman leading the engineering staff), and Cindric has returned to a race strategist role (for McLaughlin). All three cars ran well in the recent Unser INDYCAR Open Test at Phoenix Raceway.

Keep an Eye on This: Team Penske does not discuss terms of its driver contracts, but it’s believed Newgarden is in the final year of his current deal. The sooner his situation gets resolved the better, particularly in the aftermath of Power struggling last year in his bid to get a new contract.

Little-Known Fact: Last year’s disappointing season can be directly tied to not finishing races. All three Team Penske drivers completed just 12 of the 17 races, tying them for 23rd place in the series. They finished 21st, 25th and 27th in laps completed among the 27 full-season drivers.

 

Josef Newgarden