Team Penske

Team Penske was founded in 1966 by Roger Penske and made its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The team entered what was then the USAC National Championship, the forerunner of today’s IndyCar Series, in 1968 with Mark Donohue driving an Eagle chassis; Donohue was named Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500 in his very first year. Since the mid-2000s, Team Penske has operated out of a sprawling, roughly 105-acre facility in Mooresville, North Carolina, that houses its NASCAR, IndyCar, and sports car programs under one roof.

Roger Penske wrote a chapter that is virtually unique in motorsport history in January 2020, when he acquired both the NTT IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the Hulman-George family, making him the owner of the very championship his own team competes in. The year 2025 also brought unwelcome attention: after unauthorized modifications were found on the rear attenuators of Josef Newgarden’s and Scott McLaughlin’s cars, the series disqualified the team from the front row of the Indianapolis 500, a rare setback for an otherwise dominant organization.

With 17 drivers’ championships spanning the USAC era and today’s NTT IndyCar Series, plus more than 20 Indianapolis 500 victories, Team Penske is the most successful team in American open-wheel racing history. Tom Sneva (1977, 1978) and Rick Mears (1979, 1981, 1982) laid the foundation, followed by Al Unser (1983, 1985) and Danny Sullivan (1988). Al Unser Jr. (1994) and Gil de Ferran, who won back-to-back titles (2000, 2001), carried the success into the 1990s and 2000s, before Sam Hornish Jr. claimed the reunified IndyCar Series’ first title for the team in 2006.

The team remains led by Roger Penske as owner, while Jonathan Diuguid has overseen day-to-day operations as team president since July 2025, after his longtime predecessor Tim Cindric stepped down from the role. In more recent years, Will Power (2014, 2022), Simon Pagenaud (2016), and Josef Newgarden (2017, 2019) kept the team’s title streak going.

For the 2026 season, Team Penske fields Josef Newgarden in the No. 2, Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3, and newcomer David Malukas in the No. 12 Chevrolet, who joined the team after leaving Arrow McLaren. Following the controversy surrounding the 2025 Indianapolis 500, the organization is looking to return its full focus to building on its own history of success.