It was another stout year for the Team Penske organization in 2019. It won over half the races. It won just under half the pole positions. It had all three full-time drivers in the top five of the championship. It won its 16th IndyCar championship and it won its 18th Indianapolis 500.
The 2020 season will see the same three faces full-time, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power will all be back but there will be some changes in the Team Penske landscape. Hélio Castroneves will be back for the Indianapolis 500 for what could be his 20th start but at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis back-to-back Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin will make his IndyCar debut.
2019 Team Penske Review
Wins: 9 (St. Petersburg, Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Belle Isle I, Texas, Toronto, Iowa, Pocono, Portland)
Poles: 8 (St. Petersburg, Austin, Indianapolis 500, Belle Isle II, Toronto, Iowa, Mid-Ohio, Gateway)
Championship Finishes: 1st (Josef Newgarden), 2nd (Simon Pagenaud), 5th (Will Power)
2020 Drivers:
Josef Newgarden - #1 Hitachi Chevrolet
The 2019 season could not have started any better for Josef Newgarden: A victory in St. Petersburg. This victory came with a timely pit stop and clear track position while Felix Rosenqvist and Will Power stretched out their first stints but lost time in traffic. It flipped the racetrack and allowed Newgarden to go through to the lead whilst those two made their pit stops.
Newgarden had a top five run at Austin and moved up to a second place finish in the final stint. He was the top Chevrolet finishers at Barber in fourth and picked up another runner-up finish at Long Beach. Through the first four races of 2019, Newgarden was the top finishing Chevrolet each time.
At the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Newgarden led some laps through pit cycle and it appeared the race would end with a good position for him. Unfortunately, he made the wrong choice under yellow to put on slicks when the rain got heavier. When he made the additional pit stop to put on the wet weather tires, one tire rolled away in the pit lane, handing Newgarden a penalty and putting a nail into his coffin of having any chance of a respectable finish.
Though Newgarden was not the best Penske car in the Indianapolis 500, he drove a respectable race and finished fourth. At Belle Isle, Newgarden was looking like he was going to finish fifth but made the decision to put on slick tires when the track was partially dry. A caution came out for Ed Jones in the tires after that stop while Newgarden was on pit lane and it allowed Newgarden to cycle to the lead. In the closing laps, Newgarden had to hold off a determined Alexander Rossi and keep it on the dry portion of the road. He managed to do both and took his second victory of the season.
The second Belle Isle race was not as good. Again in contention for a top five finish, Newgarden was battling with Rossi and both were trying to leapfrog James Hinchcliffe after Hinchcliffe had made a pit stop. Hinchcliffe defended the inside of the straightaway into turn three and that is where he, Newgarden and Rossi all came together. Hinchcliffe spun, Rossi spun and got away and Newgarden went into the tires with Hinchcliffe. Newgarden's day was done. Hinchcliffe's day would end a little later.
Texas was a chance for Newgarden to bounce back and he was looking like a sixth or seventh place finisher but Tim Cindric made the call to make his third pit stop under caution instead of making his final two pit stops under green flag conditions. While the rest of the stopped, Newgarden took the lead and ran hard in the laps leading to the pit window for the final stop. The final stop was made and Newgarden came out as the leader. In the final laps he again had a charged Rossi on his heels but again Newgarden pulled out the victory.
Summer started with a third at Road America and fourth at Toronto. At Iowa, one year after thrashing the field only to botch it and finish fourth, Newgarden did not let another victory slip through his grasp. He led 245 laps and took his fourth victory of the season. Mid-Ohio saw Newgarden cough up some points. Set for a fourth place finish and extending his championship lead, Newgarden attempted a move on Ryan Hunter-Reay for third in the keyhole, the two drivers made contact, Newgarden went around and stalled in the gravel, dropping him to 14th in the final results.
While coughing up points at Mid-Ohio, he made it up and then some at Pocono after Rossi was collected in the first lap accident. Newgarden ran a clean race and finished fifth. He was one of the top drivers at Gateway but was shuffled back after the final caution due to a handful of drivers not making their final pit stop. On the final lap, Santino Ferrucci ran wide in turn four and came down in front of Newgarden, Newgarden took evasive action, spinning to avoid Ferrucci and went from a fifth place finish to seventh.
The attrition at Portland allowed Newgarden to rise from 14th on the grid to seventh at the checkered flag and it allowed him to carry a comfortable margin into Laguna Seca. At the finale, Newgarden rode the rear wing of Alexander Rossi knowing that is all he had to do. In the closing laps, Newgarden dropped back a few more positions but he had the title locked up. An eighth place finish secured him his second IndyCar championship.
Numbers to Remember:
16: Newgarden led the championship after 16 of 17 races in 2019.
1: Newgarden trailed in the championship after only the Indianapolis 500 and he exited that race one point behind Simon Pagenaud in the championship.
490: Laps led in 2019, the most in a single-season for Newgarden.
404.6: Average number of laps led in a season since 2015.
5.6: Average finish in 2019, a single-season best.
10: Different tracks won at in Newgarden's IndyCar career (five ovals, three road courses, two street courses)
Predictions/Goals:
With two championships under his belt I think the goal for Josef Newgarden is to win the Indianapolis 500.
Championships are great and if he wins another this year with victories at Barber, Richmond, Iowa, Mid-Ohio, Portland and Laguna Seca, Roger Penske is not going to complain but Newgarden wants an Indianapolis 500, he is driving for Team Penske and in this scenario an Indianapolis 500 is not a lot to ask for.
When looking at all the great drivers that have gone through Team Penske not many having left without winning an Indianapolis 500. There are some exceptions: Gary Bettenhausen, Tom Sneva, Mario Andretti, Paul Tracy and Ryan Briscoe but outside of those five drivers every other big name to run the Indianapolis 500 for Team Penske has pretty much picked up at least one Borg-Warner Trophy along the way.
Newgarden still has plenty of time. He is 29 years old and Team Penske is not letting him go any time soon but off the back of Will Power winning the race in 2018 and Simon Pagenaud winning the race in 2019, a victory for Newgarden in 2020 would silent a lot of questions in the future.
If there is one place for Newgarden to improve it is at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. In six starts in that race his best finish is 11th and his average finish is 15.8. Even his average starting position is not that great at 12.3 with Newgarden starting in the top ten on only two occasions. A win in that race would be a great way to get that monkey off his back but he really just needs one race where qualifies somewhere in the top ten and ends up around fifth or sixth. You do not want this bugaboo hanging around for another year.
Besides that, Newgarden just has to keep up what he is doing. The guy has led a stupid number of laps the last five seasons. He is going to win races and winning races means he will be in the championship discussion. I think we all know he has to avoid the pitfalls of his 2018 title defense, where he won three races but those were his only podium finishes that season.
We also need to remember we are entering 2020 with Newgarden having failed to finish on the podium in the previous five races. He ended 2019 finishing just well enough to hold on to the title and it benefitted him that none of his championship rival jumped up and put a lot of pressure on him. I think it will be important to Newgarden to be solid out of the box, get a podium finish in one of the first three races and pick up a victory before we get into the month of May.
Will Power - #12 Verizon Chevrolet
Power's 11th season with Team Penske began with another pole position at St. Petersburg and in the race Power ran a competitive pace. He led his share of laps and had a good battle with Felix Rosenqvist but traffic prior to his first pit stop held him up and he exited out of contention for the lead. He held on for a third place result.
Austin was a dominant race from Power. He won another pole position and led from the start but had Alexander Rossi breathing down his neck the entire way. With it appearing the race would come down to the final pit stop the entire race was shaken up when Rosenqvist had his accident exiting the penultimate corner. Power and Rossi had yet to stop. Both were set to lose a lot of track position and be taken out of contention for the victory. Power's race ended when his driveshaft broke when the pneumatic jack was released on his final pit stop.
Things were not much better at Barber. Power spun early and lost some ground but he fought his way back up to 11th, picking up fastest lap as a consolation prize. A pair of seventh place finishes followed at Long Beach and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Power shot himself in the foot in the Indianapolis 500 after clipping a crew member on a pit stop. Without that final caution, Power would have finished outside the top ten but the timing of it all allowed him to re-emerge in a top ten position and he pulled out a fourth place finish.
The first race at Belle Isle was lost when the right front wheel nut was not secured and he left the pit lane. In the second race, he was running at the front only to have a gearbox hiccup drop him from the top ten. Through an aggressive strategy to run a five-lap stint on the alternate tire, a handful of cautions and other drivers struggling with tires, Power pulled out a third place finish.
Power ended spring with a ninth at Texas and started summer in second, albeit a distant second to Rossi, at Road America. Toronto was a mess. He was in the turn eight tires on lap one and he was in the turn eight tires on the final lap. A top five finish seemed certain at Iowa but an improper pit entry on his final stop knocked him down to 15th. He started on pole position again at Mid-Ohio but could only manage fourth with a two-stop strategy.
We got to see Will Power's 500-mile race magic again at Pocono. He spent the first portion of the race biding his time but when the rain clouds started appearing on the horizon Power took it to another level and left the field in his dust. Lightning struck, the cars stopped, rain followed, the race was called and Power got his first victory of 2019. All that momentum was lost at Gateway when Power got into the marbles and into the wall after only 52 laps.
With all the bad fortune Power had in the first 15 races of 2019 it was fitting to see him on the right side of fortune at Portland. He was running well but Scott Dixon had a better start and was ahead of Power. Dixon held a comfortable lead while Power was in second but electrical issues soured the New Zealander's race and an Australian was the main beneficiary. He went pretty much unchallenged from there and picked up his second victory of the season. He started seventh for the season finale at Laguna Seca but with nothing to lose ran an aggressive race and found himself in second, pressuring Colton Herta in the closing laps. While Power was close he could not get all the way there and he ended his season with a runner-up finish.
Numbers to Remember:
4: Starts outside the top ten in the final 11 races of 2019 after having 33 consecutive top ten starts from Belle Isle II in 2017 to the 2019 Indianapolis 500.
5.9: Average finish in 2019, his worst since 8.5 in 2014.
239: Laps led in 2019.
11: Consecutive seasons where Power has had triple-digit laps led.
10: Consecutive seasons finishing in the top five of the championship.
Predictions/Goals:
Fewer retirements and do something to secure his job.
In the last three seasons it seems Power has at least three races where he drops out because of something out of his control, whether it be mechanical or another car hitting him. It is not his fault but these results always seem to stack up and they end up taking him out of the championship fight.
I am sure Power knows it has to be avoided but they are also problems out of his control. He can only take so much blame when the driveshaft snaps on him or the gearbox jams at the start of a race.
Power is the Penske driver on the hot seat now. I am not saying he is in trouble but Simon Pagenaud won the Indianapolis 500 and finished second in the championship. Newgarden won a second championship in three seasons. It was only two seasons ago Power was sipping the milk in Indianapolis glory but it is a what have you done for me lately operation at Team Penske and if this is just another ho-hum year for Power with two victories but those victories being at Texas and Mid-Ohio and he ends up fifth in the championship the team will start looking to see if there is someone out there who can get better results than that. It is dog eat dog and Power has to be ready to bite.
We have seen Power become an oval stud the last few years and he needs to maintain that but he needs to pick up his road and street course results. They are not bad but he has not had multiple victories on road/street courses since he had three in 2016. It is the little things that are keeping Power from a possible second championship and it is a case of he needs two or three road course victories combined with two or three oval victories to get his hands back on the Astor Cup.
Power is going to be fine like all Team Penske drivers. He is going to have strong cars, win a few races and likely end up somewhere between a championship contender and fifth in the championship but Power has not put together a championship threat deep into a season since he won the title in 2014 and that has to change.
Simon Pagenaud - #22 Menards/DXC Technology Chevrolet
It was a slow start to the 2019 season for Mr. Pagenaud.
Pagenaud had a good run to seventh at St. Petersburg, couldn't get the car right at Austin and contact with Alexander Rossi late forced an extra pit stop dropping him to 19th. He was good but not great at Barber in ninth and he could only manage sixth at Long Beach.
With plenty of rumblings about Pagenaud's future at Team Penske leading into the month of May what transpired over three consecutive weekends could not have been any more timely. In a race where everyone knew the rain was coming but did not know when it would show up the tension that hung over the race was immense. No one wanted to make a pit stop in fear that the rain would give three minutes later and force an additional pit stop.
Pagenaud worked his way into the top five and it was going to be another good day. He did have to make an extra pit stop when it was time to put on wet weather tires but his car was prepared for it and he was unstoppable. He went from sixth to second in 11 laps. He was 5.5 seconds behind Scott Dixon with six laps to go and with no push-to-pass. On pure pace, Pagenaud ran down Dixon and in turn nine with two laps to go Pagenaud slid on through to the lead. Dixon had nothing to counter with. Pagenaud was gone and took the victory, his first since the 2017 season finale at Sonoma.
A week later, Pagenaud took pole position for the Indianapolis 500. The week after that Pagenaud led the field to the green flag and he had one of the best cars in the race. The only problem was while Pagenaud led a bunch of laps he and the rest of the Chevrolet drivers struggled to match the fuel mileage of the Honda drivers. At the pace they were running Pagenaud and the Chevrolets were going to have to make an extra pit stop. Rossi benefitted and put the hammer down, taking the lead.
Sometimes, things just are on your side. The caution for Graham Rahal and Sébastien Bourdais getting together in turn three neutralized the Honda fuel mileage advantage. Pagenaud was back in the battle and he and Rossi traded punches over the final 14 laps of that race. The two drivers traded the lead but with two laps to go Pagenaud made his move into turn three and it stuck. Rossi challenged but could not re-take the lead. Pagenaud took the victory and he left the month of May with 163 of 166 possible points and the championship lead.
The championship lead would be short lived. While Pagenaud was not able to re-create his wet-weather magic at Belle Isle, he did go from 13th to sixth. The second race was not as fortunate. Pagenaud was caught in a lap one accident and could not overcome the damage done. He got back on the horse and finished sixth at Texas. At Road America, he went from 16th to seventh in the first nine laps but his race stalled out and he finished ninth.
Another dominant day came at Toronto, winning pole position and leading 80 of 85 laps and picking up his third victory of the season. Another pole position followed at Iowa but the dominance entered there. He ended up finishing fourth.
Pagenaud's season concluded with finishes of sixth, third, fifth, seventh and fourth at Mid-Ohio, Pocono, Gateway, Portland and Laguna Seca respectively.
Numbers to Remember:
9: Retirements in his IndyCar career out of 152 starts.
14: Victories in his IndyCar career out of 152 starts.
25: Lapped finishes in his IndyCar career out of 152 starts.
32: Podium finishes in his IndyCar career out of 152 starts.
97.831: Percentage of possible laps Pagenaud has completed in his IndyCar career. He has completed 18,809 of 19,226 laps. He had failed to complete only 417 laps in 152 starts.
Predictions/Goals:
Continue doing what you did in 2019.
The reason I did a career synopsis for Pagenaud above is to show how consistent this guy is and how it would have been absurd it would have been if Team Penske had gotten rid of him after 2019. It is a what have you done for me lately operation but Pagenaud does not put a wheel wrong that often. He gets the car to the finish all the time and simply by doing that he gets solid results. Did he have a slump of sorts in 2018 when did not find victory? Yes, but with his consistency and his pace it was only a matter of time before those victories would come his way.
While Pagenaud finished second in the championship and second to Newgarden I am not sure he was the second best driver in 2019. He did win three races but he had four podium finishes all season. After the Indianapolis 500 he led a lap in only four of the remaining 11 races with two of those races being two laps led at Iowa and one lap led at Laguna Seca. In the six races Pagenaud did lead in 2019, three of them saw him lead five laps or fewer. The other race being the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, where he led five laps but picked up the victory.
There is still room for improvement for Pagenaud. He needs a little more of everything, another victory, another two or three podium finishes and another five races with a lap led and a few more races where he is leading 40-60% of the race.
Pagenaud did have the worst average starting position among the Penske drivers in 2019 at 8.7 while Newgarden and Power were both under six. Pagenaud started outside the top ten on seven occasions and all seven of those races were a road or a street course. Starting at the back of those races makes it really tough to get a great finish. It would be really beneficially if he could lower that average starting position by at least two positions and advance to the second round of road/street course qualifying at least seven times.
The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season opens on Sunday March 15th with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. NBCSN's coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET.
