St. Petersburg win thrusts Penske into class of its own

Josef Newgarden’s win in today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is the fifth win for Team Penske car across its global motorsport programs.

The team’s pair of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Champions – Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski – won at Las Vegas and Atlanta respectively and Scott McLaughlin swept the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship doubleheader at Adelaide, Australia last weekend.

The team’s trio of championship winning IndyCar drivers – Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud had a high standard to uphold entering this weekend’s IndyCar opener.

They responded well yesterday in qualifying as Power claimed his eighth St. Petersburg pole ahead of Newgarden in second place.

Newgarden brought home the bacon today with good tyre strategy moving him to the front at halfway and thrusting him to the win.

Team Penske fell short of claiming their 16th Indy car championship a year ago with Power the team's highest finisher in third place. Newgarden felt elated to deliver a win right out of the gate.

“Certainly, if you drive for Team Penske and you've been in the series for a while, and you have a winning car or a pole car, you're not satisfied with anything but that,” said the driver of the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.

“You know, it's not that it was the end of the world, but you want to be able to get the most out of the car and yourself in any given day, and if you fall short of that even just slightly, it's disappointing.”

The win was the 204th Indy car win for the organization.

Power finished third in the race after leading 17 laps and starting from pole. He felt honored to be a part of the team and admitted that the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team is under pressure for next weekend’s Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.

The Acura-powered team claimed a podium at the Rolex 24 with Alexander Rossi joining IMSA regulars Ricky Taylor and former Indy car star Helio Castroneves.

“It's pretty impressive for the team to have won in every series, except sports car,” he said.

“Yeah, they got a chance next week to win, so we'll see what happens. Unbelievable when you think about Penske and all the race wins they accumulate, they have accumulated over the 50 years and they continue to do it.”

Pagenaud, the final member of the Penske trio, had a solid day after bad luck in qualifying had him starting in 13th place.

The driver of the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet methodically worked his way up the order and set the second fastest lap of the day to finish seventh.

Coming off a winless and poleless season in 2018, Pagenaud was thrilled given the team's performance even though he didn't challenge for the win.

“It’s a serious evolution from last year from the team, for myself,” he said. “We’re starting the season really strong. What happened in qualifying is outside out control and from 13th coming back to 7th – yellows not doing anything for strategies, I think we did awesome. I’m very satisfied, I think it is a really solid foundation going forward, we’re going to fight for the championship.

The 2016 IndyCar champion pinpointed the team's improvement to team owner's Roger Penske's willingness to give his drivers what they need to win.

“It’s just amazing this group – they are so humble,” he said. “It is the most successful team in history. Despite that, they are willing to do whatever it takes to help their drivers, help their team. Roger calls you and he says “What do you need?” We got what we needed and the team provided that a lot quicker than I expected.”