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IndyCar: A Team Penske 2019 championship would be a rare feat

By Asher Fair

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 26: Simon Pagenaud of France, driver of the #22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet leads the field at the start of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 26, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 26: Simon Pagenaud of France, driver of the #22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet leads the field at the start of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 26, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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As great as Team Penske have been throughout IndyCar history, a championship in the 2019 season would be a rare feat for the team and the series.

Team Penske have been one of the most successful teams in IndyCar history, but if one of their three drivers wins the 2019 championship, it would be a rare feat for the team and for IndyCar as a whole.

Team Penske have won a total of 15 IndyCar championships. Tom Sneva earned Team Penske their first championship in the 1977 CART season, and he went on to win the championship the next season as well.

Team Penske’s three active full-time drivers, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden, are all one-time champions. Power won the 2014 championship before Pagenaud won the 2016 championship and Newgarden won the 2017 championship.

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The first three drivers to win a championship for Team Penske all won multiple championships driving for the team. After Sneva won the 1977 and 1978 USAC championships, Rick Mears won the 1979, 1981 and 1982 CART championships and Al Unser Sr. won the 1983 and 1985 CART championships. Within a nine-year span, three drivers won multiple championships driving for the team.

But only one driver has pulled off this feat since this nine-year span, and it has not been pulled off since right after the turn of the millennium. After Danny Sullivan won the 1988 CART championship and Al Unser Jr. won the 1994 CART championship, Gil de Ferran became the fourth driver to win multiple championships for Team Penske when he won the 2000 and 2001 CART championships.

The 2001 season is the last season to produce anything more than a one-time champion for arguably the sport’s most iconic team.

In addition, no driver has become a two-time champion since Dario Franchitti won his second championship in the 2009 season. Franchitti won two championships after the 2009 season to become a four-time champion while five-time champion Scott Dixon has won three championships since then.

Four other drivers, including the three Team Penske drivers and Ryan Hunter-Reay, have become champions for the first time since the last two-time champion was crowned.

Will Power, Pagenaud or Newgarden be able to change either of these statistics this season?

Power seems to be a bit out of championship contention with eight races remaining on the 17-race 2019 schedule, as he currently sits in sixth place in the championship standings with 254 points, 113 points out of the lead. However, he has gotten hot and gone on long winning streaks before, so it would be foolish to count him out this early.

Meanwhile, Pagenaud currently sits in third place in the championship standings with 319 points while Newgarden sits atop the standings with 367 points, just 25 points ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, who has never won a championship, in second with 342 points.

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A Team Penske driver winning an IndyCar championship would be nothing new, even after Sam Hornish Jr. was the team’s lone champion from the 2002 season through the 2013 season with his championship back in 2006. But a Team Penske driver becoming a two-time champion for the first time in nearly two decades would be something special, especially given the list of drivers who have previously won multiple titles driving for the legendary team.