IndyCar: Team Penske to continue with three full-time cars in 2020

By Asher Fair | Aug 1, 2019

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Simon Pagenaud of France, driver of the #22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the NTT IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 08, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Team Penske will not run four cars on a full-time basis in the 2020 IndyCar season despite previous speculation that they may expand.

Despite speculation that they may return to a four-car team for the first time since the 2017 IndyCar season next year, Team Penske have confirmed that they will continue running three cars on a full-time basis in the 2020 season.

There were rumors that the team may try to sign Alexander Rossi from Andretti Autosport. But Andretti Autosport recently confirmed Honda engines on a new multi-year contract agreement, and they recently confirmed that Rossi is set to continue driving the #27 Honda on a new multi-year contract agreement.

With Rossi off the table, there were more rumors that Team Penske may try to pursue Colton Herta, the rookie and youngest race winner in IndyCar history who currently drives the #88 Honda for Harding Steinbrenner Racing.

However, both of these moves would have required Team Penske to shift from a three-car team to a four-car team, and team president Tim Cindric has been against the idea of running four cars on a full-time basis pretty much ever since the team dropped their fourth car after the 2017 season.

Here is what Cindric had to say about the Herta to Team Penske rumors, according to NBC Sports.

"“We’re not running four cars. That’s the end of that discussion.”"

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As for Team Penske’s current three-car lineup, nobody is going anywhere, which pretty much knocks Herta out of the picture. Josef Newgarden, the 2017 champion and current championship standings leader, is set to return driving the #2 Chevrolet (or #1 Chevrolet if he can win the 2019 title).

Team owner Roger Penske personally confirmed that 2016 champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 champion Simon Pagenaud is set to return to drive the #22 Chevrolet.

2014 champion and 2018 Indy 500 champion Will Power may be in the midst of his worst season as a full-time Team Penske driver, but he still sits in fifth place in the championship standings and is also in a position to end up absolutely nowhere but behind the wheel of the #12 Chevrolet next year.

This news does not eliminate the possibility of the team fielding four cars in next year’s Indianapolis 500. In fact, that is what they did in 2018 and earlier this year, and they appear slated to do that again with three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves, whose entry in next year’s running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” would be his 20th, all driving for Team Penske.

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With all things considered, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power are all set to drive for Team Penske in the 2020 IndyCar season, and Colton Herta is set to be driving elsewhere, albeit an undetermined destination at this point.