It's almost as if Roger Penske knows what he's talking about when it comes to his own race team.
When asked a few months about the future of Will Power with the Team Penske IndyCar team, he remained non-committal, which set off plenty of alarm bells around the paddock and the fanbase.
But he was quick to shoot down rumors that Austin Cindric would be replaced on the NASCAR Cup Series side following the firing of his father Tim as a result of the team's Indy 500 attenuator scandal.
Power's contract was up after 2025, while Cindric has a contract that runs through at least 2026. Despite the fact that Cindric is in the playoffs for the third time in four years and has once again qualified for the round of 12, there is still baseless speculation that he won't be behind the wheel of the No. 2 Ford next year, even though there are obviously no plans to change things.
But Team Penske's lineup is indeed changing for 2026 – in IndyCar.
As for Power, just days after the 2025 IndyCar season wrapped up at Nashville Superspeedway, it was confirmed that he would not be back behind the wheel of the No. 12 Chevrolet in 2026, ending a 17-year run which included two championships, an Indy 500 victory, a team record 43 race wins, and a team record 65 pole positions.
It was later announced that he would be replacing the Cadillac F1-bound Colton Herta behind the wheel of the No. 26 Honda at Andretti Global, joining Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson.
The obvious replacement candidate for Power was always David Malukas, who spent the 2025 season driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, the team that have a technical alliance with Penske, after Penske himself was said to have orchestrated the deal. Malukas finished the season in 11th place in the championship standings with a top finish of second in the Indy 500.
When Rinus VeeKay announced that he would not be back with Dale Coyne Racing in 2026, there were rumblings that perhaps he could be Penske's Power replacement. While a future move to the team should not be ruled out, given his impressive performance with Coyne after landing the ride just before the season began, there was no merit to that rumor.
Now, after more than a full season of speculation, it has indeed been confirmed that Malukas is set to replace Power, joining Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin from 2026.
It marks yet another team change for Malukas, who impressed in his first two seasons with Dale Coyne Racing in 2022 and 2023, scoring a podium finish in each, before signing with McLaren to drive the car Zak Brown initially wanted to put Alex Palou in for 2024.
But McLaren, for no (actual) reason whatsoever, fired Malukas before he ever had the chance to make a start, blaming it on his preseason wrist injury. In reality, they never actually found a replacement until Malukas was back competing for Meyer Shank Racing anyway (and at a much higher level than his replacement), so they truly had no reason to make such a knee-jerk decision.
And for what it's worth, details from the Palou lawsuit illustrate McLaren never really wanted Malukas anyway.
But at Penske, he's clearly wanted, and he's clearly valued, otherwise the team would not have moved on from their top championship finisher from 2025, their most recent title contender (2024), and the only series champion not named Palou (2022) over the past five seasons. Now he's aiming to become the storied team's next long-term success story.
The 2026 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 1 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.