At the Indy 500, Penske-Ganassi battles will take center stage

INDIANAPOLIS — Roger Penske said he talked after the Indy Grand Prix with Chip Ganassi, who had won four of the first five INDYCAR races this year thanks to driver Alex Palou. And he had a message for him.

"I told Ganassi to wait for us at Indy, because we're going to focus on you guys there," Penske said.

Ganassi didn’t need to know that about Penske. Above the Penske garage stalls at Indianapolis are the list of the Penske winners in the Indianapolis 500. Penske has won the race 20 times.

In the last 25 years, Penske has won 10 times, while Ganassi has won five and Andretti has also won five. 

With the Andretti family no longer owning the team, Ganassi and Penske stand tall as the owners who have carried on a fierce battle over the last several decades. They also have battled in NASCAR and IMSA sports cars in the past.

"It's always the people," said back-to-back Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. "I've lived and breathed it here [at Penske] for the last eight years. I get to work with the best. … You can't replace excellent people, and we've got so much depth on our team and that's what makes the difference.

"There's other teams that have phenomenal crewmen and women. Ganassi certainly has been one of them for many, many years."

Most of the time, Penske and Ganassi have a friendly, respectful rivalry. That seemed to potentially turn last week when Ganassi was questioning what Penske teams were doing on pit road prior to qualifying Sunday as Penske teams were in the middle of determining what they could do to try to fix the technical issues on their cars. They eventually weren't allowed to qualify and more severe penalties followed.

Penske driver Scott McLaughlin said he doesn’t hold a grudge against the