Team Penske’s 2022 resurgence could mean 1-2-3 sweep in IndyCar championship

MONTEREY, California – It has been three seasons since Team Penske has won either an Indianapolis 500 or an NTT IndyCar Series championship.

For this operation, that’s considered a slump.

With more than 200 race victories and 270 poles, 16 IndyCar championships and 18 Indy 500 victories, championships aren’t merely celebrated; they are expected at Team Penske.

In 2019, Simon Pagenaud won the Indy 500, and Josef Newgarden won the NTT IndyCar championship for Team Penske.

In 2020 and 2021, Penske saw Chip Ganassi Racing claim the season championship. Scott Dixon of New Zealand won his sixth title in 2020, and Alex Palou of Spain captured the crown in 2021.

Both years, the runner-up was Newgarden.

Heading into Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Team Penske can end both the slump and do something it hasn’t accomplished since the 1994 CART season.

Penske’s Will Power is the leader and hopes to win his second IndyCar championship this Sunday. Power, who won the 2014 IndyCar title, has a 20-point lead over teammate and two-time IndyCar Series champion Newgarden and six-time champion Dixon.

Penske’s third driver, Scott McLaughlin, is ranked fifth behind Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson. Coming off a win at Portland, McLaughlin is the long shot at 41 points behind teammate Power — but the second-year driver from New Zealand still could help ensure a 1-2-3 finish in the final standings.

The last time Team Penske swept the top three in the championship was 1994 when Al Unser, Jr. won eight of the 16 races including the Indianapolis 500 to win the CART title. Teammate Emerson Fittipaldi finished second with one win and the third Penske driver, Canada’s Paul Tracy, finished third with three