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Team Penske is looking back at the exciting 2024 season with an overview of each team's performance and highlights. In this week's spotlight, the focus is on the team's three-car NTT INDYCAR SERIES program that produced multiple race wins this season, including a record 20th victory in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

The 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was one of both immense success and unprecedented challenges for Team Penske. The team’s three-car program produced wins in eight of the 17 races on the series schedule – including the organization’s landmark 20th victory in the Indianapolis 500. The points left on the table over the course of the year, however, ultimately prevented Team Penske from adding to its total of 17 INDYCAR championships across its storied history.  

The season appeared to start off in the best possible manner with Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet team winning the NTT P1 Pole Award before taking the checkered flag in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. Team Penske nearly completed a sweep of the St. Pete podium as Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet team finished third while Will Power and the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team came home in fourth place.

From there, the INDYCAR SERIES traveled to the Thermal Club road course near Palm Springs, Calif., for the first race held at the picturesque venue – a non-points paying exhibition event – before returning to the Golden State for the annual Grand Prix of Long Beach in April. Newgarden and the No. 2 team were again at the front of the field in the closing laps at Long Beach before contact dropped the Hitachi Chevrolet to fourth at the checkered flag. Power narrowly missed out on a top-five finish by coming home in sixth place.

The most impactful news coming out of the Long Beach race weekend, however, was Team Penske being assessed one of the largest penalties in INDYCAR SERIES history.

Following the Long Beach warmup session on race day morning, it was discovered that the team's three cars were in violation of the league’s rule on the “push to pass” capability that allowed access to extra horsepower on restarts, where it is mandated to be inactive on the first lap of green-flag racing. The access was due to a mistake in the coding in the onboard computer that was carried over from the team’s comprehensive testing of the hybrid unit that would debut later in the season. During hybrid testing, INDYCAR allowed teams to bypass “push to pass” capabilities to be more efficient in their testing, and the coding was accidentally left on each of the team’s cars during the St. Petersburg weekend through the warmup session at Long Beach. 

As a result of the ensuing penalties, series officials voided the victory and championship points for Newgarden and the No. 2 team at St. Pete while McLaughlin and the No. 3 team also were stripped of their third-place finish and points in the season opener. Additionally, Will Power and the No. 12 team were docked 10 points, though it was determined that the team did not use the function at all throughout the race. For McLaughlin, the St. Pete disqualification came on the heels of a 26th place finish at Long Beach. He would need to immediately begin stacking wins and podiums to get back in the championship hunt after finding himself at the bottom of the series standings.

McLaughlin and the No. 3 team went to work in the third round of the season at Barber Motorsports Park, near Birmingham, Ala. The defending Barber race winner, McLaughlin made it back-to-back triumphs at the demanding road course as he drove the No. 3 Good Ranchers Chevrolet to Victory Lane. Power came home second for a Team Penske 1-2 finish as Power continued his consistent start to the 2024 season.

As the schedule advanced to the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Team Penske announced it had suspended four team members for the entire month following an internal audit of the St. Petersburg incident, including team president and Indianapolis native Tim Cindric, along with team managing director Ron Ruzewski. No. 2 team race engineer Luke Mason and data engineer Robby Atkinson were also suspended for the month of May.

Team Penske responded to the setback by producing one of the most complete Indianapolis 500 performances in recent memory. For just the second time in history, Team Penske swept the front row for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, joining the 1988 Team Penske trio of drivers (Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser) as the only ones to accomplish a team qualifying sweep at the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”  McLaughlin led the way for his first Indianapolis 500 pole position with Power qualifying second and Newgarden third. McLaughlin’s speed of 234.220 mph represented the fastest, four-lap qualifying average in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

On Carburetion Day, the Friday before the Indy 500, Team Penske also earned its record 19th victory in the annual Pit Stop Competition. The No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet team, led by Newgarden, Chief Mechanic Chad Gordon and the No. 2 crew, won the annual battle among the top performing teams on pit lane with a fast time of 10.792 seconds.

The race itself generated plenty of drama and excitement after starting four hours late due to rain over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Amazingly, most fans returned to their seats once the gates at the Speedway reopened and they were treated to one of the most action-packed races ever. McLaughlin and the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet team led a race-high 64 laps as the New Zealander continued his rapid development as an oval racer. Power and the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team ran at the front of the field for most of the race before contact in Turn 1 ended their afternoon just 55 laps from the finish. Over the final laps, it was oval master Newgarden and the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Chevrolet team that out-dueled rival Pato O’Ward in a finish for the ages. Newgarden and the team claimed back-to-back Indy 500 wins, becoming the first ones to repeat at Indy since Helio Castroneves did it for Team Penske in 2001-2002. It also marked Team Penske’s 20th Indianapolis 500 win in the organization’s 58-year history.

In June, at the legendary Road America race circuit, Power led a Team Penske 1-2-3 finish for his 42nd career INDYCAR victory. Impressively, McLaughlin’s third-place finish saw him leave Wisconsin ranked fifth in championship points after falling to the bottom of the standings following Long Beach. McLaughlin and Power then swept the Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend in July as McLaughlin’s victory in the first race marked the first oval win of his career.

Over the remaining six races on the 2024 schedule, each Team Penske driver would score an additional victory with Newgarden continuing his mastery of World Wide Technology Raceway in August, Power winning for a second time at Portland International Raceway later in the same month and McLaughlin adding a second oval victory in the second race of the Milwaukee Mile doubleheader to begin September. With Power’s victory at Portland, it represented the first time since 2019 that three Team Penske drivers produced multiple victories in the same season. The win also solidified the Australian champion’s hold on fourth place on the all-time INDYCAR SERIES list.

Despite some of the challenges experienced by the team due on-track incidents, strategy calls that did not pan out and unfortunate penalties, Team Penske still battled for the 2024 INDYCAR SERIES championship. Both Power and McLaughlin entered the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway with an opportunity to win the series title. As the final checkered flag waved on the season, McLaughlin finished third in the championship standings to lead the team for the second consecutive year while Power claimed fourth and Newgarden eighth in the final series rundown.

“The 2024 season for all of Team Penske was amazing, including the championships won in NASCAR, IMSA and WEC. I think I speak for all three of our team’s INDYCAR SERIES drivers when I say I’m proud of how we fought through the adversity at the start of the year to win eight races and score another Indianapolis 500 win and pole position,” said McLaughlin. “That shows the character and makeup of this organization. We all kept our heads down, focused and just tried to block out the noise. I think you saw that with our No. 3 Chevrolet team’s win at Barber. You saw it again with the front row lockout and win at the Indianapolis 500, and again with our podium sweep at Road America. It was a bloody good year. A little more consistency in 2025 is something we all want to see happen and that will have Team Penske in a great position to compete for another INDYCAR SERIES title next year.”