MOORESVILLE, North Carolina – As one of the legends of IndyCar, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears remembers his early days at Team Penske when his teammate was Bobby Unser.
Mears was the quiet kid from the California dessert and Unser was a hard-edged racer who didn’t share his competitive secrets with anyone, including his teammates.
So, Mears would learn by observing Unser. From time to time, he would pick up a few items from Unser as the two talked, but if Unser found a way to get his car to go faster, he wasn’t going to share it with Mears.
Long after Unser retired from racing, “Uncle Bobby” as he was affectionately known, admitted that he was not a very good teammate.
Mears responded by saying, “You taught me more than you ever realized.”
That was the way things worked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Team owner Roger Penske was building the most successful team in auto-racing history and to achieve success, he wanted the best drivers available.
He also stressed a team philosophy.
There is no “I” in team and drivers were expected to work for the betterment of Penske Racing. Those that didn’t were either not renewed or, in Paul Tracy’s case, fired.
But Penske also enjoyed seeing his drivers push each other on and off the track. The harder they pushed, the better it was for the teammates who had to up their game to meet the challenge.
By hiring the best drivers, Penske’s attitude was to race each other hard, but don’t take each other out on the track.
There were no “team orders” at Team Penske. After all, auto racing is a highly competitive sport fueled by the desire to be the very best in any given race.
No driver in IndyCar is getting paid to finish second. They are there to finish first.
That raw passion and desire was on full display in the Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway and all three Team Penske drivers were involved in the battle to the checkered flag.
Josef Newgarden wanted to win the race because his season has included the depths of adversity as the first driver to lose an IndyCar victory through disqualification in 30 years, to the highest of highs by winning his second-straight Indianapolis 500.
Newgarden lost all points collected from March’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and that put him in a tremendous hole for the championship.
Eighth in the championship, but 126 points behind the leader, Alex Palou, as the season is nearing conclusion, Newgarden knows he can’t win the season title.
But another victory could ease that disappointment and that is exactly what Newgarden was intending to do as he prepared for a restart with 20 laps to go on the oval track near St. Louis.
Scott McLaughlin wanted to win the race because he still had an outside chance at closing the gap in the championship, even though he was also DQ’d from his third-place finish at St. Petersburg. He was lined up second behind Newgarden heading to the Saturday restart.
Running fifth as the field lined up for the restart was Will Power, a two-time IndyCar Series champion who entered the race second in points, 49 points behind Palou, but was about to trim the deficit if he won.
These are three drivers fueled by competition, but Team Penske had more to gain in the championship if Power or McLaughlin won the race.
As the field prepared for the restart, Newgarden was the leader and in charge of the pace to the green flag. He chose to back up to the field, while maintaining a steady pace, to keep McLaughlin from getting the jump on the restart.
“Ultimately, Josef is the leader, and he gets to choose when he wants to go,” McLaughlin told NBCSports.com at the Team Penske shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, on Monday. “There is a certain zone in Turns 3 and 4 and he chose to go at the latest possible point. He actually didn’t choose to go, IndyCar told us to go because it was green.
“That’s the rule that people don’t understand is, that the leader has the pack and controls the speed and when they go, it’s green. But if they don’t go before the zone, they will throw the green anyway.
“Personally, my gripe with the whole situation is, I don’t understand why Josef went so late. I’m entitled to my opinion, and he is entitled to his feeling that he did nothing wrong, which he technically didn’t.
“But if he goes earlier, the kerfuffle doesn’t happen and we all get through there unscathed, but it caused confusion. Ultimately, IndyCar deemed it to be legal.
“Do I agree with it? Do I think he should have done that with his position in the championship? Probably not, but he’s a big boy, he drives the car and that is his decision.”
That tactic also stacked up the field like an accordion, including further back where Power was about to hit the throttle.
To keep from hitting the car in front of him, Power had to be careful, but he was clobbered from behind by Alexander Rossi’s No. 7 Chevrolet, sending Rossi’s car into the air and destroying Power’s car.
By now, the images of angry Will Power have been seen as he flipped off Newgarden when the cars came down pit lane after IndyCar stopped the race with a red flag.
Power was upset long after the race concluded with Newgarden the winner and McLaughlin finishing second.
But instead of a wild celebration for the 31st victory of his career, Newgarden had to fend off questions about his restart and how to repair what appeared to be a damaged relationship with Power.
“I hate that Will got run into by somebody and it hurt his ways for the championship,” Newgarden told NBCSports.com after the race. “Will is upset that he got run into it, I get it. He’s a championship contender and he got wiped out of the race.
“The last thing I wanted to see was that happen. Believe me. As a group, we talk about that stuff and take care of each other.
“Once he cools down, he will see what happened and transpired and it’s an unfortunate situation in a lot of ways.”
Aug 17, 2024; Madison, Illinois, USA; Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (2) acknowledges fans after winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-USA TODAY Sports
Scott McLaughlin politely claps for winner Josef Newgarden at Gateway — Joe Puetz-USA TODAY Sports
McLaughlin finished second, but completely understood Power’s reaction.
“Ultimately, it hurt Will more than it hurt me,” McLaughlin said. “I still got good points, but it could have been a huge points day for the team and unfortunately, it wasn’t.
“I can see his frustrations. My frustrations are his frustrations because it’s always good to have two bullets in the gun going for a championship. It’s a win-together, lose-together situation.
“The best thing about Will is he wears his heart on his sleeve. That’s why we love him.”
When NBCSports.com spoke to Power on Sunday morning after the race, Power admitted he was no longer angry, but disappointed.
“I had such a good race,” Power lamented to NBCSports.com. “I had a chance to win a championship.
“I’m very frustrated. There is nothing in the rule book about the restart, but when you go that late doing any change in speed affects cars five or six back massively.
“It’s frustrating when you have such a good car.
“Racing is cruel.”
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (2) talks with Team Penske driver Will Power (12) on Sunday, May 19, 2024, during practice ahead of qualifying for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Josef Newgarden (left) and Will Power (right) Gary Mook/For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
Since then, Power and Newgarden have spoken to each other and made up. They reportedly spent time together by wakeboarding and are focused forward to this weekend’s BitNile Grand Prix of Portland.
Palou now leads Colton Herta of Andretti Global by 59 points. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon is third, 65 points back, and Power is fourth, 66 points behind with four races remaining.
McLaughlin is fifth, 73 points behind.
All three drivers will arrive at Portland representing Team Penske in a positive manner. But once the visors are flipped down and the green flag drops, each driver badly wants to beat the other.
That’s why they race.
“It’s all swings and roundabouts,” McLaughlin said. “Sometimes, you are in that position where you go for the championship and sometimes you are not.
“Ultimately, I’m a driver for the team. I’ll do what I need to do for the team and Josef is the same way.
“One thing that is good about Team Penske and has been through its history is all driver race hard and there aren’t team orders. We have met before and it’s clear as day, we are racing for the win.
“It would have been tough to pass Josef anyway at the end of the race. I would have given it a shot and we would have raced hard, but he just needed to start that race earlier and get us away. It’s a hard decision to make because I know he wants to win bad this year.
“We just have to fight and push on as a team. We work together very well and it’s nice that the team orders thing doesn’t come into play at Team Penske.
“From the perspective of everyone on the team, it’s business as usual. We have to get going. It’s an unfortunate thing that happened.”
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (2) and Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin (3) sit on the pit wall Tuesday, May 16, 2023, during the first day of practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Josef Newgarden (left) and Scott McLaughlin (right) Bob Goshert/For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
When McLaughlin joined Team Penske in 2021 after a tremendous career in the Australia Supercars Series, Newgarden started to pal around with the driver from New Zealand.
Eventually, they started a video series called the “Bus Bros.”
It was a chance to expose the IndyCar community and fan base to Newgarden’s unique sense of humor and McLaughlin’s boyish personality.
At that time, Newgarden was winning races and was the leader of the IndyCar pack. But as McLaughlin quickly learned how to excel in IndyCar, he quickly became another threat on the race track, another guy that Newgarden had to beat.
The relationship has evolved from being friends to strictly being teammates.
At the end of the 2023 season, the “Bus Bros” video series was canceled by both drivers.
“We parked the bus,” McLaughlin told NBCSports.com Monday at Team Penske. “We went from the ‘Bus Bros’ to the ‘Busted Bros,’” he said with a laugh. “Our lives have gone in different directions.”
Each direction has a goal – to be the top driver on the team.
“You want to be ‘that guy’ on the team and you want to do all the winning,” McLaughlin said. “We know we have the same equipment to be ‘the guy.’
“If I’m beating Will and Josef, that means I’m running at the front. I’m running faster now than guys that have won the Indy 500 and the championship. I can be a contender for many years.”
Now all three drivers seem to be going their own way. In the past, Power appeared to be on his own island on the team while Newgarden and McLaughlin were the “Bus Bros.”
They are still loyal teammates but love nothing better than to beat each other.
“Things between me and Josef are fine,” McLaughlin said. “We are two adults, colleagues you could say.
“It’s business as usual. Just fight on.
“If you can’t handle the competitiveness, you should just get used to it.”