WEST ALLIS, Wis. – In an IndyCar season that’s been filled with Team Penske power plays and personality dynamics, the 2024 championship could come down to testing the boundaries of being teammates.
Will Power, who enters the final three races trailing Alex Palou by 54 points as both pursue their third series title, believes Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden would yield their positions on the track if it benefits Penske’s lone remaining title contender.
“I think at the moment, anywhere but first for those guys, they would help me,” Power said. “I spoke to Josef before Portland, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, man, if you’re like sixth, and I’m fifth, or even second and third. Honestly, I do need their help to win this because we’re so far out. Ultimately, yes, they can play a big part.”
It would be the latest and perhaps final twist this year for a Team Penske trio whose interpersonal relationships have dominated headlines nearly as much as their Dallara-Chevrolets have on ovals.
The season started with the news that longtime buddies McLaughlin and Newgarden had ended their “Bus Bros” series on YouTube.
Controversy erupted when McLaughlin and Newgarden were disqualified from the season opener at St. Petersburg for illegally using push to pass on restarts (Power was innocent of wrongdoing but still was penalized on both points and key personnel).
The Penske drivers dominated the last two weeks of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as McLaughlin and Power put on a show battling for the pole position before Newgarden won his second consecutive Indy 500.
And in the past several weeks, Power was frustrated with Newgarden for causing a restart stackup at World Wide Technology Raceway, and McLaughlin was upset with Power after being crashed on a late restart at Toronto.
But all of the turbulence largely could be swept away if Power somehow can sweep past Palou to the title with the harmonious tailwind of his teammates.
Though Palou has a points lead of nearly a full race (a maximum of 55 points are available to a race winner), Power could gain significant ground in the doubleheader race weekend at the Milwaukee Mile.
Penske is unbeaten in four oval races this season with victories by all three drivers. They are heavy favorites at Milwaukee, and a podium sweep led by Power significantly would cut into Palou’s margin heading to the Sept. 15 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
Yet despite Power’s confidence in his teammates’ willingness to swap positions and advance his position, Newgarden tempered those expectations after pacing Friday’s first practice at Milwaukee.
“Look, what I told (Power), I said it’s too early now,” Newgarden said. “If it comes down to the finale, I’ve had great support from him in the past. Thinking about my first championship in 2017, he shadowed me the whole race.
“You got to be really careful, though. This is not me being cagey. It’s just the truth. If you start trying to orchestrate too much, you put yourself into a mess. I’m not going to do that. I don’t think as a team we’re going to try to do that. You come down to the finale in Nashville, and we have a car that can seal the championship, if I’m not in it, I’m going to have his back all the way, 100%. But we’re not in Nashville yet. There’s a long way to go. If we try and get too clever about the way we run our team, I think you put yourself in a bad situation.
“We need to go out and do the job we always do. We’re going to race each other hard, but we need to take care of each other, right? I don’t want to be crashing my teammates. When it comes down to the very end, hopefully we’re in a position to seal the championship, we all want to see that happen, especially me. I’ll make sure that we get the job done then.”
Power has been in this situation before. Two years ago at Portland International Raceway, he admittedly was angry after finishing second to McLaughlin ahead of Scott Dixon, who he was trying to hold off for third place and in the points standings.
Power, who clinched his second championship a week later at Laguna Seca, now looks back on having radioed a request for team orders (asking McLaughlin to give up first) with regret.
“It’s tough to take a win away from a driver,” Power said. “Yeah. I get that. I was second and Dixon was coming on tires, and I asked for some help, but it’s bloody hard to say to Scott, ‘Yeah, can you give up (the win)?’ And especially since I already had a lead (in the race). That’s just drivers trying to extract the most. Why not ask? You may as well. You should ask.”
He might not need to make the ask at Milwaukee, where IndyCar will be racing for the first time in nine years. This is only the fifth year of racing on ovals for Palou, who still is seeking his first victory on the left-turn circuit.
But the Spaniard has been a serious contender to win the Indy 500 the past three years (starting on pole at IMS in 2023), and he is vowing to “go for it” at Milwaukee after a second at Iowa Speedway last month.
“Now I am able to push,” Palou said. “Maybe I’m not able to describe exactly what I need from the car, or learn anything during the race, but I can do what I can do and I’m getting better. I think you start enjoying it when you know what to do and you can see yourself positioning the car, passing cars. My first year, I didn’t pass a single car (on ovals), so I didn’t like it. Now I like it. But I’ll enjoy it more when I win.”
Entering Milwaukee on a streak of four consecutive top-four finishes, Palou wants to avoid getting conservative on the 1.015-mile track.
“We need to try to go for wins,” he said. “Obviously, if you’re second and on the last lap, maybe you can risk it, too, because that’s a good place. Or maybe fifth, you don’t want to go too crazy. But in terms of going into the race and what strategies we do, I don’t think we need to play conservative, to be quiet, because that’s when the (stuff) starts happening, changing the game.”
While conceding Penske’s oval strength, Palou also is skeptical of whether his rivals could organize a plan for Power.
“Obviously if it’s the last lap and one position gives them the championship, or gives them 10 more points, I would understand,” he said. “But it’s very tough to do driver orders in IndyCar.”
But it could be easier if their Chevrolets are a few tenths quicker than the field at Milwaukee, as often has been the case on short ovals since 2022 – particularly for Newgarden.
“Tor the past few years, they’ve just been dominant,” Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood said. “I think we’ve closed the gap to them a little bit, but that gap was so big going into this year that it’s so hard to close up. Like sometimes they’re qualifying a half second ahead of everyone on a 20 -second lap, which is just ridiculous.
“I’m not sure what makes them so dominant, but they obviously have figured something out, and it kind of spreads across their entire program because you see some of their short oval stuff in their NASCAR program is really good as well. So it’s just Penske and short ovals, not necessarily Penske Indycar and short ovals.”
Because the Milwaukee Mile puts a premium on mechanical grip, Conor Daly said it’s “a track that screams Penske.”
And with the success of A.J. Foyt Racing as a Penske-affiliated team this year, there could be an opportunity for Power to put even more distance between himself and Palou’s No. 10 Dallara-Honda.
“(Santino) Ferrucci has got the same stuff as us, so suddenly you’re taking up four spots,” Power said. “Yeah, I feel confident because of the ovals we’ve had, but this is a very different oval. (Palou) could turn up and be awesome and game over, but if it’s like it’s been, we should be pretty strong and then I’ve got to do a good job.
“Obviously I have to finish ahead of (Palou) or it’s over. Basically if I don’t win it’s almost over. So I know what I have to do.”