Inside The Garage: Team Penske Relishes Phoenix Sweep but Loftier Goals Await

Here's what's happening this week Inside The Garage: Phoenix Raceway (Avondale, Ariz.) — The Team Penske drivers talked about how they felt pressure to perform when INDYCAR and NASCAR got together for a weekend of racing in the valley of the Arizona mountains. It made for a nice storyline. Ryan Blaney won the Cup race Sunday, the day after Penske teammate Josef Newgarden won the INDYCAR event. And he understood the gravity of the weekend. "You don't want to mess it up," Blaney said at his postrace news conference. "We had three out of the four boxes checked. We had INDYCAR pole, Cup pole, INDYCAR win. "You’ve got to finish it out, right?" Yes, but it goes deeper than one weekend. Penske didn’t win a championship in either series last year. It had a horrible INDYCAR season, with just two wins (in the last three races) that included a drama-filled year of executive shakeup and Will Power eventually deciding to leave. Penske's NASCAR season, on the other hand, was respectable with six wins but no driver making it to the championship round. This is a proud organization, as it celebrates its 60th racing season. Team owner Roger Penske, an accomplished businessman in the automobile and trucking industries, also owns the INDYCAR Series and played a pivotal role in the growth of racing in the United States by building racetracks and operating teams in a variety of series. Sweeping the main events of the Phoenix weekend should give the organization a boost. Things stayed stable on the driver-crew chief side of its NASCAR lineup. However, the entire INDYCAR side was revamped with new strategists for returning drivers Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. And then there was the addition of David Malukas, who replaced Power. Newgarden’s former strategist is former Team Penske president Tim Cindric, who was released from the team in late May. Cindric is back in just the strategist role but has been paired with McLaughlin. Newgarden is paired with Jonathan Diuguid, who took over the INDYCAR side of the Penske operations last year. "You could plug into any one of these cars at Team Penske, and you would have a great unit around you," Newgarden said in a news conference before the season started. "It really almost doesn't matter. ... I've had three or four different people in my ear over the last couple of years, and they're all pretty good to me. "So it's not really a pick-and-choose type scenario, but I don't think it's going to be a hard transition. He's been on the radio with me before, and I think we've got a great group." Newgarden told me and other reporters that last year he wondered when the asteroid was going to hit, that it felt like he was getting hit with a bat almost every weekend. He reiterated that he has confidence in Team Penske. He has won two of the last three INDYCAR races going back to last year and now leads the INDYCAR point standings. In 2025, he finished 12th in the standings. McLaughlin seems to have taken more of a leadership role among the drivers and carries a confidence, despite coming off a year when he finished 10th in the standings. He said for several years, he wanted to work directly with Cindric. "I am rejuvenated," he told me and other reporters before the season opener. "I’m very excited. I think David's brought a really cool sort of different vibe to the team but he's put a lot of work in, which I can only respect. He's been solid. "And I think the three of us — me, Josef and David — have worked really well over the test days, working pretty seamlessly." Malukas won the pole and the young driver brings an enthusiasm that Newgarden said he just doesn’t have in his 15th season. "It's in there [in me]," Newgarden told me and other reporters. "It's different than what it was, but I have a little bit of exuberance left. ... I definitely wish I had more. I wish I was 20 again." On the NASCAR side sits three-time champion Joey Logano, 2023 champion Blaney and Austin Cindric, who has won races but hasn’t been as consistent in his Cup career. They all owe so much to Roger Penske and the organization. "[He’s] somebody that’s going to do something the right way, that’s going to do it in a professional way, but is also very competitive and wants to win no matter what it is," Logano said after he won the pole at Phoenix. "Business. Racing. You name it, he’s going to want to be the best at it. "You can imagine as a competitor, no matter what your position is on a team, you want to be with the best. I say this all the time: You can’t soar like an eagle when you’re working with turkeys. And he’s an eagle." Logano did not have a good race at Phoenix as he crashed a couple of times, with the second one ending his day. He was visibly deflated for not executing. Cindric was involved in a crash, too. In the end, it was up to Blaney to get the job done. Maybe the biggest message from the Team Penske drivers from their wins is that they got it done despite not having the best cars. Christian Rasmussen was the class of the field in the INDYCAR race but got involved in a wreck with Will Power. Christopher Bell arguably had the best car in the Cup race but Blaney was able to get track position with a two-tire stop. It’s executing in those ways and taking advantage of opportunities that Penske drivers and teams have done so well over the years. And it’s what wins them championships. "Josef put the pressure on us," Blaney said. "He let us know that at our Penske dinner. He said this weekend is going to be absolutely ruined if you guys don't do it on Sunday. "I was happy to do it today. It's always special to win for Roger. On a weekend like this, where he put a lot into having these two series together and it going the way it did up until today — for us to finish it out today was definitely neat." Higher Horsepower High Grades The Cup race at Phoenix was the first with engines generating 750 horsepower instead of the 670 horsepower that was used in recent seasons on most of the ovals. Some drivers felt it had a significant impact while others indicated it didn’t. The horsepower change will be used at ovals under 1.5 miles. No driver said they didn’t like it. The only difference in opinion was how much difference it actually made. "I thought it was good," veteran driver Denny Hamlin told me after the race. "I thought this was one of the more compelling Phoenix races that I’ve been a part of. If your car was good, your car handled, the driver did a good job, you could make passes. "And the horsepower definitely helped with that, and it certainly also helped with wearing the tires a little bit more. ... This is a positive direction." Logano also felt it helped give the driver more of an ability to try to make moves. "I’ve never seen the track so wide," Logano told me and other reporters. " It’s done nothing but help." In The News — INDYCAR will go from a group qualifying session to a single-car, single-lap session in its final round this weekend at Arlington. The Fast Six drivers — instead of getting 10 minutes to see how fast a lap they can run — will each go out individually for one lap. The idea is to bring more of a spotlight to each of those drivers. — Cleetus McFarland, who has 4.6M YouTube subscribers for his motorsports content, will run a few races in 2026 and 2027 in the O’Reilly Series for Richard Childress Racing. His first race will be next month at Darlington. Sweet Ride The Joey Logano tribute to Pensle teammate Scott McLaughlin’s Supercars championship car. Under The Radar AJ Allmendinger is 13th in the standings after four races, a strong start for a Kaulig Racing team that has no manufacturer support. They Said It "Dude. For my brain-rotted TikTok brain, I was so focused. I didn't have a second to think about anything else."—David Malukas, the polesitter for the INDYCAR race, on whether he took in the atmosphere of the Phoenix event.