Team Penske showed flashes of domination in the two races from Iowa Speedway over the weekend, but it was not enough to keep its star drivers in championship contention.
Saturday was the better of the two races for the historic team. Josef Newgarden nearly won for the seventh time on the 7/8-mile oval, but came up just short by finishing in second.
His two team-mates were directly behind, with Will Power and Scott McLaughlin crossing the line third and fourth respectively. It was by far the trio’s best result of the year as a whole.
Sunday’s race was not so fortunate, as Newgarden finished in tenth and his two team-mates both retired early in the event.
As a result of well-documented season-long struggles, Power is the highest ranking member of Team Penske in the championship race. The veteran sits eighth in the standings, 271 points behind Alex Palou.
With a maximum of 54 points available for each event, and five remaining in the 2025 calendar, the maximum gap that can be overcome at this moment is 270 points.
Even if Power won all races remaining in the season and Palou did not take part, there is no possible way for the veteran to earn his third title this year.
McLaughlin and Newgarden sit 12th and 14th in the standings, and were also officially eliminated from title contention this past weekend.
Historic results
If the team’s three drivers remain in their points positions through the end of the season, it will mark the worst points result for Team Penske since the 1998 CART season.
In that year, the team fielded Al Unser Jr. and Andre Ribeiro. Unser was the best performing of the two, earning one podium and finishing 11th in the championship.
1999 also saw all Team Penske for down the order, but the team also had no single driver compete in every round, which affected the standings as much as individual performances.
Every year since then, Penske has had one driver finishing fifth of higher in the championship, including eight championship victories.
There are still five races in this season, however, and Power is 56 points behind the driver who sits fifth in the points Christian Lundgaard.
If the driver of the #12 can overcome that gap, the team can at least keep from finishing the year with its worst results in over 25 years, even if the championship itself is already out of reach.
nothing else to do but sit, all day long, in those stupid, silly, antiquated grandstands? Perhaps if they erected awnings for shade, maybe more families in Iowa might attend?