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How Penske ended its longest drought, 20 years on

Today marks 20 years to the day since Gil de Ferran's victory at Nazareth ended a 54-race drought, the longest in the history of Team Penske. Here's how it got itself out of the mire that threatened to scupper one of Indycar's greatest teams

Team Penske is a giant of modern motorsport. A perennial contender for championships in all three US series it competes in - including the 2018 NASCAR Cup and 2019 IMSA Sportscar Championship - it has won three of the last four IndyCar Series titles, with Josef Newgarden's second championship last year extending its total to 16. Simon Pagenaud's victory at the Brickyard last year gave Roger Penske his 18th Indianapolis 500.

Even with the coronavirus crisis delaying the start of the IndyCar season until June and shrinking the number of races from 17 to its current 14, it seems inconceivable that such a storied outfit as Penske - which scored its first Indycar win with Mark Donohue at Pocono in 1971 - could end 2020 without a victory, let alone next year and the year after that.

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