Can Penske redress the balance in IndyCar's battle of the titans?
IndyCar's gold standard teams Ganassi and Penske are set for another slugfest beginning this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. A poor start to the first season with the new aeroscreen left Josef Newgarden with too much ground to make up on Scott Dixon in the title chase, but his strong end to 2020 suggests a battle royale lies ahead...
"We did everything we could and it wasn’t enough. We didn’t do a heck of a lot wrong this season."
Those words came from Team Penske’s two-time champion, Josef Newgarden, as he reflected on 2020, a year in which he delivered his most consistent run of performances yet somehow failed to claim a third title. Citing Scott Dixon’s season-opening run of three wins – and Penske misfortunes – as a hammerblow, Newgarden continued: "You can’t let someone like Scott keep finishing ahead of you and get that much of a run going in the championship. They were taking advantage of every situation that was negative for us. To have one single car doing that and for that car to be Dixon’s [is] a recipe for disaster for us and everyone else!"
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