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.
Ryan Blaney finished off the Penske sweep at Phoenix.
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.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden captured the INDYCAR race at Phoenix.
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.
Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden (L) and David Malukas are adjusting to the shifts within the Penske organization in 2026.
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 advised me and different reporters. “It is completely different than what it was, however I’ve a little bit little bit of exuberance left. … I positively want I had extra. I want I used to be 20 once more.”
On the NASCAR facet sits three-time champion Joey Logano, 2023 champion Blaney and Austin Cindric, who has gained races however hasn’t been as constant in his Cup profession.
All of them owe a lot to Roger Penske and the group.
“[He’s] any individual that’s going to do one thing the proper manner, that’s going to do it in an expert manner, however can be very aggressive and needs to win it doesn’t matter what it’s,” Logano stated after he gained the pole at Phoenix. “Enterprise. Racing. You title it, he’s going to need to be the very best at it.
Joey Logano gained the pole at Phoenix however had his day reduce quick by a crash through the race.
“You’ll be able to think about as a competitor, it doesn’t matter what your place is on a crew, you need to be with the very best. I say this on a regular basis: You’ll be able to’t soar like an eagle once you’re working with turkeys. And he’s an eagle.”
Logano didn’t have a very good race at Phoenix as he crashed a few occasions, with the second ending his day. He was visibly deflated for not executing. Cindric was concerned in a crash, too.
In the long run, it was as much as Blaney to get the job accomplished.
Perhaps the largest message from the Group Penske drivers from their wins is that they obtained it accomplished regardless of not having the very best vehicles.
Christian Rasmussen was the category of the sphere within the INDYCAR race however obtained concerned in a wreck with Will Energy. Christopher Bell arguably had the very best automotive within the Cup race however Blaney was in a position to get monitor place with a two-tire cease.
It’s executing in these methods and benefiting from alternatives that Penske drivers and groups have accomplished so properly over time. And it’s what wins them championships.
“Josef put the strain on us,” Blaney stated. “He tell us that at our Penske dinner. He stated this weekend goes to be completely ruined should you guys do not do it on Sunday.
“I used to be completely happy to do it right this moment. It is all the time particular to win for Roger. On a weekend like this, the place he put loads into having these two collection collectively and it going the best way it did up till right this moment — for us to complete it out right this moment was positively neat.”
Cup race winner Ryan Blaney is happy how the weekend at Phoenix turned out.
Larger Horsepower Excessive Grades
The Cup race at Phoenix was the primary with engines producing 750 horsepower as an alternative of the 670 horsepower that was utilized in latest seasons on many of the ovals. Some drivers felt it had a major impression whereas others indicated it didn’t.
The horsepower change will likely be used at ovals below 1.5 miles. No driver stated they didn’t prefer it. The one distinction in opinion was how a lot distinction it truly made.
“I believed it was good,” veteran driver Denny Hamlin advised me after the race. “I believed this was one of many extra compelling Phoenix races that I’ve been part of. In case your automotive was good, your automotive dealt with, the driving force did a very good job, you would make passes.
“And the horsepower positively helped with that, and it definitely additionally helped with carrying the tires a little bit bit extra. … This can be a constructive path.”
Logano additionally felt it helped give the driving force extra of a capability to attempt to make strikes.
“I’ve by no means seen the monitor so broad,” Logano advised me and different reporters. ” It’s accomplished nothing however assist.”
In The Information
— INDYCAR will go from a gaggle qualifying session to a single-car, single-lap session in its closing spherical this weekend at Arlington. The Quick Six drivers — as an alternative of getting 10 minutes to see how briskly a lap they will run — will every exit individually for one lap. The concept is to convey extra of a highlight to every of these drivers.
— Cleetus McFarland, who has 4.6M YouTube subscribers for his motorsports content material, will run just a few races in 2026 and 2027 within the O’Reilly Sequence for Richard Childress Racing. His first race will likely be subsequent month at Darlington.
Candy Experience
The Joey Logano tribute to Pensle teammate Scott McLaughlin’s Supercars championship automotive.
Beneath The Radar
AJ Allmendinger is thirteenth within the standings after 4 races, a robust begin for a Kaulig Racing crew that has no producer help.
They Mentioned It
“Dude. For my brain-rotted TikTok mind, I used to be so centered. I did not have a second to consider anything.”
—David Malukas, the polesitter for the INDYCAR race, on whether or not he took within the environment of the Phoenix occasion.
