When Roger Penske shared his pride in managing “tough situation” with IndyCar

Roger Penske purchased IndyCar and the elusive Indy 500 event from the Hulman-George family in 2019. He braced to be responsible for maintaining the premier class of open-wheel racing in the United States. However, Penske faced a big challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He dealt with the unforeseen hurdle and was content with the way he utilized his resources in dealing with the problem.

The 88-year-old is possibly the biggest name in the motorsport world, owing to his team's wings being spread in various championships. While IndyCar and NASCAR have proved to be his most successful ventures, the former series has one big catch attached to it.

Penske owns the IndyCar championship, and, in the past five years, he has had to deal with many challenges. One such challenge appeared in the form of COVID-19, a few months after he had bought the rights to the series from the Hulman family and had to deal with a massive threat to the championship. People were locked in their homes, and teams ran into financial crisis, but Penske's championship prevailed as IndyCar returned to racing in June of 2020.

Reflecting on how the series managed the crisis, Roger Penske revealed in early 2025 how he was happy with the way IndyCar has progressed, and said (via Tony Donohue, 0:55 onwards):

"Well number one was to be able to manage the track through the pandemic, which was a tough situation. But to see the crowd continuing to grow, we're sitting here today 10,000 seats more sold year to date than we were last year, so the continuation of a great product and the history of the track continues to grow; that's my goal."

Since Penske purchased the series, IndyCar has not witnessed a significant change in the racing formula, but this could change soon.

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Roger Penske shared his thoughts on IndyCar's new generation

Roger Penske - Source: Getty

While hybrid engines were introduced last year during the Mid-Ohio race weekend, there have been no significant changes to IndyCar's chassis department. Though a change was slated for the 2027 season, the deadline has been moved a year later as the organisation confirmed the new Dallara chassis will debut in 2028.

Revealing the aspects that the DW12's successor would like to possess, Penske said (via IndyStar):

"It'll look like an IndyCar, and it'll be safer — that's one of the things we've tried to do. We're looking at speed and also the ability to take some weight out of the car, which all the teams want, and then of course we'll have hybrid technology."

However, the new chassis would bring many expenses for the teams on the grid, which could cause some squads to shell out extra cash during the following few seasons. This may lead Roger Penske to turn into a loan shark and aid IndyCar teams in acquiring their chassis from the Italian manufacturer.

Edited by Samya Majumdar