Team Penske confident about winning Indy 500, despite qualifying troubles

Team Penske may not have shown much speed in qualifying, but it fully expects to be player in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

A starched white dress shirt and black slacks is the customary attire signifying the epitome of excellence when it comes to the Indianapolis 500. It’s as much Roger Penske’s uniform as a helmet and firesuit are to a driver.

No car owner has enjoyed more success in the signature race than Penske, whose 16 Indianapolis 500 victories and 17 poles triple what any other car owner has achieved. To run and win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway means having to find a way to beat Team Penske, the Brickyard’s gold standard.

But this year, things are uncharacteristically amiss with Penske’s Chevrolet-powered cars. Instead of appearing on the cusp of another Indianapolis 500 win on Sunday (noon ET, ABC), its five-driver lineup consisting of Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Joseph Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, and Will Power have collectively been off the pace for much of the month.

"You always wonder what's going to happen," Roger Penske said. "Every year there seems to be something different. There are years you think you should win and you don't. There are years you think you shouldn't and you do."

During time trials last Saturday, normally a Penske stronghold, only Power posted a fast enough speed to earn a shot at the pole position. There was little improvement the following day in second-round qualifying that set the 33-car field.

Although Power posted the ninth-fastest speed, he trailed by 2 mph pole-sitter Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, Penske’s chief rival. More alarming, Montoya (qualified 18th), Castroneves (19th), Newgarden (22nd), and Pagenaud (23rd) continued to lag well off the pace.

Not anywhere close to Penske’s typical high level.

“It was unfortunate and a bit of a mystery,” said Pagenaud, the reigning IndyCar Series champion. “It's what makes this place legendary.”

That Penske is struggling while the Honda-powered cars of Ganassi and Andretti Autosport have flashed speed in every practice and qualifying only compounds the frustration. Honda drivers hold seven of the top-10 starting positions.

But while it may be easy to discount Penske, history says otherwise.

What happens in qualifying tends not to correlate to the race — the two are entirely different animals. In the former, drivers are asked to hang it out for four high-speed laps that can test their fortitude. Whereas in the race, patience, navigating traffic, and overall execution — especially on pit road — over 500 long miles is a foremost requirement.

When Montoya delivered Penske its last victory in 2015, he not only started 15th, he then had to rally from an earlier hiccup that dropped him all the way to the back of the field. There is every expectation some combination of Castroneves, Montoya, Newgarden, Pagenaud, and Power will do the same and find themselves in the mix on Sunday.

“Qualifying did not work out the way we wanted,” Castroneves said. “We keep working, digging, obviously finding a way. We're going to fight extremely hard out there and showing a little bit of speed certainly.”

Proof offered by the Brazilian, who in final practice Friday recorded the fastest single lap (227.377 mph), followed by the Honda contingent of Takuma Sato, Tony Kanaan, and Dixon. Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 in 2001-02 and 2009 (all with Penske), and he yearns to join A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and Al Unser Sr. as the only drivers to win the race four times.

“I want it more than anybody, to be honest,” Castroneves said. “To be in this position, to be so close to Rick, Al Unser, Sr., and A.J. Foyt, it's an honor. It's a privilege. It's a very incredible opportunity.”

Then there is the matter of reliability, a distinct advantage Penske and Chevrolet hold over its Honda counterparts. Honda has dealt with undependable engines in all five IndyCar Series race this season, most recently James Hinchcliffe having his engine smoking and spewing oil and water during Friday’s final practice.

“I felt what the engineers would call a suboptimal rapid negative acceleration heading into Turn 3,” Hinchcliffe told NBCSN. “We’ve had some issues across the Honda camp. It’s less than ideal.”

Above all else, a cool confidence permeates within the Penske camp. Whether it’s as a favorite or an underdog — Unser once drove to victory lane a Penske backup car that had been on display in a hotel lobby just days before — there isn’t a setback the team hasn’t previously faced since it first entered cars at Indianapolis in 1969.

“It's all about being in the right place at the right time,” Castroneves said. “And that's what we're going to do again, try to put ourselves in the best position as possible to win this race.”