Australia Supercars: DJR Team Penske unveils longterm deal with Shell - MotorSportsTalk

The Virgin Australia Supercar Championship series (formerly Australian V8 Supercars) partnership between Dick Johnson Racing and Team Penske – known as DJR Team Penske – continues to evolve as it prepares to enter its third season in 2017.

News came out of Australia on Tuesday that both DJR Team Penske Ford Falcons in the Supercars series will carry primary sponsorship from Shell V-Power in a new multi-year deal.

The new livery signage will debut at this weekend’s Bathurst 1000 – known as Australia’s “Great Race” – and will carry on through the entire 2017 racing season and beyond on DJR Team Penske’s No. 12 and No 17 Fords.

“Our number 17 and number 12 Fords will proudly carry the Shell V-Power primary branding for the foreseeable future,” team co-owner Roger Penske said in a media release. “With a strong driver line up we believe our third year in the Supercars Championship will continue our move up the grid.

“The increased partnership from Shell with DJR Team Penske means the Shell brand will once again have a significant presence in Australian motorsport, so it is only fitting we announce this partnership as we head to Bathurst, Australia’s most iconic motorsports event.”

Penske will be in Australia this weekend to attend the Bathurst 1000.

Johnson has been involved with Shell in his native Australia for 50 years and this partnership further expands that relationship, and also making it the first time Shell V-Power has served as primary sponsor for a DJR team.

It also adds to a similar relationship Shell has had for several years with Team Penske in the United States, particularly serving as primary sponsor along with Pennzoil of Joey Logano’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Fusion.

Viva Energy became the exclusive licensee of the Shell brand in Australia in 2014, and will oversee the new and expanded sponsorship behind the race team.

“The history between Shell, DJR Team Penske and now Viva Energy goes beyond sponsorship, being trusted partners on and off the track, technically with the race team and commercially with the Penske businesses,” said Viva Energy Australia’s CEO, Scott Wyatt. “We look forward to seeing the innovation and performance gains translate on track under the new Shell V-Power Racing team, as we see the best of Shell V-Power and DJR Team Penske culminate in this exciting partnership.”

Click here to see a video of the new partnership.

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports