Simon Pagenaud’s season of redemption includes Indy 500 win, second in championship

By Sep 23, 2019, 2:04 PM EDT
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MONTEREY, California – When the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series championship began, Simon Pagenaud of Team Penske was mired in a winless slump dating all the way back to the final race of the 2017 season. The 2016 IndyCar champion wasn’t in the early-season conversation of championship favorites for 2019.

Team Penske IndyCar Manager Kyle Moyer, who calls Pagenaud’s race strategy, told NBC Sports.com in an interview at Team Penske’s race shop in early May that drivers are expected to win at Team Penske and “if they don’t win, they don’t stay.”

In a sense, Moyer had delivered a message.

Pagenaud owned the “Month of May” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning the IndyCar Grand Prix for the third time in his career, following that with the Indianapolis 500 Pole and then the dramatic victory in the 103rdIndianapolis 500.

After a winless June, Pagenaud won again in the Honda Indy 200 in July. From that point on, he never finished lower than sixth place until Portland, when he finished seventh.

Pagenaud entered Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, third in the standings, 42 out of the led held by Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden and just one point behind Alexander Rossi.

Pagenaud raced hard and aggressively, willing to challenge drivers around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile picturesque road course. He even attacked Newgarden on the track because Pagenaud knew the best way for himself to win the championship was to win the race.

The driver he really attacked, though, was Scott Dixon, a five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and racing legend.

He stayed ahead of Newgarden the entire way, but when Pagenaud finished fourth and Newgarden eighth, it wasn’t enough for Pagenaud to claim the title. He moved up to second in the standings, leap-frogging Rossi, who finished sixth.

The final tally had Newgarden winning his second-career NTT IndyCar Series championship by 25 points over Pagenaud.

“If anyone doubted me, they are wrong,” Pagenaud said. “I won Indy. I’m second in the championship. I’ve been second twice and I won the championship in 2016.

“If the results don’t speak for themselves, I don’t think they know what they are talking about. I’m with Team Penske for a reason.”

When Pagenaud first climbed out of his car on pit road after the race, he had the bitter look of disappointment that he was not the champion.

“I gave it everything,” he told a crewmember. “I don’t know what else I could have done, man.”

Later, however, it became obvious that Pagenaud had a tremendous comeback season.

“It was an amazing race, I was very happy with the show,” Pagenaud said. “It was an amazing year for Team Penske. I won the Indianapolis 500 and Josef won the championship; it was a perfect picture for the team.

“I tried to give everything I had in the car. I had a tough battle with Scott Dixon, but it was fun.

“Twenty-nineteen was probably the best season of my career.”

Pagenaud believed if he could have passed Dixon, he could have had a shot at contending for the race victory. But Dixon is a five-time IndyCar Series champion and one of the greatest of all-time.

“I really had a lot of pace in the car, but behind I was using up my tires,” Pagenaud said. “He didn’t make it easy, but we tried. He’s a racer; I’m a race and that is what we have to do.

“I think Josef was the best all season long. He was the most consistent. I won the Indianapolis 500 and can’t be disappointed with that. Frankly, it was my most complete season and the season where I had the most fun. I’m proud and I’m proud of the team.

“We’ll see what we can do next year, but this will be hard to top.”

Pagenaud was one of the first drivers to congratulate Newgarden on his championship and stressed how much his teammate deserved the title.

Pagenaud had a car that allowed him to attack on longer runs because his setup worked best with the tire degradation.

“It’s a beautiful track and it’s really good racing, side-by-side battles,” Pagenaud told NBC Sports.com. “It was a lot of fun out there; we just fell short. I think I had the best car out there, if I could have gotten past Dixon, but he is a tremendous racer.

“That was probably my aggressive driver ever. This is where we ended up at the end. I don’t think I could have done it any better. From the beginning, I knew I had to go out there and win the race. That was my goal.

“I tried to get as much as I could all the way to the end. I attacked within reason, but there is nothing else I could have done.”

By finishing 2019 with so much success, Pagenaud believes he can carry this momentum into 2020.

“We are the only ones that have won on superspeedways, road courses and street courses this year,” Pagenaud told NBC Sports.com. “To me, it is the most complete season I’ve had. On superspeedways, we finished first and third at Indy and Pocono.

“We got off to a bad start and that is what cost us the championship.”

Indy 500 winner, second in the championship, not a bad season for Pagenaud.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment, however, is he quieted the early season doubters.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter @BruceMartin_500

Ford unveils a new Mustang for 2024 Le Mans in motorsports ‘lifestyle brand’ retooling

Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 7:00 PM EDT
Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
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LE MANS, France — Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer “into the racing business.”

The Friday unveil of the new Mustang Dark Horse-based race car follows Ford’s announcement in February (and a ballyhooed test at Sebring in March) that it will return to Formula One in 2026 in partnership with reigning world champion Red Bull.

The Mustang will enter the GT3 category next year with at least two cars in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and is hopeful to earn an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The IMSA entries will be a factory Ford Performance program run by Multimatic, and a customer program in WEC with Proton Competition.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, also an amateur sports car racer, told The Associated Press the Mustang will be available to compete in various GT3 series across the globe to customer teams. But more important, Farley said, is the overall rebranding of Ford Performance – done by renowned motorsports designer Troy Lee – that is aimed at making Ford a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset.

“It’s kind of like the company finding its own, and rediscovering its icons, and doubling down on them,” Farley told the AP. “And then this motorsports activity is getting serious about connecting enthusiast customers with those rediscovered icons. It’s a big switch for the company – this is really about building strong, iconic vehicles with enthusiasts at the center of our marketing.”

Ford last competed in sports car racing in 2019 as part of a three-year program with Chip Ganassi Racing. The team scored the class win at Le Mans in 2016 in a targeted performance aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford snapping Ferrari’s six-year winning streak.

Ford on Friday displayed a Mustang with a Lee-designed livery that showcased the cleaner, simplified look that will soon be featured on all its racing vehicles. The traditional blue oval with Ford Performance in white lettering underneath will now be branded simply FP.

The new mark will be used across car liveries, merchandise and apparel, display assets, parts and accessories and in advertising.

Farley cited Porsche as an automaker that has successfully figured out how to sell cars to consumers and race cars in various series around the world while creating a culture of brand enthusiasts. He believes Ford’s new direction will help the company sell street cars, race cars, boost interest in driving schools, and create a merchandise line that convinces consumers that a stalwart of American automakers is a hip, cool brand.

“We’re going to build a global motorsports business off road and on road,” Farley told the AP, adding that the design of the Mustang is “unapologetically American.”

He lauded the work of Lee, who is considered the top helmet designer among race car drivers.

“We’re in the first inning of a nine inning game, and going to Le Mans is really important,” Farley said. “But for customer cars, getting the graphics right, designing race cars that win at all different levels, and then designing a racing brand for Ford Performance that gets rebranded and elevated is super important.”

He said he’s kept a close eye on how Porsche and Aston Martin have built their motorsports businesses and said Ford will be better.

“We’re going in the exact same direction. We just want to be better than them, that’s all,” Farley said. “Second is the first loser.”

Farley, an avid amateur racer himself, did not travel to Le Mans for the announcement. The race that begins Saturday features an entry from NASCAR, and Ford is the reigning Cup Series champion with Joey Logano and Team Penske.

The NASCAR “Garage 56” entry is a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear, and is being widely celebrated throughout the industry. Farley did feel left out of the party in France – a sentiment NASCAR tried to avoid by inviting many of its partners to attend the race so that it wouldn’t seem like a Chevrolet-only celebration.

“They’re going right and I’m going left – that NASCAR thing is a one-year deal, right? It’s Garage 56 and they can have their NASCAR party, but that’s a one-year party,” Farley said. “We won Le Mans outright four times, we won in the GT class, and we’re coming back with Mustang and it’s not a one-year deal.

“So they can get all excited about Garage 56. I almost see that as a marketing exercise for NASCAR, but for me, that’s a science project,” Farley continued. “I don’t live in a world of science projects. I live in the world of building a vital company that everyone is excited about. To do that, we’re not going to do a Garage 56 – I’ve got to beat Porsche and Aston Martin and Ferrari year after year after year.”

Ford’s announcement comes on the heels of General Motors changing its GT3 strategy next season and ending its factory Corvette program. GM, which unlike Ford competes in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype division (with its Cadillac brand), will shift fully to a customer model for Corvettes in 2024 (with some factory support in the IMSA GTD Pro category).