Indy car racing's most successful team could be on the verge of even bigger things.
For the first time in its 48-year history, Roger Penske's flagship team will field four full-time cars in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Penske has added frequent front-runner Simon Pagenaud to the already potent mix of Helio Castroneves and Indy car champions past and present Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power.
Led by Power, Penske's incumbent drivers finished 1-2-4 in the 2014 IndyCar standings, and Pagenaud was fifth. Their goal for 2015 will be to go for a sweep, pushing out last year's third-place driver, Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and everyone else.
That notion isn't too far-fetched. Penske has dominated the top spots in the past, most notably in 1994, when Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy combined to win 12 of 16 races (including Roger Penske's beloved Indianapolis 500) and finished 1-2-3 in the standings of the CART-sanctioned PPG IndyCar World Series.
Pagenaud has raced Indy cars since 2007, when he spent his rookie season as Power's teammate at Walker Racing in the Champ Car series. It was an important year for both men; Power, in his second full season, scored his first breakthrough wins, while Pagenaud was consistently impressive on the way to Rookie of the Year honors.
Since then, Power has developed into the dominant driver in the IndyCar Series and finally landed the championship in 2014 after three near misses. When the Champ Car series folded, Pagenaud was forced to race sports cars for several years before a full-time IndyCar opportunity opened up with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
Over the past three years with Schmidt, Pagenaud, 30, won four races and emerged as one of IndyCar racing's future stars. Penske Racing president Tim Cindric knew as much and has been trying to sign Pagenaud for the last three years.
Pagenaud's talent is undoubted. The question is whether he will fit in with the other drivers, especially Power.
"It's the first time we've run four cars with Team Penske, so it will certainly be a challenge," Cindric said. "But this has been the first opportunity that we've had to bring him on board. If that meant changing to a four-car program, that's what we were prepared to do.
"Certainly, it's satisfying to know that we can continue to add to the Team Penske heritage, and bringing Simon on board was an added plus to that."
Power insists that whatever animosities may have once existed between himself and Pagenaud are in the past, and says he's looking forward to seeing what the Frenchman can offer to help elevate an already competitive Penske team.
"Simon is very good technically," Power said. "He brought some really good stuff with him. I think the combination of all four of us, we have very different driving styles, so we all learn off each other.
"I think it's going to be a tight inner team battle, honestly," he added. "I think the team is going to be the strongest it's been for a number of years this year."
At the recent two-day open test at Barber Motorsport Park, Power was fastest, with Castroneves fourth, Pagenaud fifth and Montoya ninth, just 0.3 second off Power's time.
Through his work on ALMS sports cars and the IndyCar program, Pagenaud was one of Honda's lead development drivers. In addition to the knowledge he brings in terms of engines, his Schmidt race engineer, Ben Bretzman, has also made the move to Penske.
Pagenaud thinks the most important thing he brings to Team Penske is a fresh perspective.
"What do I bring? Fresh blood, I guess!" he said with a laugh. "I'm very motivated. I've personally been working hard to get to this in my career. I'm here now and the pressure is off. I want to enjoy it.
"Technically, I would say that's my strength. If I can bring something there, I would be really happy to help that way."
When the Penske drivers addressed a small group of reporters at IndyCar's media day, it was difficult to get a straight answer out of them because they were so busy joking around with each other.
"It's a good dynamic on the team," Montoya remarked.
Can they keep it that way over the next five months and 16 races? Castroneves certainly intends to keep the atmosphere light.
"I hope the French side of him doesn't get in front of us, the Pepé Le Pew," Castroneves joked.
"I guess he knows what trouble he's getting into, as the rookie on the team, so now we can play tricks on him. I'm excited about that.
"I do feel for 2015 we're going to have another great chance here," Helio added. "Hopefully we'll be 1-2-3-4."