The recent signing of David Malukas to A.J. Foyt Racing could be a signal of where Roger Penske’s NTT IndyCar Series team is headed in the future. Through its technical alliance with Foyt, Team Penske has an increasing influence with its affiliate program, and with the addition of Malukas to the Foyt team in 2025, the Illinois native has a perfect opportunity to show he deserves an invitation to the big team when a seat becomes available. The “when” is an interesting item to consider.
Penske veteran Will Power is returning to the No. 12 Penske Chevy in 2025, the final year of his current contract, and wants it to be known that he has no intention of voluntarily stepping aside.
“I want to continue. I’m not retiring. I’m just simply not retiring. Yeah, I know people probably like to spread that around, rumors or whatever, in the hope that they can take my seat. Yeah, I’m staying here for a while,” he said after winning last weekend’s race in Portland.
The victory, Power’s 44th, moved him to fourth on the all-time IndyCar win list. He already owns first place on the all-time IndyCar pole position list with 70. And yet again, and despite being in the twilight of his career, Power is Penske’s best challenger in the championship.
The thought of farewelling Power in 2026 for a promising young talent like Malukas, albeit one with zero poles and zero wins, would make sense if the driver of the No. 12 Chevy was showing a decline in speed and overall prowess. But as Penske’s most recent championship winner in 2022, and his most effective star in 2024, Power’s output has him sitting atop the team’s depth chart.
Retirement is in his future, but there’s no evidence to suggest it should be in 12 months’ time.
“If Will keeps driving the way he is driving now, it will be hard to look elsewhere,” Team Penske president Tim Cindric told RACER.
Being prepared for change and mapping out transition plans is also part of Cindric’s job; there’s no question that Power will eventually stop driving for Penske, but it’s back to that matter of when.
“Right now, he’s on top of his game, so it’s hard to speculate,” Cindric said. “Our team is always looking to put the best players in the seats. You have to look to the future. Whether it’s Malukas or any of these other young guys, you have to be looking at that. And you continue to see some of these guys get chances before they’re ready. So there’s that balance, too.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
Cindric and Penske kept an eye on young Josef Newgarden when he arrived in the series in 2012. Fast and raw in a small team, Newgarden’s potential was evident, but he lacked mileage and seasoning. He’d continue developing at the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing outfit for a total of three years before the outfit merged with Ed Carpenter Racing.
At the renamed CFH (Carpenter Fisher Harman) Racing squad, Newgarden had a deeper program to work within and flourished in his fourth season, winning twice, and by his fifth year in the series at the re-renamed ECR, Newgarden was winning and giving bigger teams like Penske all they could handle on the way to placing fourth in the championship.
Altogether, Newgarden spent a half-decade learning and growing and readying himself for the big time, and with his readiness to graduate, Penske signed a razor-sharp young veteran who was instantly effective and went on to win the championship on his debut with Team Penske.
Newgarden’s journey from being an unproven prospect to someone who, after five years of hardened learning, was worthy of stepping into a title-contending car, could be educational if we assume that’s the path Malukas is on with Penske.
After 2.5 seasons in IndyCar, Malukas has been massively impressive at times, but spending a single year at Foyt might not be enough to be fully prepared for the crushing weight of expectations carried by a Penske driver. Team Penske is notoriously averse to hiring young and incomplete drivers, which is why it waited so long — longer than necessary — to acquire Newgarden. If Malukas needs more than one season at Foyt to get there, Penske will likely wait until he’s truly ready.
And with a new car supposedly on the way in the coming years, there’s another prime opportunity for Power to play a significant role in its development, just as he did for Chevrolet when the Dallara DW12 debuted in 2012, for Chevy again when it was fashioning its manufacturer aero kit in 2015, and more recently as the lead test driver for Chevy with the new hybrid powertrain that came online in June.
Change is coming to Team Penske, but will it rush the process or wait until the time is right for both drivers?