Josef Newꦏgarden’s win in today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is the fifth win for Team Penske car across its global motorsport programs.

The team’s pair of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Champions – Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski – won at Las Vegas and Atlanta respectively and Scott McLaughlin s👍wept the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship doubleheader at Adelaide, Australia last weekend.

The team’s trio of championshi൩p winning IndyCar drivers – Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud had a high standard to uphold entering thisℱ weekend’s IndyCar opener.

They responded well yesterday in qualifying as Power claimed his eighꦜth St. Peter൩sburg pole ahead of Newgarden in second place.

Newgarden brought home the bacon today with good tyre strategy moving him to the front at halfway and thrusting him to th🐈e win.

Team Penske fell short♑ of claiming their 16th Indy car chaཧmpionship a year ago with Power the team's highest finisher in third place. Newgarden felt elated to deliver a win right out of the gate.

“Certainly, if yo🍨u drive for Team Penske and you've been in the series for a while, and you have a winning car or a pole car, you're not satisfied with any🦹thing but that,” said the driver of the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.

“You know, it's not that it was the end of the world, but you want to be able to get the most out of the car and yourself in ♛any given day, and if you fall short of that even just s🔯lightly, it's disappointing.”

The win was the 204th Indy car win for the organizatio🐽n.

Power finished third in the race after leading 17 laps and starting from pole. He felt honored to 🤡be a part of the team and admitted that the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team is under pressure for next weekend’s Mobil 1 12 💧Hours of Sebring.

The Acura-powered team claimed a podium at the🦋 Rolex 24 with Alexander Rossi joining IMSA regulars🃏 Ricky Taylor and former Indy car star Helio Castroneves.

“It's pretty impressive for the team🐬 to have won in every series, except sports car,” he said.

“Yeah, they got a chance next week to win, so we'll see what hap𒁃pens. Unbelievable when you think about Penske and all the race wins they accumulate, they have accumulated over the 50 years and they continue to do it.”

Pagenaud, the final member of the Penske trio, ha♌d a solid day after bad luck in qualifying had him starting in 13th place.

The driver of the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet methodically worked his way up the order and set the 🦩second fastest lap of the day to finish seventh.

Coming♎ off a winless and poleless season in 2018, Pagenaud was thrilled given the team's performance even though he didn't 🔯challenge for the win.

“It’s a serious evolution from last year from the team, for myself,” he said. “We’re sta♛rting the season really strong. What happened in qualifying is outside out control and from 13th coming back to 7th – yellows not doing anything for strategies, I think we did awesome. I’m very satisfied, I think it is a really solid foundation going♍ forward, we’re going to fight for the championship.

The 2016 IndyCar champion pinpointed the team's improvement to team owner's Roger Penske's willingness to give his drivers what they need t🅠o win.

“It’s just amazing this group – they are so humble,” he said. “It is the most su𝐆ccessful team in history. Despite that, they are willing to do whatever it takes to help their drivers, help their team. Roger calls you and he says “What do you need?” We got what we needed and the team provided that a lot quicker than I expected.”