<P> Penske has been involved with IndyCar racing since 1968, when they first fielded a stock block - powered Eagle with Mark Donohue . The team first competed at Indianapolis in 1969, and within three years had become the team to beat, winning the race with Donohue in 1972 . In 1978, Roger Penske along with Pat Patrick, Dan Gurney, and several other team owners who had been participating in USAC events involving cars known as Champ Cars and IndyCars formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). As of June 27, 2015, Penske Racing has won the Indianapolis 500 16 times, won the Indianapolis 500 pole position 17 times, as well as 177 open wheel IndyCar wins in USAC, CART and IRL, 29 of which are in 500 - Mile Races and 13 open wheel championships . Penske Racing has 1,463 starts in IndyCar races, 231 pole positions, 71 wins from pole, 47 double wins of which 8 are 1--2--3 finishes from the Pocono race on June 26, 1977, to January 1, 2015 . </P> <P> In 2001, team Penske marked its return to the Indy 500 after a five - year absence due to the open wheel split, after the 1995 PPG IndyCar World Series season . Later, in 2001 Roger Penske announced he would leave CART for the IRL IndyCar Series . </P> <P> Team Penske currently fields four cars: the No. 2 Verizon Dallara / Chevrolet for Josef Newgarden, the No. 3 Shell Oil Company Dallara / Chevrolet driven by Hélio Castroneves, the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dallara / Chevrolet driven by Will Power, and the No. 22 Penske Truck Rental Dallara / Chevrolet driven by Simon Pagenaud . Castroneves has won the Indianapolis 500 three times (2001, 2002 and 2009), as well as other CART and IRL races with Team Penske . Sam Hornish Jr. is the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner and the (2001, 2002, and 2006) IndyCar Series Champion, with 16 IndyCar Wins . His 2001 and 2002 championships were with Panther Racing, prior to joining Team Penske . Juan Pablo Montoya is the 2015 Indianapolis 500 winner and the provisional leader in the championship with 2 wins in the season . The open - wheel racing portion of Penske Racing had been based in Reading, Pennsylvania since 1973 with the cars, during the Formula One and CART era, being constructed in Poole, Dorset, England as well as being the base for the F1 team . On October 31, 2005, Penske Racing announced after the 2006 IRL season, they would consolidate IRL and NASCAR operations at the team's Mooresville North Carolina facility; with the flooding in Pennsylvania in 2006, the team's operations were moved to Mooresville earlier than expected . </P> <P> Cigarette brand Marlboro had been a sponsor with Team Penske since the 1989 Indianapolis 500, and primary sponsor of all Team Penske IndyCars since 1991 . Late in 2005, Team Penske announced that Marlboro would not appear on the cars any longer in accordance with the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement restricting cigarette advertising by name . In 2007, the IndyCar Series cars began to carry "Team Penske" insignia and sponsorship from Mobil 1 (although the cars remained painted in the Marlboro color scheme--in Formula 1 the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has a similar set up). For 2009, Verizon Wireless, joined Exxon Mobil as associate sponsors, and the team was billed as Verizon Championship Racing . The third car was driven by Will Power, originally a substitute for Castroneves, carried the No. 12 and featured primary sponsorship of both Verizon Wireless brand and Roger Penske's truck rental business . </P>

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