INDIANAPOLIS — It’s clear that both Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske have distanced themselves from the rest of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field. The duo have combined to have won each of the last 10 series championships and where we sit at the moment, I struggle to think anyone will top them again this year.

They’ve won 10 of the 13 races this year and 43 of the 60 (71.6%) of the races with the Aeroscreen. Furthermore, if you go back to the 2022 Indy 500, they’ve combined to have won 20 of the last 26 (76.9%) of the races.

However, this season has taken a drastic turn between the two teams.

Last year, Penske won 9 of the 17 races and went 1-2-4 in points.

This year, Ganassi has won 5 of 13 races and has 1-3-5 in points.

Last season, the Ganassi camp went 3-5-6 in points on the heels of four wins, one of which including the Indy 500. This year, Penske has 5 wins including the Indy 500 and sits 2-4-7 in points.

Why the swap?

“They have the best cars right now,” Will Power says “They do. They’re able to extract the most out of qualifying. Their cars look good off the tires, they’re very fast in the race, and their strategy’s good — they’re just simply the best team right now. They are.

“They’ve got good cars, good drivers. You think about Palou and Dixon and even Ericsson. Marcus Armstrong is a rookie, but also very quick. They’ve got a very tough group.”

Power says that it is has nothing to do with a Honda vs. Chevy thing here either. It’s just the fact that Ganassi is purely outperforming them across the board.

“No, I don’t think much to do with the engines. I think the engines are pretty equal,” Power said. “I think the Chevy has a bit more top end. Honda might have a bit more torque down low. But all in all over laps, it’s probably pretty similar.

“Ganassi definitely have good cars right now.”

Power also is taking notice that Indy Car as a whole is improved too.

“Really you’re looking at all teams now have got — man, the drivers, anyone who’s not performing is replaced pretty quick these days in INDYCAR,” he noted.

“You can’t really look at any team with an average — you look at Andretti. He’s got Herta. Grosjean is very quick, obviously not that consistent in the races. And Kirkwood, who’s exceptional. McLaren’s group. And you’ve got Lundgaard and Rahal now. It’s just a very, very tough field.”

Still, while Penske is regarded as the top team ever in the sport with 236 wins and 295 poles compared to 127 wins and 95 to Ganassi, they’ve also been doing it for decades longer too. Ganassi is by all accounts, closing that gap back up.

If you go back to 1996, Penske leads Ganassi 140-126 in regards to trips to victory lane. In the two most important matrix, Indy 500 wins and championships, Penske leads 8-5 in trips to victory lane on Memorial Day weekend. However, Ganassi has doubled Penske up in championships 14-7 in that span as well.

This duo has ebbed and flowed with Penske winning 7 times in 2020 to 5 by Ganassi. In 2021, it was Ganassi with 6 wins and Penske with 3. Last year it was 9-4 and this year 5-4. That’s Penske leading 24-20 in victories during the Aeroscreen era.

Penske outperformed Ganassi in 2022 only for Ganassi to pay them back. Now, it looks like Penske is finding their groove again. Ganassi won 5 of the first 9 races but Penske has won 2 of the last 3.

However, this momentum all starts on Saturday and ends with the right amount of execution on Sunday.

“I think the thing that’s hurt us the most is qualifying because our race pace has been really good, strategy has been really good, pit stop’s been great. As a team, we have all struggled the most to extract the most out of the car in qualifying,” Power admitted.

Josef Newgarden has qualified 14th, 8th, 5th, 11th and 9th on street courses and 7th, 13th, 4th and 15th on natural road courses. That’s why his finishes have been hampered.

Power has qualified 10th, 13th, 7th, 6th and 7th on the same street tracks and 11th, 12th, 22nd and 7th on natural road courses.

McLaughlin was 6th, 9th, 2nd, 2nd and 1st on the streets and 4th, 16th, 18th and 8th on natural terrain tracks.

That’s just the first part of the troubles. The second is execution.

If you take a deeper look, Penske has thrown some races away too.

McLaughlin had the season opener in St. Pete in his hands. He crashed while battling for the lead with 29 to go with Romain Grosjean. Newgarden also had an engine issue in the closing laps. Power clashed with Colton Herta. They finished 7-13-17.

In Long Beach, Newgarden made his way to the top two spots before the last caution forced him out on the wrong strategy now. That ensured he’d be on the backfoot in the final stint costing him a potential win or podium spot to finishing 9th.

For Detroit, McLaughlin had some troubles after a front row start.

For Toronto they got the fuel number wrong on Power, Newgarden overshot his pit stall and McLaughlin didn’t pit when he should have.

In all four instances, they could have won the race.

In the races that they didn’t have issues, they won Texas, Barber, Indy and swept Iowa. So if McLaughlin doesn’t crash in St. Pete, that’s a potential win. If the caution flies at a better time in Long Beach, Newgarden could have won and in Toronto, they could have had at least 2 cars on the podium.

Ganassi isn’t making those mistakes.

But, Penske is in a spot to have to start swinging for the fences too.

McLaughlin said recently that they’re going to start swinging for the fences. They proved that too. In Toronto, he was second but didn’t pit when he should have. It cost them four spots in the process. In Race 2 at Iowa, he was second at the time of pitting to go off sequence. It cost him three spots in the end.

That’s 20 points he’s given away (11 at Toronto, 9 in Iowa) by doing so. But, even if he didn’t, getting 20 more points back isn’t going to help his championship hopes. He’s 142 points down. He’d be 122 points if he had those decisions back. That would only moved him up 1 spot in the standings.

With Team Penske needing wins, not podiums, I’m curious how they attack these final 4 races. How often do they split strategies or even just go completely off the norm.

“Yeah, we’re at the point now where we you can risk a lot, whether that’s strategy and whatnot,” said McLaughlin.” Ultimately you don’t want to fall any further down in the championship standings.

“I think we’ve got to put pressure on Alex. We have to make sure he doesn’t get too far ahead. Laguna is new because of the new pavement. I generally think it’s not over. We’re full steam ahead, just pushing.

“At the end of the day we have to put pressure on Alex as well. That comes from our team and how we work.”