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 now have combined to have won each of the last 11 series championships with Alex Palou taking home the 2023 crown.

They’ve won 13 of the 16 races this year and 46 of the 63 (73%) of the races with the Aeroscreen. Furthermore, if you go back to the 2022 Indy 500, they’ve combined to have won 23 of the last 28 (82.1%) of the races.

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

This year, Ganassi has won 8 of 17 races and has 1-2-6 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 has 3-5-7 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.”

Still, while Penske is regarded as the top team ever in the sport with 236 wins and 298 poles compared to 130 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 140-129 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 15-7 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 7-5. That’s Penske leading 24-23 in victories during the Aeroscreen era.

You can’t undersell that it has been a phenomenal year of success for Chip Ganassi Racing, as they have claimed exactly half of the race wins (8) this season and have been on the podium in 14 of the 16 races (17 total podiums).  The team has boasted three-or-more drivers in the top-10 in every single race this season too.

Penske outperformed Ganassi in 2022 only for Ganassi to pay them back.