Josef Newgarden's Indy 500-winning ally reveals recipe behind Team Penske's success: "You don't take it for granted"

Josef Newgarden's race strategist, Luke Mason, has opened up on what makes Team Penske so successful in IndyCar. The Roger Penske-led team is tied for the most IndyCar championships with Chip Ganassi Racing, 17.

However, it outright leads the all-time list of most Indy 500 wins, with 20 triumphs at the Greatest Spectacle of Racing. Newgarden accounts for two of those victories, with Mason by his side as his race engineer on those counts.

In an interview with Speedcafe, Luke Mason, who began working at Team Penske as Josef Newgarden's performance engineer in 2022 before getting promoted to race engineer in 2023, described the "special" feeling of working with the team. Contrasting it with his previous "sink or swim" experience at the now-defunct Carlin Motorsport IndyCar team, the Australian said:

"You take all those learnings and everything that you’ve built up over your career there to maybe be fortunate enough to have the door open to come to Team Penske. At that point, you’re ready, and it’s not until you step in the door and meet the people who made that company and organisation who it is, you understand how and why."

Josef Newgarden's race strategist at the NTT INDYCAR Series Sukup Race Weekend - Source: Getty

Elaborating on the success he's witnessed since joining Team Penske, Mason added:

"Now to be to be a part of that and to have success at Team Penske, whether it’s Will’s championship the first year (2023) I was there, and then moving on to Josef’s two 500s (2023 and 2024), it’s a very special place to be and you don’t take it for granted every day when you walk into work that you’re surrounded by successful people."

How Team Penske's 2025 Indy 500 scandal elevated Luke Mason's role on Josef Newgarden's team

Scott McLaughlin, Will Power, and Josef Newgarden at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

Team Penske became the center of controversy during the qualifying weekend of the 2025 Indy 500. Just before Fast 12, the No. 2 and No. 12 entries of Josef Newgarden and Will Power failed technical inspection, with their cars having illegally modified rear attenuators.

IndyCar fined the entries $100,000 each and moved them to the back of the 33-driver grid for the race. Roger Penske fired the senior management of Team Penske's IndyCar arm, including president Tim Cindric and managing director Ron Ruzewski, who doubled as race strategists to Newgarden and Power.

With less than a week to the race, Team Penske had no choice but to internally promote talent. Luke Mason was promoted from being Josef Newgarden's race engineer to race strategist (and continued in the position for the remainder of the season).

At the 109th Indy 500, this new partnership seemed to strike all the right chords, as Newgarden went from 32nd to being in the Top 5 with a combination of his supreme oval racecraft and pace and a flawless pit strategy. Unfortunately, a fuel system issue on his car in the final third of the race forced him to retire his car.