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Team Penske keeps same IMSA lineup for 2020

#7 Penske Acura
#7 Penske Acura

Acura Team Penske will field an unchanged full-season driver lineup for its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi title defence next year.

The team confirmed on Tuesday that Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron will return to defend their drivers’ championship, while Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor will also be back.

These two lineups will be complemented by Indianapolis 500 winners Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi for the Michelin Endurance Cup races.

Reigning Indy 500 winner Pagenaud will serve as the additional driver in the No. 6 Acura ARX-05, joining Montoya and Cameron for a third consecutive season.

In the sister No. 7 car, Castroneves and Taylor will share the long-distance races with 2016 Indy victor Rossi who contested two Endurance Cup events this year.

Graham Rahal, who partnered Castroneves and Taylor in 2018 and for the recent season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, was not mentioned in Acura Team Penske’s lineup announcement.

Pagenaud and Rossi are likely to be involved in three of the four Michelin Endurance Cup races because the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen clashes with the IndyCar round at Richmond on the final weekend of June.

Acura Team Penske has traditionally only used its third drivers for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen round in previous seasons, even without scheduling conflicts.

The Acura organization scored a sweep of the available DPi championships this year by winning the drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ titles in its sophomore campaign.

It is currently testing at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the 2020 season-opener on January 25-26