Nothing on the nose of a Team Penske IndyCar will change in 2027. Hitachi’s name stays on the front wings of the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 12 Chevrolets, as it has in one form or another since 2012. Team Penske and Hitachi, Ltd. confirmed the extension on Oct. 20, and, like nearly every front-wing deal in the paddock, the announcement left out length and money.
The interesting part is which Hitachi signed the paperwork. That detail, along with a trucking fleet with a six-figure vehicle count, explains why a sponsorship entering its 16th season is still worth paying attention to.
Two Hitachis, one wing
When this partnership was last renewed, at Detroit in June 2024, the paperwork came from Hitachi Astemo, the automotive-components business that grew out of Hitachi’s old car-parts arm. That deal made Astemo a primary sponsor on Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 for select races and a major associate across Penske’s IndyCar entries. It was more than a decal. According to Team Penske’s 2024 release, Astemo supplies fuel-system components for every 2.2-liter twin-turbo Chevrolet engine in the series.
This week’s release came from Hitachi Americas on behalf of the parent company, Hitachi, Ltd., and it didn’t mention fuel rails at all. Charlie Takeuchi, president and CEO of Hitachi Americas, thanked “Penske Group” for 14 years and then went straight to AI and digital engineering.
The change of messenger matters. In December 2025, Hitachi agreed to sell 21% of Astemo to Honda for about 152.3 billion yen. Once the deal closes, Honda will own 61%, Hitachi 19% and JIC Capital the remaining 20%. In June, Honda pushed the expected closing back to before the end of the third quarter of its fiscal year, because some countries hadn’t finished their approvals. Put simply, the Astemo name on Newgarden’s car through 2026 belongs to a company about to become a Honda subsidiary. Honda is Chevrolet’s only engine rival in IndyCar.
Neither Penske nor Hitachi has said what happens to Astemo’s Penske ties in 2027, and Tuesday’s announcement didn’t touch the subject. The split is still easy to see: the Hitachi brand on Penske’s wings now speaks for the half of the family that sells software, not hardware.
The real customer has 370,000 vehicles
The IndyCar team is the most visible piece of a much bigger Penske operation. Penske Transportation Solutions, the leasing, rental and logistics side, reports more than $13 billion in annual revenue and a fleet of more than 370,000 vehicles. Since 2018, Hitachi Digital Services and GlobalLogic, a Hitachi Group company, have worked as an extension of Penske’s engineering organization on that side of the business.
Racing sponsors rarely publish return-on-investment numbers. This one did: more than $18 million in annualized savings from faster diagnostics and predictive maintenance, more than 90,000 breakdowns prevented, and roughly 15 minutes saved on each repair. The work covers AI-assisted guided repair, a modernized rental platform, procurement tools, generative AI that makes millions of contracts and vendor records searchable, and an “agentic AI” platform still in development.
If that sounds familiar to a race engineer, it should. Every IndyCar team already runs this way: life every part, trend the sensor data, and pull a component before it fails rather than after. Hitachi’s argument is that the same discipline, applied to a rental truck in a depot instead of an upright on a Dallara, is worth eight figures a year. Seen that way, the front wing is the trade-show booth and the fleet contract is the sale. That’s a big part of why this deal has lasted longer than plenty of flashier liveries.
Why the front wing works for this kind of sponsor
Front-wing placement is associate-level real estate, but it has one big advantage over a primary livery: it appears on all three cars every weekend, whoever’s name is on the car. In 2026, the car names were Astemo on the No. 2, DEX on the No. 3 and Verizon on the No. 12. Hitachi was on the endplates of all three, and those endplates sit at the very front of every head-on photo and every onboard shot from the car behind.
There’s also a neat bit of timing. Hitachi’s Penske run started in 2012, the same season the current Dallara chassis entered service. IndyCar’s series notebook says the extension covers 2027, which is that chassis’ final season. The IR-28, unveiled in July, debuts in 2028 with new front and rear wings, a more aggressive road-and-street configuration and a design meant to cut outwash. When the wing changes shape, sponsor placement gets renegotiated whether anyone plans for it or not.
What the logo has been along for
Team Penske’s 2024 release credited the Hitachi car with 15 IndyCar wins as a primary sponsor, starting with Helio Castroneves at Detroit in 2014, along with Indianapolis 500 wins and five series championships across the life of the partnership.
Penske’s 2026 season was solid but not a title run. Alex Palou won the championship with 631 points and six wins. David Malukas, in his first year in the No. 12, was Penske’s best finisher in fifth with 514 points and no wins. Scott McLaughlin finished sixth after winning the Laguna Seca finale, and Newgarden was eighth despite two wins. All three were inside a midfield where the gap from second to fifth was just 31 points.
The off-track context matters too. After the penalties at the 2025 Indianapolis 500, Penske released three longtime senior managers, including team president Tim Cindric, who later returned as McLaughlin’s race strategist. A partner from before that upheaval re-signing during the team’s 60th-anniversary season is worth more than a press-release adjective. Jonathan Diuguid, Team Penske’s IndyCar president, called Hitachi “a critical partner across the Penske organization,” and the fleet numbers show he meant the whole organization, not only the race shop.
What to watch next
Astemo’s 2027 status. Once Honda’s majority stake closes, an Astemo-branded Chevrolet would be a Honda-controlled supplier advertising on a rival manufacturer’s flagship team. It may well continue, since supplier relationships in IndyCar often cross brand lines, but it’s the question this announcement left unanswered.
Whether Hitachi follows the wing into 2028. A new car means new surfaces, new sponsor maps and new pricing. Paddock deals tied to the IR-28 will start showing up over the coming year, and Chevrolet’s own team commitments are already moving, as Arrow McLaren’s re-signing for the 2.4-liter era showed.
Penske’s three-car balance. Malukas outscoring both of his champion teammates in year one is the most interesting competitive storyline Penske carries into the winter. The sponsor is staying put. The pecking order under it may not.
Lead image: Scott McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with Hitachi on the front-wing endplate. Photo: Team Penske
The post Hitachi Stays on Penske’s Front Wings. The Contract That Matters Is in the Truck Shop. appeared first on Backfire Racing.