A Motown Dream Team could be in the offing.
Detroit motorsports powerhouses Team Penske and Cadillac Racing are reported to be discussing a partnership to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2028 in the top Hypercar class as both organizations are keen to win the world's greatest sports car race.
With Ford Motor Co. also entering Le Mans and its accompanying World Endurance Championship series in 2027 for the first time in six decades, the French race poses the tantalizing showdown of Penske Cadillac v Ford v Ferrari. Ferrari has won Le Mans in three of the last four years.
The news comes as Team Penske is exploring multiple paths to return to the sports car equivalent of the Indianapolis 500 (which it has won 20 times, 10 with General Motors Co. engines). Chairman Roger Penske, 89, covets the Le Mans trophy — one of the few motorsports baubles he has not won — but has so far been denied. His team finished second in 2025 with Porsche but the German automaker has pulled out of Le Mans due to financial straits.
Meanwhile, Cadillac has been mighty the last two years with consecutive, front-row qualifying efforts and leading multiple laps in the grueling 24-hour French race.
Penske and General Motors have deep ties dating back decades. Penske, headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, partnered with Chevrolet for his first auto dealership in Philadelphia in 1965 and scored major endurance wins with a Chevy Corvette in the GT class in 1966. In the 1968-69 seasons, Penske’s team was dominant in Trans Am racing with a Chevy Camaro.
On stage at the opening of GM’s downtown Hudson headquarters in January, Penske discussed his Chevy history with GM President Mark Reuss.
“I had the opportunity to meet Lloyd Reuss, Mark’s dad, when he was chief engineer at Chevy,” said Penske. “He was very interested in motorsports and performance, and we teamed up . . . to do an Indy engine through 1986-88. We then went to Indianapolis, and we won the first 500 for over 60 some years for Chevrolet. We’ve had 165 wins with General Motors product.”
Citing multiple paddock sources, motorsports publications Racer and Daily Sportscar have reported the possible entry of an independent Cadillac Hypercar entry to the WEC, though more likely is that Team Penske would take over the Cadillac Racing factory effort for 2028.
For the 2027 Le Mans, Cadillac plans to enter two factory cars prepared by England-based Team JOTA and an independent entry by Daytona Beach-based Action Express Racing, which won North America’s 2026 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar championship (the North American equivalent to the WEC) in Cadillac’s hybrid, 670-horsepower V-Series.R.
Despite speculation that a Team Penske/Cadillac Le Mans entry could happen as soon as 2027, motorsports publication Sportscar365 has confirmed that Cadillac’s contracts with all of its teams/drivers is through the end of 2027, which means new teams could not be formed until the 2028 WEC calendar year.
Daily Sportscar quoted a senior Team Penske source confirming that it is “exploring and evaluating” opportunities to return to Le Mans Hypercar class, adding: “right now, there’s no concrete plan for us to return to the WEC next year.”
Both Team Penske and Cadillac Racing had no comment for this story.
Stateside, Team Penske and Porsche are on track to enter two GTP cars (the IMSA equivalent of the WEC’s Hypercar class) for the 2027 season. Porsche Penske was runner-up in the 2026 IMSA GTP manufacturer’s championship.
Penske has partnered with Acura and Porsche in, respectively, the IMSA GTP and WEC Hypercar classes in the last decade — but not with Cadillac.
“A Team Penske return to Le Mans is something that everyone wants,” said veteran motorsports writer Steven Cole Smith, special projects editor for Hagerty. “A Le Mans win is one of the few that Penske hasn’t achieved, and a partnership with Cadillac would make a lot of sense.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
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