SEBRING — It was not really an auspicious debut. The two cars finished ninth and 10th in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a decent start for most teams running prototypes, the most powerful cars in endurance racing, for the first time.
But not for Team Penske.
Team Penske is not most teams. You don't expect a door latch to malfunction on one car or an alternator to go bad on the other even if things like that are not unusual in a 24-hour race, which puts maximum stress on everything in and on a race car.
Penske, getting back into endurance racing for the first time in a long time and in the sport's top class for the first time ever, is known for meticulous preparation.
You don't become America's top racing organization by being sloppy. In 52 years of competition, Penske has won just about everything there is to win in every major U.S. series except drag racing, and Penske doesn't compete in drag racing.
Penske Racing is pretty much the standard by which others are judged in Indy cars, where the team has 16 Indy 500 wins. Penske has won the Daytona 500 and a NASCAR championship and in its first go-round in sports cars was pretty much the team to beat in TransAm racing, which no longer exists.
Now Penske is back, getting ready for its second shot at victory Saturday where its two sleek, white Acuras will be snaking their way around Sebring's iconic road course.
Everybody will be watching and nobody will count them out or be surprised if one of the cars wins the race or even if they finish one-two.
After all, for a time they ran one-two at Daytona.
"It's too bad that both of our cars were running one-two into the early hours of the morning and we both ran into problems," said Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner and one of the three drivers in the ninth-place Acura.
The driver lineup for the two Penske entries is an example of Penske Racing's competitive approach and why the organization is so widely respected. In addition to Castroneves, Penske drivers include Juan Pablo Montoya, who has won in every major form of motorsports including Formula 1; Dane Cameron, the 2016 endurance-car champion and second last year to Ricky Taylor; and Taylor himself.
When Penske decides to go racing, it gets the best engineers, the best engine builders, the best chassis people, the best crew chiefs and the best drivers, gives them the best equipment and essentially says to the competition, "Here we come. Beat this."
Most people can't, at least not on a regular basis. And so as the cars take to the track for their first practice sessions Thursday, the question isn't whether Penske will dominate endurance-car racing.
The question is just how dominant Penske will be.