Penske in Frame for Factory Cadillac Programs in 2028

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI

Team Penske is in the frame to take over one or potentially even two factory Cadillac programs in 2028, amid Roger Penske’s quest to claim an elusive victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Multiple industry sources have confirmed to Sportscar365 that talks are underway with Penske and the General Motors brand for a factory Cadillac V-Series.R program that could fully come online in 2028.

A single-car Hypercar entry for next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans at a minimum appears to be all but certain, before potentially ramping up for full season efforts in the FIA World Endurance Championship and/or IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

This comes as Penske’s contract with Porsche to operate its factory GTP entries in the WeatherTech Championship ends following the 2027 season, with no plans to extend that partnership and Porsche set to refocus its LMDh efforts to customer entries only.

Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid was on-site at last month’s 6 Hours of Barcelona, reportedly to continue discussions around a 2027 effort with a single LMDh-based prototype.

However, talks are understood to have accelerated in recent weeks, which could see Penske take over from Hertz Team JOTA and/or potentially even Wayne Taylor Racing in the WEC and WeatherTech Championship, respectively, come 2028.

A GM spokesperson declined to comment on the matter when reached by Sportscar365, while a Team Penske representative said “we have no comment or updates on 2028.”

The potential seismic shift would be made possible as contracts with all three of its current teams, including Action Express Racing, are currently only confirmed through the end of next year.

JOTA Sport team co-owner Sam Hignett, whose British team took over the works WEC Hypercar effort from Chip Ganassi Racing in 2025, wouldn’t confirm if they would be back with Cadillac in 2028.

“I would say we’re very happy and let’s leave it at that,” Hignett told Sportscar365 at last weekend’s 6 Hours of Monza WEC season finale. “We’ve got a great partner in Cadillac and we’re very happy.”

It’s believed Penske would be in favor of a full season WEC program to be best prepared for Le Mans, although it would have to re-build its European base of operations from the ground-up after only retaining a handful of crew at its Mannheim, Germany shop after Porsche withdrew from the WEC Hypercar class at the end of 2025.

However, it would be easier on the WeatherTech Championship front, with its GTP championship-winning organization still intact in running the pair of works Porsche 963s for one final season.

WTR, which currently operates two of the three factory Cadillacs in IMSA, however, holds the closest ties to GM out of the current teams thanks to its 20-plus year relationship with the company.

The theory behind a potential Penske Le Mans-only entry in 2027, which would likely be run out of its Mooresville, N.C. base, would benefit with no testing restrictions as the car wouldn’t be entered in either full season championship.

While a car not competing in the WeatherTech Championship or any of the ACO-run series would normally not be eligible for an invite to the French endurance classic, Sportscar365 understands that Cadillac has been given four berths to the race to be distributed at the manufacturer’s discretion.

Cadillac scaled back to a three-car effort this year per Action Express Racing’s request to skip the race in order to focus on its WeatherTech Championship efforts, but will return to Circuit de la Sarthe in 2027 after winning the WeatherTech Championship GTP title.

WTR has already ruled out a return to Le Mans next year, which would open the door for a Penske Cadillac entry.

Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John