THE CONTENDERS

The entrants for the 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

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DJR TEAM PENSKE

CARS Ford Mustangs

DRIVERS Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard

DJR Team Penske will defend its championships with an unchanged driver line-up in the second season running the Ford Mustang.

The Queensland-based team took the drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ championship wins, in addition to the Bathurst 1000, in 2019. While the controversy around team orders and technical infringements at Bathurst and the speed of the Mustang pre-parity changes overshadowed the team’s success, there can be no denying DJR Team Penske’s place at the top of the Supercars pecking order.

Scott McLaughlin defended his championship with a record-breaking run in 2019 and is gunning for a third consecutive drivers’ title in 2020. With the expectation he will venture to North America to expand his racing horizons with Team Penske, McLaughlin is at the peak of his powers in Supercars with the added determination of remaining on top before he departs.

McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard are teammates for a fourth consecutive season, with Coulthard entering his fifth season with the team. Coulthard won two races in 2019, though often struggled to keep pace with McLaughlin. He will need to match his teammate on a more regular basis if DJR Team Penske is to defend its teams’ championship against stronger opposition.

After a dominant start to 2019, DJR Team Penske went without a win over the last three rounds of the season. Parity measures helped rejuvenate the opposition with Triple Eight Race Engineering shaping as a more formidable opponent in 2020.

DJR Team Penske faces a real test in defending its championships this season, though the combined might of its Mustang package, stable driver line-up, and strong engineering team holds it in good stead entering 2020.