Simon Pagenaud

Simon Pierre Michel Pagenaud (; born 18 May 1984) is a French former professional racing driver, who last drove the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the NTT IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class championship title in the 2010 American Le Mans Series, he moved to the Indycar Series where he became the 2016 IndyCar champion and the 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner, becoming the first driver born in France to win the Indianapolis 500 since Gaston Chevrolet in 1920 and the first polesitter to have won the race since Helio Castroneves in 2009.

Pagenaud won both the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona and 2023 24 Hours of Daytona with Meyer Shank Racing.

Early years Born in Montmorillon, Pagenaud first worked at the age of fourteen in the family's supermarket, eventually managing the video game department. After he attended business school, he returned to the supermarket. His family established a driving school that provided the funds for Pagenaud to begin his racing career.

Career

Pagenaud started karting racing around the age of ten. His first major achievement was winning the Volant Elf driver development competition in 2000. In 2001 he moved to a single-seater racing for Formula Renault Campus, finishing as a runner up in the championship.

Pagenaud competed in 2002 and 2003 in French Formula Renault, and in 2002 and 2004 competed in Formula Renault Eurocup. He then moved up to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2005 where he finished sixteenth. In 2006, he went to the United States and won the Champ Car Atlantic with Team Australia in his rookie season by just a few points over Graham Rahal. Pagenaud nearly won the 2015 Indianapolis 500, leading with less than thirty laps to go and engaging most of the race in a three-way battle between Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. Pagenaud ended up being overtaken by the field and went on to finish tenth, while teammate Juan Pablo Montoya won the race. Pagenaud did not win a race in 2015 but renewed his deal with TEAM Penske in 2016.

2016 Pagenaud got off to the best start of his IndyCar career with five consecutive podiums, including three wins in a row. As the season progressed, Pagenaud and his teammate Will Power became the primary contenders for the championship. With a strong run at the end of the season, Pagenaud took his first IndyCar Series championship victory, giving Team Penske another championship victory in its fiftieth year of racing. He finished the season with five race victories and a total of eight podiums.

2017–2019

President Donald Trump congratulating Pagenaud for his Indy 500 win at a ceremony at the White House in 2019. Pagenaud would go winless throughout 2018. Pagenaud won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he would also win the 2019 Indianapolis 500 from pole position, the first Frenchman to do so in 99 years. Pagenaud took the championship lead from Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, however Newgarden would retake the championship lead one race later in Detroit. Pagenaud would take pole and the win at the 2019 Honda Indy Toronto and took pole at the 2019 Iowa 300, though the win would go to Newgarden. Pagenaud eventually finished the 2019 season in second position.

2020 During the 2020 iRacing virtual Indy 500 event, Pagenaud was accused of deliberately crashing into lead driver Lando Norris, which led to him being accused of bad sportsmanship.

Pagenaud finished second in the first race of the 2020 season at Texas Motor Speedway. Pagenaud finished third at the IndyGP after starting in twentieth.

Due to a fuel pump issue, Pagenaud's Iowa IndyCar 250 at Iowa Speedway race 1 entry failed to make qualifying and started the race at the back of the grid in 23rd. By lap 178, Pagenaud took the lead and held on to win the 250 lap race. This would prove to be his final win in the IndyCar Series.

2021

Pagenaud would enter 2021 as a contract year. 2021 was a difficult year for Pagenaud and Team Penske in general, as the team only recorded three wins of the season with Pagenaud scoring none of them. Pagenaud's best results of the season were two third-place finishes, one at St. Petersburg and the other at the 2021 Indianapolis 500.

Outside of those finishes, Pagenaud would frequently be beset by poor luck and on-track confrontations with his teammates. He would finish eighth in the drivers' standings for the second year in a row. By the end of the season the racing press reported Pagenaud did not intend to re-sign with Team Penske.

2022 After a difficult 2021 campaign, Pagenaud left the Penske team & joined Meyer Shank Racing alongside former Penske teammate, Hélio Castroneves. Despite an encouraging start to the 2022 season which included a second-place finish at the Indy GP, the No. 60 team gradually lost competitiveness as the season continued, culminating in a fifteenth-place points finish for Pagenaud.

2023 In 2023, Pagenaud returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking part in the LMP2 class for Cool Racing. It would be the first time Pagenaud competed in the race since 2011, where he finished second overall driving for the Peugeot Sport factory team.

During practice for the 2023 Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio, Pagenaud suffered a crash in which his car flipped over several times and he ended up in the gravel. Pagenaud credited IndyCar's aeroscreen for saving his life in the crash. Because of injuries he sustained, Pagenaud was forced to sit out the rest of the season. He was replaced in the No. 60 car by Conor Daly for the Honda Indy 200 and the Iowa doubleheader, Tom Blomqvist for the Honda Indy Toronto, the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland, and the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, and 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist for the Music City Grand Prix, the Gallagher Grand Prix, and the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. Both Blomqvist and Lundqvist made their IndyCar debuts filling in for Pagenaud.

Pagenaud was ultimately dropped from Meyer Shank Racing and replaced by Felix Rosenqvist for the 2024 season. Pagenaud did not return to IndyCar as his injuries from the crash at Mid-Ohio were still lingering and thus prevented him from looking for another seat.

Cadillac Formula One Team In 2025, it was announced that Pagenaud had joined the Cadillac Formula One Team as a simulator driver.

Motorsports career results

Career summary

Season still in progress.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (key) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 DC Points 2005 Saulnier Racing ZOL1 ZOL2 MON1 VAL1 VAL2 LMS1 LMS2 BIL1 BIL2 OSC1 OSC2 DON1 DON2 EST1 EST2 MNZ1 MNZ2 16th 30

American open-wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

Champ Car Atlantic

Champ Car

IndyCar Series 1 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

Indianapolis 500

Sports car racing

Le Mans 24 Hours results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 2008 Team Oreca-Matmut Marcel Fässler Olivier Panis Courage-Oreca LC70-Judd LMP1 147 DNF DNF 2009 Pescarolo Sport Jean-Christophe Boullion Benoît Tréluyer Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 210 DNF DNF 2010 Team Peugeot Total Sébastien Bourdais Pedro Lamy Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 38 DNF DNF 2011 Team Peugeot Total Sébastien Bourdais Pedro Lamy Peugeot 908 LMP1 355 2nd 2nd 2023 Cool Racing Reshad de Gerus Vladislav Lomko Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 158 DNF DNF

American Le Mans Series results 1 Driver competed for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, no points awarded for the American Le Mans Series.

IMSA SportsCar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) Season still in progress.

Le Mans Series results 1 Driver competed for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, no points awarded for the Le Mans Series.

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup results Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2010 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Peugeot HDI 5.5 L Turbo V12(Diesel) SIL PET1 ZHU 2011 Highcroft Racing LMP1 HPD ARX-01e HPD 3.4L V8 SEB1 Peugeot Sport Total Peugeot 908 Peugeot HDI 3.7 L Turbo V8(Diesel) SPA1 LMS1 IMO SIL PET ZHU 1 Driver did not run for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

Touring car racing

Complete V8 Supercar results Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Final pos Points 2011 Garry Rogers Motorsport YMCR1 YMCR2 ADER3 ADER4 HAMR5 HAMR6 BARR7 BARR8 BARR9 WINR10 WINR11 HIDR12 HIDR13 TOWR14 TOWR15 QLDR16 QLDR17 QLDR18 PHIQ PHIR19 BATR20 SURR21 SURR22 SYMR23 SYMR24 SANR25 SANR26 SYDR27 SYDR28 49th 207 2012 Stone Brothers Racing ADER1 ADER2 SYMR3 SYMR4 HAMR5 HAMR6 BARR7 BARR8 BARR9 PHIR10 PHIR11 HIDR12 HIDR13 TOWR14 TOWR15 QLDR16 QLDR17 SMPR18 SMPR19 SANQ SANR20 BATR21 SURR22 SURR23 YMCR24 YMCR25 YMCR26 WINR27 WINR28 SYDR29 SYDR30 NC 0 + + Not Eligible for points