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Team Penske's hard racing pays off

It's evident that when it comes to the Penske Racing team, winning is pretty much everything. So much so that its drivers are willing to almost wreck each other to accomplish just that.

Penske drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Helio Castroneves, and Will Power all had strong showings on Sunday at the Pocono INDYCAR 500. Montoya got his first win since 2000 in an INDYCAR and Castroneves came through with a second place finish, while Power ended up 10th.What's even more noteworthy than Team Penske's dominant day were the incidents that occurred between the teammates on the afternoon.On lap 165, Montoya made a pretty risky pass on Power for the lead, making contact with his car, damaging his front wing. Then on lap 176, Power was penalized with a drive through penalty for blocking Castroneves when Castroneves tried making a pass when he got a strong run on Power going into turn one.The move by Power was pretty dangerous, considering the high rate of speed (202.402 mph average race speed). Still, Penske's aggressive style seemed to pay off and the message of the day from the Penske drivers was simple. There is no such thing as team order and once the green flag drops it's every man for themselves."We were racing hard today, that's the beauty of Team Penske," said Castroneves. "There is no team order here. I don't think many other teams are able to apply those rules when they're out there on the track, but we do. Obviously, we're not looking to take each other out, but we're going to race hard and in the end we were racing aggressively."While Team Penske enjoyed a lot of success on the day, a local racing team out of Nazareth, Andretti Autosport did not have the day it was looking for. They did place a car in the top three as Carlos Munoz finished third, but Marco Andretti (seventh), James Hinchcliffe (12th), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (18th) all had a subpar day.Munoz, who is a rookie, currently sits in sixth place in the point standings, which is the highest of all the Andretti Autosport drivers."This was a great race for me, to come home with a third place finish and gain double points," said Munoz. "I knew this track pretty well having won the Indy Light race here last year. It also helps when you have a great car and a great team behind you. I love this place, I love everything about this place, so we're just really looking forward to coming here next year."The race at Pocono is part of the INDYCAR Triple Crown Series along with the races at Indianapolis and Fontana. Each race starts with a three wide start and each driver is awarded double points in those three races. If a driver is able to win the Triple Crown they're awarded a one million dollar bonus.Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his chance at a cool million just 28 laps into the race when his car had suspension issues. The addition of Pocono to the Triple Crown series figured to generate some buzz and some nice ticket sales. At last year's race, the attendance was estimated to be approximately 35,000 and it was easy to see on Sunday that number was significantly down.Still, the drivers were adamant that they want to return to Pocono in the future."It's always good when you finish in the top three, so of course I'm happy with this place right now," said Castroneves. "It's a 500 mile race and I believe it was actually great. It's a difficult track, it's hard to pass because of the design, but it's so much fun to race here. I really don't understand the rumors on us not coming back because everybody seems to enjoy themselves very much when we come here. The fans were so great all weekend and hopefully we continue to come back."