When you’ve used social media in racing circles earlier than, there’s a superb likelihood you’ve heard the phrase “Penske Good.” Principally, it refers back to the completely meticulous manner Roger Penske manages his racing groups: all the things from crews outfitted in pressed polos to the cleanliness of the golf carts utilized by the workforce to shuttle personnel round. However on the 2023 Hy-Vee IndyCar race weekend at Iowa Speedway, I discovered that the Penske Good extends even so far as its sponsors. On this case, that sponsor is XPEL.

Full Disclosure: XPEL hosted me on the Hy-Vee IndyCar weekend at Iowa, the place they put me up in a beautiful lodge and let me free to terrorize the race observe.

XPEL provides protecting movies and coatings for all the things out of your automobiles to your home’s home windows, and in the intervening time, the corporate is the first sponsor of Workforce Penske No. 3 driver Scott McLaughlin for a handful of races. A part of that deal really contains using XPEL’s protecting movie on McLaughlin’s race automotive.

Racing is a sport the place the most minute margins are the distinction between success and failure— so it was somewhat shocking for me to study {that a} workforce would willingly apply a further layer of movie, understanding that the additional grams of weight it will add could possibly be the distinction between a win and ending exterior of the highest 5. The truth is, I had a chance to tour Dale Coyne Racing’s storage in the course of the Indy 500 weekend, the place I discovered that all of its automobiles is definitely hand painted, since a skinny coat of paint really weighs lower than a wrap. These are the sort of margins we’re speaking about. A transparent protecting movie appears antithetical to the complete Penske mission.

I ought to have identified higher. Over the weekend, I discovered that the protecting coating has a reputable, well-considered function.

The protecting coating solely stays on McLaughlin’s automotive throughout observe classes; it’s eliminated instantly afterward for qualifying and the race. See, that unofficial “Penske Good” motto additionally pertains to the No. 3’s livery; through the use of the protecting coating in observe, Penske can assure that the livery will likely be in pristine situation come a very powerful elements of the weekend — the elements of the weekend the place marginal variations weight issues essentially the most.

Through the Iowa weekend, drivers solely had one observe session — and sure, XPEL’s protecting movies have been in use throughout that single session. Even when it’s just for a second, presentation issues.