Hitachi will continue as a sponsor of Team Penske Indycar driver Helio Castroneves' car for the 2014 season.

Castroneves, a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, will drive a Hitachi-branded car at eight races this year, an extension of a deal originally agreed at the start of the 2012 season.

The first of those races will be the Indycar season-opener in St. Petersburg, Florida on 30th March.

Though financial terms of the agreement were not formally released, industry estimates suggest it could be worth around US$1.5 million in total.

As part of the deal, Hitachi will also be an associate sponsor of Penske's other two Indycar entries. Australian Will Power's main sponsor will be Verizon while the team has yet to announce a major sponsorship deal for the car to be driven by Juan Pablo Montoya.

Castroneves retains Team Penske sponsor HitachiFormer Formula One driver Montoya, who won the Indycar series in 1999, is rejoining the series in 2014 after an eight-year career in Nascar.

"One of our goals at Penske Racing is to create true, integrated global partners for our race teams," said team principal Roger Penske.

"Hitachi has certainly represented this type of partnership with Team Penske. Working closely with Chevrolet on the fuel injection systems on our Indy cars, Hitachi has been instrumental in many of our race wins, but our relationship extends far beyond what you see on the racetrack."