Ford is officially withdrawing from V8 racing next month even though it is poised to win the championship with the factory-backed Prodrive Racing team.

Penske, who took control of Ford stalwart Dick Johnson's V8 team this year, plans to use his connections with Ford Australia's parent company in Detroit to get the decision reversed.

He has targeted winning backing from Ford when the V8 rules change in 2017 to allow two-door coupes and turbocharged V6 engines alongside the existing four-door V8 sedans.

With factory funding, the new rules would open up the possibility of DJR Team Penske switching from V8 Falcons to a V6 turbo-powered racing version of the Ford Mustang.

Starting next month, imported American-made Mustangs will progressively replace the Falcon XR8 as Ford Australia's high-performance road car.

Penske, who attended last weekend's V8 event at Pukekohe, near Auckland in NZ, where Scott Pye scored his and DJRTP's first podium finish with a third place, thinks Ford Australia can be persuaded to revisit backing his team.

"What I would say is that one of our big challenges is to get Ford to acknowledge that being in this series is an asset, not a liability, for their brand," he told Auto Action magazine in an interview to be published on Monday. "I can't see why, with our relationship with Ford – we're committed [to running Falcons again next year], that we can't take that to the next level here."

Penske entered V8s this year after buying a controlling stake in Dick Johnson Racing to form DJR Team Penske, running a Falcon without any support from Ford, which is pulling out of V8 Supercars ahead of ending local production next October.

Ironically, despite limited financial support from Ford, Prodrive Racing – previously known as Ford Performance Racing – has set the pace this year with the racing version of the Falcon FG X.

Prodrive's Mark Winterbottom leads teammate David Reynolds in the championship standings by 239 points, with Holden's top performer Craig Lowndes a further point back.

With just six races at two events to go, Winterbottom is set to end FPR and Prodrive Racing's decade-long V8 title drought, and also win Ford's first championship since 2010, when DJR triumphed.

DJRTP will go back to fielding two Falcons next year for Pye and new recruit Fabian Coulthard, and Penske expects the team to become a consistent front-runner in time to restore Ford's previous long-time factory support of DJR with a change to Mustangs in 2017.

"Now, with the rules changing in 2017, with the EcoBoost engine and potentially having that and having the Mustang, maybe there's an opportunity to revisit [V8 Supercars]," he said. "The good news is that you can always open up the subject and with our relationship, we feel that at the right time that we're going to have some more discussion with them."

Penske fields a front-running Ford team in NASCAR stock car racing in America and his Penske Corporation operates major Ford dealerships – associations he intends to exploit with Ford's worldwide racing boss Dave Paricak.

"We've had conversations with Paricak," he said. "We've integrated quite well with him on the NASCAR side and we feel that as we get to know him and we can talk within the organisation, that it [V8 Supercars] is going to be a subject matter for us as we go forward in, say, the next couple of months."