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Team Penske - Roger Penske

Roger S. Penske

Founder and Chairman, Penske Corporation

Roger Penske is the founder and chairman of Penske Corporation, a closely-held, diversified, on-highway, transportation services company whose subsidiaries operate in a variety of industry segments, including retail automotive, truck leasing, transportation logistics and professional motorsports. Penske Corporation manages businesses with consolidated revenues of more than $42 billion, operating in over 3,200 locations and employing more than 73,000 people worldwide. 

Penske Transportation Solutions includes Penske Truck Leasing, Penske Logistics, Epes Transport Systems and Penske Vehicle Services. A leading global transportation services provider, Penske operates more than 430,000 vehicles and serves customers from more than 3,000 locations in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Product lines include: full-service truck leasing, contract maintenance, commercial and consumer truck rentals, used truck sales, transportation and warehousing management and supply chain management solutions. Visit  www.GoPenske.com  to learn more.

Penske Automotive Group, Inc. , (NYSE: PAG) is a diversified international transportation services company and one of the world’s premier automotive and commercial truck retailers. PAG operates dealerships principally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan and is one of the largest retailers of commercial trucks in North America for Freightliner. PAG also distributes and retails commercial vehicles, diesel and gas engines, power systems and related parts and services principally in Australia and New Zealand. PAG employs nearly 27,000 people worldwide, and is a member of the Fortune 500, Russell 1000, Russell 3000 and S&P Mid Cap 400 indexes. For additional information, visit the company’s website at www.penskeautomotive.com

Penske Performance, Inc. operations include teams that compete in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, under the “Team Penske” banner. Through a Team Penske global partnership, Porsche Penske Motorsport races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the World Endurance Championship in 2024. Team Penske is one of the most successful teams in the history of professional sports. Competing in a variety of disciplines, cars owned and prepared by Team Penske have produced more than 620 major race wins, over 690 pole positions and 44 championships. In its 58th season in 2024, the team has also earned 20 Indianapolis 500 victories, three Daytona 500 Championships, a Formula 1 win, overall victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, along with a win in Australia’s legendary Bathurst 1000 race.

Penske Entertainment Corp. , a subsidiary of Penske Corporation, owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, INDY NXT by Firestone and IMS Productions. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted the world’s largest single-day sporting event – the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race – for more than 100 years. The venue has also hosted NASCAR, Formula One and other racing series events throughout its storied history. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES continues to be the premier open-wheel racing series in North America and is one of the most competitive championships in the world. INDY NXT by Firestone is the top developmental series of INDYCAR. IMS Productions is a leading video services and production company.

Updated - June 3 2024 at 3:02 p.m. ET

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Roger S. Penske

Inducted 2015, industry leader of the year award 1994.

Roger Penske’s international automotive and transportation enterprise reported sales of $19 billion in 2014, employing 39,000 employees worldwide. Holdings include the world’s second largest automobile dealership group as well as truck and equipment rentals, leasing and logistics services.

But for all of those accomplishments, the Corporation’s best-known asset is Penske Racing. With an unrivaled record for wins at the Indianapolis 500 and dominant presence in virtually every major national series, Team Penske is the most respected “brand” in American motorsports. Roger’s path to success began as a car-loving teenager in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. From his parents’ driveway Penske would buy and sell sports cars, which he had purchased and restored. Some found their way to the track — and Victory Circle, with Roger at the wheel. By 1961 Penske was honored as Sports Illustrated’s “Driver of the Year”.

In 1965, at the top of his game, he gave up driving to build his automotive empire, starting with a dealership in Philadelphia, then acquiring a truck leasing business, a second dealership and two racing tire distributorships. In 1969, Penske Corporation was formed. While his passion for driving may have been put on hold, his love of motorsports never waned. Joining forces with driver/engineer Mark Donohue, Penske Racing was created, becoming the motorsports arm of Penske Corporation. Penske Racing debuted at the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, winning the first of 16 Indy 500’s in 1972. Since then, Penske Racing has dominated in virtually every form of racing, earning nearly 400 victories and 27 National Championships including IndyCar, Sports Car, Trans Am and NASCAR.

The reasons for Penske’s remarkable success were well documented in the late Mark Donahue’s book, “The Unfair Advantage”. Their “unfair advantage” was identified as a total dedication to preparation and professionalism. Those same qualities are found in all Penske enterprises, on the track or in a boardroom. Clearly, racing improves the product.

2015 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction acceptance speech.

2015 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction Tribute Video.

2015 Inductees Ratan Tata, Luca di Montezemolo,  Roger Penske.

Roger Penske at the 2015 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony.

• Penske Racing Team: 40 Years of Excellence

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• Roger Penske keeps his foot on the gas after 50 years in racing
• The Penske Racing Museum

Class of 2015

Luca Di Montezemolo

Ratan N. Tata

Elwood Haynes

Rodney O’Neal

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Roger Penske: The Penske Way leads to another year of excellence

As Roger Penske explained how he completed the blockbuster purchase of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series , a deal negotiated and finalized under a cloak of secrecy, his thoughts turned to the man he credits with putting him in this position.

Penske’s love affair with IMS began in 1951 when his father, Jay, first took him to the track as a 14-year-old. From there Penske’s passion for motorsports was spurred, a passion that would propel him to become one of the most successful team owners in racing history. And in each step of his career, be it as a team owner or a businessman whose company generates revenues in the billions, Penske was guided by his dad’s steadfast belief that “effort equals results,” something that’s long been an ethos of Penske, the Penske Corporation and Team Penske.

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“What it really says, that in the United States of America, if you work hard and you’re committed and you have a great group of people, you get great success,” Penske said Nov. 4 at the introductory news conference. “So today I hope my dad’s looking down at me and looking at this group and saying, ‘Son, you did a good job.’”

Following the standard he sets, Team Penske enjoyed an unprecedented year of motorsports success around the globe:

• In IndyCar, Simon Pagenaud earned Penske’s 18th Indianapolis 500 victory, Josef Newgarden captured the organization’s 15th IndyCar Series championship, and Pagenaud, Newgarden and Will Power combined to win nine of 17 IndyCar races.
• Scott McLaughlin won the Australian Supercars championship, the prestigious Bathurst 1000 (along with co-driver Alexandre Premat) and the two-car operation won 20 of 32 races.
• In NASCAR, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano combined for six Cup wins, with Blaney and Logano advancing to the Round of 8.
• Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya won the top-flight Daytona Prototype Class championship in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, on the strength of seven consecutive podium finishes and wins at Mid-Ohio, Detroit and Laguna Seca.

“You can’t deny that Team Penske is the benchmark,” Newgarden said. “They are the team that everyone targets. I always make the comparison that driving for Team Penske, it’s like playing for the (New York) Yankees. You’re basically competing with a dynasty here, and they’re the best to have done it and they’re the group that everyone wants to be and the group everyone wants to beat.”

For his leadership on and off the track, he has been selected as The Athletic’s 2019 Motorsports Person of the Year.

Meticulousness is a trademark for the 82-year-old Penske. It is why his cars are customarily faster than the competition. It is why his cars are reliable and rarely suffer mechanical failures. It is why for six decades, Team Penske, be it in IndyCar, NASCAR or sports cars, is the organization against whom every other outfit measures itself.

“If you walk in the workshop after everyone’s left, there’s nothing left on a bench. Everything is absolutely spotless,” said Power, who won the 2018 Indy 500 and the IndyCar championship in 2014. “It’s just the process, even the small things that matter and just has everyone in that mindset that all the small details matter. And that just goes for everything, not just on the race cabinet, in the workshop, the race trucks, the appearance of everything has to be perfect. That just filters through everything as far as assembling gearboxes, engines, assembling the whole car, doing the car setup as far as wheel alignment.

“He has a lot of attention to detail. Those things really matter to him, you could say he’s a perfectionist.”

That includes the trademark dress code for drivers: black slacks and button-up shirts.

“It’s important to look good when we represent a brand and I think it explains itself without having to be heard,” Pagenaud said. “We represent a big brand. It’s not just the race team, it’s an empire that Roger built. So it’s a bit like when you work at Nike, you represent Nike or Puma. We represent a brand that’s called Penske and it’s still growing so it’s very important to be detailed oriented.”

Ask a member of Team Penske why the organization is able to accomplish what other organizations do not, and the answer is universal: Because of the expectation set by the man in charge. Nothing is overlooked, every conceivable scenario is considered and people are empowered to feel they are a critical facet of the group’s success. It is why he carries around a notebook and pen, so when he notices that something needs addressing, he won’t forget. It’s a common sight for those under the Team Penske banner to see the boss jotting notes down when something catches his attention.

“When I see Roger at the shop, it is incredible because he can see every little detail like he lives in the house 24/7,” Pagenaud said. “He makes notes. He has this little piece of paper, he makes notes and he acts very quickly when he wants something done. It’s very impressive, it’s very clean everywhere. It’s the Penske way and you can only admire it because it takes dedication and discipline and that’s what the Penske way is like.

“As a leader, the thing that impresses me the most is the fact that he remembers everybody’s name. He’s got 65,000 employees and he walks up to you and shakes your hand and knows your name and what’s going on in your family. He is very close to people and he always talks about human capital. What impresses me the most is how he’s able to get the best out of people by finding their qualities and knowing what they are; it is just phenomenal the way that he interacts with his people.”

Pagenaud grew up in Montmorillon, France, the son of a father who owned a supermarket, and as he worked in the store as a kid stocking shelves and performing other duties he spent time observing his father. Like Penske, Pagenaud’s father carried a notebook, and Pagenaud sees a lot of similarities between how his father ran his business and how Penske manages his vast global empire.

“They’re very common, a lot of common traits,” Pagenaud said. “So when I see the notebook I know exactly what’s going on, and I found it funny, but it’s another example of discipline. Instead of trying to memorize it and then forget it, it’s about writing it down and giving it priority. So it’s pretty cool to see how such a powerful man does business and it definitely gives you a good example of how you should be like.”

Penske’s notebook was out when he took a firsthand tour of IMS on Nov. 5, the day after it was announced that Penske Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary of Penske Corporation, would purchase the iconic track.

“I always like to work from a top 10 (list) and see the things that we can do to make it fan-friendly, certainly from a competitive perspective,” Penske said.

A transaction of this magnitude typically invites scrutiny and raises myriad questions about what might happen going forward. In this instance, the news was met with near-universal acclaim across the motorsports spectrum. The consensus was there was no better successor than Penske, whose business proficiency combined with his racing knowledge and adoration for the Indianapolis 500 meant the iconic speedway was in great hands.

It speaks to Penske’s sterling reputation Penske that a potential conflict of interest — an IndyCar team owner buying the series in which he competes — was a non-issue among fellow owners. (He will no longer continue as the race strategist for Will Power.) Instead, the move was heralded for the opportunities it presents for IndyCar to grow.

“The greatest news ever for IndyCar racing, maybe for racing,” rival team owner Chip Ganassi said. “Roger is a mogul in the automotive industry and (IMS) is arguably the birthplace for a lot of automotive technology — there is isn’t a better guy to sell it to.”

That’s why the Hulman-George family, which had owned the track since 1945, decided to approach Penske and gauge his interest in becoming just the fourth owner of IMS in its 110-year history.

On behalf of his family, Tony George initially broached the subject in a somewhat unusual setting: on the grid prior to the Sept. 22 IndyCar season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, just as his driver, Newgarden, was looking to clinch the championship. Yet George had Penske’s attention.

After the race and the celebration for Newgarden’s title win, Penske demonstrated the acumen that has impelled the Penske Corporation to revenues exceeding $32 billion by following up with George by email that evening, then another email the next day. The deal, which industry sources say is between $250-$300 million, was completed roughly six weeks later and is expected to be finalized in January.

It is a monumental transaction with far-reaching implications not just for IndyCar, but NASCAR, IMSA, USAC and potentially even Formula One. Penske stated he’d like to see F1 return to IMS after a contentious breakup following a tire debacle in 2005 that turned off a large chunk of fan support and doomed the race at IMS after 2007. (How many of you remember that Penske’s PC4 won the Austrian Grand Prix in 1976 — the last time an American constructor triumphed on the primarily European-based series?)

Fittingly, amid a year of Team Penske dominance on the track, Penske also won big in the boardroom. That is the essence of Penske; a captain of industry, recognized as “The Captain” in racing circles.

The multitude of accolades — which included induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in February — culminated Oct. 24 in a ceremony at the White House. In the Oval Office, President Donald Trump presented Penske with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“You’re a very unique person and truly a great champion and truly a winner,” Trump said. “No matter what you do, it turns to gold. You are a legend in the speedway and you’re a legend in business, and your name is revered everywhere the checkered flag flies and beyond that.

“He’s built a team and a legacy that will endure forever. I mean, frankly … nobody will ever be able to challenge this. I don’t care what they do, how good they are, there are some things you can’t do. And it will ensure forever in the history of racing and in the history of sports.”

As Penske’s father explained to him decades ago, success is predicated on your effort and commitment to performing the best job possible, a maxim that has never been achieved so successfully within Team Penske than over the past year and embraced by those within the organization.

“Roger doesn’t do anything if he can’t do it 100 percent and the race team has the exact same mentality,” Pagenaud said. “They work constantly. There’s very little vacation. It’s a very nice environment to work in but you always have to give your best.”

(Top photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

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Jordan Bianchi is a motorsports reporter for The Athletic. He is a veteran sports reporter, having covered the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, college basketball, college football, NASCAR, IndyCar and sports business for several outlets. Follow Jordan on Twitter @ jordan_bianchi

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Roger Penske in 1968

Alvis Upitis/Getty Images

Rob Widdows

Roger Penske is, quite simply, a giant of the sport, a restless and extreme achiever in a fiercely competitive business. He started out as a driver before moving from the cockpit to the pitwall and is now a multiple team owner with over 500 race victories. His business interests and investments include car and truck dealerships and racing series right around the world. His most recent acquisitions, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series, make him one of the most influential and powerful people in motor sport while his new partnership with Porsche takes Penske to Le Mans with a shot at victory.

Team Penske has won 18 Indy 500s and shows no sign of being toppled from its pinnacle despite the ever-changing landscape. A man who has eyes only for the future, and who does not dwell on past glories, has never been keen to talk about himself. Motor Sport, however, was shoehorned into his diary for an audience with ‘The Captain’ ahead of the 2021 Indy 500.

Roger Penske in the Climax-powered Zerex Special at the 1963 Riverside 200 miles – he finished second

Motor Sport: Can we go back in time to 1963 when you were a driver and raced at Goodwood, where this year you will be a guest of honour at the Festival of Speed?

RP: “Sure, I raced a Ferrari GTO for Colonel Hoare’s team although I don’t honestly remember the circuit in any detail. What I do recall is that Colonel Hoare owned Maranello Concessionaires, the Ferrari distributors, which is ironic because we now own the Ferrari store in Egham and we are the worldwide distributors for all the Ferrari classic parts. I certainly never realised, racing at Goodwood, what my future was going to be in the UK, the whole automotive business we’ve built over there. Colonel Hoare took me out to dinner while I was there and, like a dumb American, I asked for iced tea and they looked at me like I was a guy with two heads. I’ll never forget that. It was fun to be racing the Ferrari and it was a fun circuit although I couldn’t draw you a map of it now and I didn’t do very well.”

You had success as a driver but retired early to get into management. Any regrets about hanging up your helmet so soon?

RP: ‘Well, the succession was gradual but I got the opportunity when I was in the Sports Car Club in Philadelphia and a Chevrolet dealer asked me if I’d like to be the general manager of his business. At the time I was making $425 a month and he offered me $2000 so I got my coat and hat and took the job. I told him my goal was that in two years I’d like to buy his dealership… and that meant borrowing $50,000 from my dad who was already retired. He told me, ‘If you lose this money I’ll have to go back to work,’ so that wasn’t going to happen and it was time to give up the driving.

Racing at Goodwood, 1963; Penske returns this year for the Festival of Speed, July 8-11

“You weren’t allowed to be the owner of a General Motors dealership and be a racing driver at that time so I was out of the racing business for a while. One night the deputy vice-president of marketing at Sun Oil came in to buy a Corvette, and during the sale I said, ‘Maybe Sun Oil would like to sponsor a Corvette to run at Daytona.’ He agreed, we shook hands, put a Sun Oil sticker on the car and took it to Daytona so I guess that was my first car I owned as a team. I was on my way back into racing, and Sun Oil stayed with Penske as a sponsor for a great many years.”

The Sun Oil partnership reminds us of Mark Donohue and the mighty Sunoco Porsche 917/30. How did that relationship with Donohue begin?

RP: “A friend of mine told me I should take a look at this young man and I first saw him race an Elva Courier at Lime Rock. I got to know him, I said we should do some racing. He became almost like a brother to me.

“Mark Donohue became almost like a brother“

“In the late ’60s and early ’70s we’d drive the truck to the races together. He would work on the car, sleep nights at the workshop. He was the one who helped build the foundations of Team Penske going forward and it was tragic when we lost him. I try to look at our drivers as family but on the other hand, if they’re not performing, we’ll move on. Very few have left us unless it’s time for them to retire or they have opportunities we can’t offer. I want to be as close as I can to our drivers, forget what the contract may say, to be close to their families and support them however we can.”

Did Mark Donohue in some way set the standard for Team Penske drivers for you?

RP: “He was foundational for us, yes. He brought an engineering touch to the team, and to the cockpit. Mark was special, not just a big lead foot, but a driver who understood the technology, how to make his car better than anybody else’s. That’s why he won so many races. Up to that point the driver would turn up with his overalls, his gloves and his helmet and drive the car, but he wouldn’t know how much camber to put on the right front, what springs to run – and Mark brought all that to the table.

“Now the modern driver has the ability to communicate technically with the team, and he has a commercial capability, because the sponsors are so important today. So there’s more to it than just being fast and winning a bunch of races. We’re looking at the younger drivers because we can mould them into a person who understands our brand, becomes a disciple if you like. If we have three or four drivers in a race only one can win, but if the team wins the others benefit too. People ask who were our greatest drivers. We’ve had so many, and if I start on that I will only leave someone out.”

Rick Mears was ever-present for Team Penske at the Indy 500 from 1978-92, taking four victories. This is 1983

Your new partnership with Porsche takes Penske to Le Mans, rekindles memories of Mark Donohue’s success with the team’s Porsche 917/30 Can-Am car and gives you a new challenge.

RP: “Well, I was aware that one of the mountains I had not yet climbed was winning Le Mans and I wondered if I’d ever get the chance. I raced there in 1963 with Pedro Rodríguez in the Ferrari 330 TR, which had won the race the year before with Phil Hill and Gendebien but the engine blew when I missed a shift at the end of the Mulsanne Straight. Jo Bonnier was behind me in a Porsche Spyder, he went off on the oil into the trees and we walked all the way back to the pits together.

“So now I have the chance to go to Le Mans as a team owner and, as you say, our relationship with Porsche goes back a long way. We had great success with the RS Spyder, the 917/10 and the 917/30. I remember testing at Weissach with Donohue when it was just the track and a barn – you go there today and it’s like a small city. This new programme with Porsche, we bring endurance experience to the table, the success we had with the RS Spyder and our results with the Acura cars. It’s pretty special to renew the relationship. We have a year to prepare, and we cannot let them down. The goal is to perform and deliver for Porsche and the racing will support our business as we are the biggest Porsche dealer in the United States, and we have dealerships also in England, Northern Ireland and Italy, so commercially it’s good for us and for them.

Mark Donohue in world-class sunglasses at Le Mans in 1971 with Penske and the team’s Ferrari 512M. Winning here remains a goal for Roger – and with Porsche Penske Motorsport he’ll get another shot in 2023

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

How do you assess the current state of IndyCar having bought both the series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

RP: “Well, to go back a few steps, we’ve been involved since 1969. We had issues with USAC and broke away, had our own series, then we came back, so it was up and down for a number of years. In September 2019 Tony George wanted to talk to me about a sale. I thought this was a tremendous opportunity for our company and in January last year we signed the papers to take over the track, the series and the production company.

“Then came Covid-19, we couldn’t run the 500 in May 2020, people stayed home, so no fans and races were cancelled. We didn’t stop investing because we wanted to maintain the iconic stature of the speedway worldwide and deliver the best open-wheel series in the US. However, you can imagine that without 300,000 people at 100 bucks a head a lot of our plans went out the window. We had to invest heavily in the TV production company, the coverage was not up to today’s standards, and over the last year we’ve put $20m into the track to give guests and spectators a far better experience. Sustainability and decarbonisation are part of the mission. We hope to have the speedway carbon neutral within 24 months and we’ve replaced 80% of our lights with LED, taken out 750 paper hand dryers, replaced them with electric.

“On the racing itself, I think IndyCar is better than ever. Thirty-five cars entered [in the 2021 Indy 500], we’re not paying people to run, a new group of young drivers, new teams, and it’s blisteringly competitive. So from a series perspective, the teams, the competition, the rules package and the costs are all in line. Now we need to develop a better balance of ovals, short ovals, street courses and the Indy 500 with 16 or 17 races. Up and down the pitlane very few drivers are buying their rides, there’s more sponsorship and a lot of new young talent.

“We’re looking at hybrid in the next couple of years, a new engine manufacturer alongside Honda and Chevy who are totally committed, and new tracks. This year at Indy we’re restricted to only 135,000 fans – but that’s two Super Bowls. That’s still a lot of people. The whole series gets a lot of benefit from a strong Indianapolis and our fans will never give up their tickets – if they can’t come this year we give them credit for next year and we’ve had minimal requests for refunds. So yeah, IndyCar is strong right now and yes, we are keen to have a Formula 1 race at Indy if it can be accommodated alongside COTA and Miami and if the economics, the commercial aspects, are right for us.”

Talking of Formula 1, you never reached the heights that you have in so many other categories. Why did you stop and would you come back?

RP: “It wasn’t to do with the racing. It was a commercial decision based on the few benefits of us doing Formula 1. We are the last American team to win a grand prix, with John Watson in Austria in ’76, but look… we could have gone back to it but there are only so many hours in a day. I’m a hands-on guy, and I wanted to do what’s best for the company and that’s to focus on racing in the US. So that’s what we did. Formula 1 doesn’t have so much to offer us commercially, for an American team. I mean, racing in the US, we can bring customers and employees to California, to Florida, to Ohio, all over, and we cannot get that benefit from Formula 1.”

The Captain would like to see Formula 1 back at the Indianapolis Speedway, which last staged the US Grand Prix in 2007

Why have there been so few American drivers in Formula 1 in recent times?

RP: “The opportunities haven’t been there because of the processes in Formula 1. The big teams like Red Bull, Mercedes or McLaren, they start with these kids at such a young age, and they pick from the ones that are coming up through the lower formulae in the European market. I think, actually, that F1 has missed out on some good drivers like Alexander Rossi who did race F1 for a short time. He’s a quality guy, and a very good IndyCar driver. Then there’s Colton Herta, Patricio O’Ward, Josef Newgarden who, given the right opportunity, would do very well.

“Then there’s Scott McLaughlin, who’s one of the brightest and most competitive young men who has ever come our way. His transition from winning championships with us in V8s in Australia, where he helped build the team, to IndyCar has been very impressive. People said we went over there with a boatload of money but that simply was not the case. We built that team with our commercial partners. And, you know, Scott had never driven an open-wheel car but every IndyCar race he just gets better and given time he’s going right to the top. He’s a great team player, 100% committed and he delivers. Scott ticks all the boxes. If these guys can’t get into a top car in Formula 1 they are better off staying in the US.

“Also, I don’t think there are drivers in the US who can come up with the financial support they’d need for F1 where a lot of the drivers are buying their rides. We’ve never had a driver buy a ride with Penske. When I consider a driver, I look at the person, the character, does he have integrity, does he understand our brand? And he has to know how to win. A good example is Rick Mears. He was the one who really helped us build after Donohue. He was good technically and, although he’d rather be in the cockpit than have to stand up in front of people, he got pretty good at that too from a consumer point of view. It always depends who’s available but for us building up a group of younger people is important. That’s how we can sustain our reputation and our winning record. We want to build these people, not just hire them and move them around.”

In 2008 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Penske Racing’s Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 halted an Audi winning streak going back to 1999. Roger will be driving the car at Goodwood

Were you always good at doing deals or was that business acumen something you developed once you stopped driving?

RP: “I guess it goes back to my dad. He always told me, ‘If you need something, say for $10, you go out and raise five and I’ll give you the other five.’ So I worked in gas stations, I had paper rounds, summer jobs in high school, to raise my own money. So it’s in my DNA. One time I worked for   the Jaguar importer in Cleveland. We took the cars off the boat, I’d prep them, fit the licence plates   and deliver them to customers just so I could drive them round the block. So, yeah, I credit my parents with learning that lesson about making my own money, about how business works.”

You have built a quite extraordinary global automotive and racing business, always seeking new opportunities, but do you get time to look back on these achievements?

RP: “I don’t like to talk about what we have done or haven’t done. I put the numbers up on the board and let other people add them up and make the comments. I relate more to the people I’ve been able to bring together as one team. I like to run a flat organisation and we’ve built our business on partnerships, that’s both internally and with sponsors and business partnerships. Yes, we’ve had success, but you always want more and, being a car guy, a racing guy, there’s nothing like competition to take you forward. In business you get a report every quarter but when you race you get your results every weekend, that’s what’s great about competing.

“When I consider a driver, I look at the person, the character“

“Relationships are so important, whether that be with General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Porsche, these are all tied to commercial success, same with all our sponsors. I don’t have a favourite car or driver, every individual is important to me. We care about them, we encourage them to do the best for themselves and for the company. I tell them, ‘Make a reputation for yourself, make the company better, and that way you help move the business forward.’

“Most of our people have started from the bottom, we promote from within, and our race drivers have come up through the ranks. All these people know and understand our mission. My job is to get just above the whole operation so I can see the big picture. I can’t wait to get into the office every day, there’s always something going on in racing and in our business. Our success is not just about winning 18 Indy 500s, that’s just a part of the story. It’s about the partnerships and businesses that we’ve generated alongside that. We have more than 60,000 people in the company now, we have over 333,000 trucks on the US highways. This year we’ll sell 600,000 new and used cars. These things take time to build and it’s always about our people.”

The Penske brand is also well-known in the US for truck rental and many other motoring fields

We’re excited about seeing you and your cars at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

RP: “Yeah, I’m just embarrassed that it’s taken so long for me to show up at the Duke of Richmond’s front door but we’re excited about bringing some great cars. I’ll be driving our LMP2 Porsche Spyder RS that won at Sebring in 2008, the first time Audi had been beaten since 1999 and Porsche’s first victory since 1988. I’ve driven the 917/30 but I’ve never driven the Spyder before, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. You could help me by sending me a map of the track because I have no idea where it goes. Right now it’s all anticipation and not so much knowledge.”

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By Preston Lerner

Racing, so the saying goes, is a great way to turn a big fortune into a small one. Unless, that is, you're Roger Penske, a man who's made a career out of standing convention on its ear. Penske was only 27 years old, seemingly at the height of his powers, when he hung up his driving suit to concentrate on the business of business. Today, he commands a vast corporate empire that embraces more than 13,000 employees. More to the point, he remains the captain of Penske Racing, perhaps the most dominant race team in American history.

Behind the wheel, Penske was talented enough to be honored as the Sports Car Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and the LosAngeles Times. But even then, he aspired to be more than the next Fangio. "I don't want to be known as a race driver," he told a reporter a year before he retired and he isn't. Today, Penske is remembered best as the man whose cars have won ten Indy 500s; two Can-Am championships; three Trans-Am titles; numerous Winston Cup races; and one of only three Formula I Grands Prix won by an American team. Hes also a founding director of CART, a principal of Ilmor Engineering, the owner of two major racetracks and a constructor in his own right.

Few men have cast as large a shadow over their respective fields as Penske. Even as a privateer, he always insisted that his cars look impeccable. And nobody ever earned the Unfair Advantage as often as he did, whether it be by turning a Formula I wreck into a world-beating sports car, building special refueling rigs for lighting-fast Trans-Am pit stops, introducing turbocharging to the Can-Am series, or developing an entirely new engine to win a single race the 1994 Indy 500.

Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1937, the son of a corporate executive, Penske started racing sports cars before graduating from Lehigh University. He won numerous races and several SCCA championships while driving a wide variety of machinery, Jags, Porsches, Coopers, Maseratis, Ferraris, Corvette Grand Sports and Chaparrals. But it was with a mongrel known as the Zerex Special that Penske achieved his greatest notoriety.

A wrecked Formula I car transformed into a two-seat sports racer, the Zerex Special met the letter if not the spirit of the law. With it, Penske blitzed the fields at Riverside and Laguna Seca to win the country's premier sports car races of 1962. Coupled with two more victories in Puerto Rico and Nassau, Penske pocketed $34,350 a princely sum by the standards of the day. At the same time, he also pointed the way toward a new era of major-league corporate sponsorship.

In 1964, Penske retired from driving after scoring back-to-back wins in Nassau in a Grand Sport and a Chaparral. Two years later, he returned to racing as an entrant. Although the team's debut at Sebring in 1966 with al obsolete Grand Sport was inauspicious, Penske soon bought a Lola T70 and hired Mark Donohue as his fulltime driver.

In Donohue, the Brown University engineering graduate, Penske found the perfect foil. Usually racing in irreproachable Sunoco livery, the two men dominated Trans-Am (in Camaros and later Javelins) and Can-Am (in the Porsche 917-10 and 917-30 Turbopanzers) racing so comprehensively that neither series was ever the same again. At the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1969, they scored Lola's first long-distance victory. Turning next to Indy cars, they won the 1972 edition of the 500.

In 1974, with little left to conquer here in the States, Penske created Penske Cars Ltd. in Poole, England, and went Grand Prix racing. The Formula I adventure was an unhappy one, reaching its low ebb when Donohue was killed in a practice crash in 1975. Although John Watson gave the PC4 a historic victory in the Austrian Grand Prix in 1976, Penske shut down his Fl operation at the end of the season and concentrated his efforts on Indy cars.

Since then, nobody has done it better. With a stable of champions that includes Rick Mears (a Penske discovery), Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andrctti, Tom Sneva, Danny Sullivan, Paul Tracy (another Penske find) and Bobby, Al and Al Unser Jr., Penske Racing posted 91 wins, 114 poles and nine CART championships through the end of the 1994 season. Meanwhile, Rusty Wallace scored another 18 Winston Cup victories in Penske Racing South cars. And now, of course, Roger Penske is being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.

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Roger Penske

A true captain of industry, Penske has steered one of the most successful motorsports ships in the sport's history.

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The Captain

Roger Penske is known simply as 'The Captain.'

Penske, who celebrated his 50th anniversary in racing in 2016, reached a major milestone and collected a prestigious award during the golden anniversary season. That year, he reached 100 wins in NASCAR’s premier series and capped off the season by receiving the Bill France Award of Excellence.

Penske won the premier series championship in 2012 with driver Brad Keselowski, and owns two Daytona 500 wins with Ryan Newman in 2008 and Joey Logano in 2015. And from 2013-2015, Penske tied a record with three consecutive owner championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Off the track, Penske likewise left an indelible mark. He built the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California in 1996, and previously owned Michigan International Speedway.

Roger Penske sees his NASCAR fortunes soar with the hiring of Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace (2013), who scores 39 of his 55 career premier series victories driving for Penske. Photo by Nigel Kinrade.

Roger Penske with Joey Logano following their victory in the 2015 Daytona 500, his second in the Great American Race. Photo by Nigel Kinrade.

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Roger S. Penske receives the Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty

Roger S. Penske Awarded Medal of Freedom

Penske, a member of Lehigh’s Class of 1959, built a car dealership into Penske Corporation and Team Penske.

Mary Ellen Alu

Racing legend Roger S. Penske, a member of Lehigh’s Class of 1959, was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, Thursday from President Donald Trump.

Penske studied business administration at Lehigh before dedicating his professional life to his passion for cars and motorsports and to building Penske Corporation and Team Penske.

In a ceremony at the White House , Trump lauded Penske for his successes in business and on the racetrack, as well as his philanthropy, saying Penske has moved “from one great victory to another.”

“You’re a very unique person and truly a great champion and truly a winner,” Trump said. “No matter what you do, it turns to gold. You are a legend in the speedway and you’re a legend in business, and your name is revered everywhere the checkered flag flies and beyond that.”

A former professional auto racer, Penske was named the Sports Car Club of America Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 1961. However, rather than attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, he decided to focus on the Chevrolet dealership he had purchased with a loan from his father. He started the race team a year later, and it became one of the most successful teams in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR racing.

Penske received the Medal of Freedom award at a ceremony attended by his wife, Kathy, his five children and their spouses, his brother and his wife.

“It’s a wonderful honor to receive this award,” Penske said. "It's amazing to be here today. ...

“You know, many years ago, my mother and father invested in me and told me the love and passion of our great country,” he said. “And to think that I’m standing here today in the Oval Office with the President and the Vice President, and all of you here today, and especially my family, to receive this wonderful award, it’s just hard to believe that that would happen.

“As we all know, people make a team and people make power. And I think the great thing, and I’ve had the opportunities to do, is to surround me with the talented individuals in my business. And we built Penske Corporation over many years, and to see the success is really due to our people.”

Established in 1963, the Medal of Freedom is awarded by the President to those who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

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SAE Foundation recognizes Roger Penske with Industry Leadership Award and Raises Nearly $300,000 for STEM

Over 300 guests including 50 students, educators and volunteers gathered at the Westin Book Cadillac on May 14 for the SAE Foundation Annual Celebration. Since its inception in 1997, the event has raised over $6 million to support SAE International’s award-winning A World In Motion ®  (AWIM) program, Collegiate Design Series™(CDS), awards and scholarships. This year’s event raised just under $300,000 to support the mission of the SAE Foundation to increase student achievement and participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Nationally, 80% of the fastest-growing occupations depend upon mastery of STEM skills, and the growth in STEM jobs is 3 times greater than non-STEM jobs, according to Million Women Mentors. The SAE STEM education solution transforms traditional education by providing teachers with global resources and support to connect classroom learning with real-life application equitably empowering every student to embark on a path of lifelong learning. With Pre-K through college programs, the SAE Foundation has reached over 5 million students globally and engaged over 30,000 industry volunteers to fuel development of the next generation of STEM-fluent innovators.

“This event celebrates what the SAE Foundation, its partners and volunteers are able to achieve together, and we are thrilled with the results this year in terms of audience, corporate support and funds raised,” said Lori Gatmaitan, SAE Foundation Director. Through the dollars raised, we will deliver inspiration and diversity to STEM education programming in communities and schools where the need is greatest.”

The festivities opened with a networking reception where guests were invited to experience the awe and wonder of personal discovery through the eyes of students participating in SAE AWIM programs. Students from Lawrence Technological University shared successes and lessons learned from the front lines of CDS events where teams design, build, test and compete their vehicle against other teams from around the world.

Two 7 th  graders at Emerson Middle School in Detroit, LaN’adyha Garner and Heaven Brown, welcomed guests and had some fun with the audience as they kicked off the formal program by sharing their experiences with the recently released AWIM Cybersecurity Challenge.  In addition to developing competency in science and math, SAE programs enhance 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration and communication that all employers are seeking. The ability to stand in front of a large audience to confidently and expressively speak is one of those skills.

In the spirit of celebration, the event pays tribute to industry leaders whose benevolent spirit and remarkable accomplishments inspire us all. The Foundation presented the prestigious Industry Leadership Award to Roger Penske, Chairman, Penske Corporation recognizing his profound impact on the automotive industry and his philanthropic leadership in the renaissance and revitalization of Detroit. Karen Healy  received the Donald W. Ableson Award for Visionary Leadership for her significant contributions to advance the mission of the SAE Foundation. BorgWarner was recognized with the AVL-sponsored Gordon Millar Award for their outstanding global philanthropic support and the recipients of the DENSO-sponsored Young Industry Leadership Awardees were Rohit Jigjinni with Faurecia and Brendan Chan with Navistar.

Other highlights of the evening included a live interview with John McElroy, host of Autoline.tv, and Roger Penske. The interview is expected to be posted to the Autoline website and YouTube channel on June 6 and air in the Detroit market on WTVS on June 9 and on June 13.

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Different paths lead IndyCar and IMSA to big weekends at Elkhart Lake's Road America

Road America’s two biggest events are vastly different, yes. But stripped down to their most basic levels, they’re more similar than they are opposites.

Teams prepare cars. Drivers traverse a 4-mile course in the Sheboygan County countryside. Fans buy tickets and stand along the fence line or sit in lawn chairs and cheer the competition and speed.

“In the simplest terms, it’s four wheels, it’s an engine, it’s a driver, it’s engineers, it’s aerodynamics, it’s testing, it’s technology,” said team owner Chip Ganassi, who participates in both series. “A lot of the things are the same.

“All the track knows – I’ve said this before – there’s four little rubber patches touching it. It doesn’t know if it’s an Indy car, an IMSA car, a NASCAR car. You’ve got to manage those four patches of tire that are touching the tarmac. You learn little things from each one, sort of a ‘best practices’ if you will that transfer back and forth between the series.”

From an appearance standpoint, though, the cars on track for IndyCar’s XPEL Grand Prix this weekend bear little resemblance to the IMSA sports cars that will show up the first weekend in August.

The technology is different. In some cases performance may be similar but in others it’s not even close.

Drivers sometimes cross over. Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves have won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, IMSA’s premier event. Pato O’Ward won an IMSA title in 2017, well before he became the most popular driver in IndyCar. Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, championship-winning teammates in IMSA, both made their IndyCar debuts this season.

IndyCar puts on competitive races with less advanced technology

The business model? Even within the ranks of IMSA, the approach can differ, and at the highest levels it’s worlds apart.

“To go IMSA racing, you’ve got to be a factory,” said Roger Penske, who owns the most successful team in IndyCar history, plus the series itself, and also operates the Porsche IMSA GTP program.

“And if you want to buy an LMDh car (used in IMSA’s top class and internationally), it’s two to three million for the car. You can get an Indy car for three or four hundred thousand. So it’s a huge, huge difference.”

IMSA has enjoyed considerable growth in recent years through the use of technical regulations common to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship, as well as technologies relevant to the manufacturers involved.

In eight weeks, IMSA’s WeatherTech Series grid will have about 50 cars from 12 manufacturers across four classes, although just 10 will compete for the overall win in the premier class with others far slower.

The entry list for Sunday’s XPEL Grand Prix includes 27 cars powered by either of two engines (Chevrolet or Honda) and one chassis manufacturer (Dallara).

IndyCar’s hybrid unit debuts at Mid-Ohio and a new car is coming in 2027

Penske bristles at the notion IndyCar has been stagnant, even if the car is essentially made-over versions of one that debuted in 2012, saying it’s completely different from a safety and technology standpoint.  The addition of a debris deflector in 2019 and then full aeroscreen in 2020 are among the most visually apparent changes.

“We’re now in the process of looking at 2027 when we’ll have a new car and we’ll have new technology, but the first step was hybrid,” Penske said.

IndyCar’s energy recovery system is scheduled to debut next month at Mid-Ohio, the second race after Road America. Drivers will be able to use the extra power generated through the system in a similar manner to the push-to-pass system, although it also will be available on ovals. The project was delayed and debuts about a year and a half after IMSA’s.

“But we can talk about the cars,” Penske continued. “We worked on safety. Certainly the speed is there. There’s no more competitive grid, when you look at it. So we can get into Formula One numbers and spend two and three hundred million dollars, and I’m not sure the show is any better.

“So I don’t want to see the criticism (from people) who might say we haven’t done anything with the car, because that’s not right. If you looked at where the car was five, six years ago and what’s been done with it and what’s been done with it over the last four or five years, it’s significant. With a commitment on ’27 to have new designs and some new opportunities we are working on today we’ll see it make a big difference. But I want to see us execute this hybrid car that we start with at Mid-Ohio.”

A full field test of the hybrid system is scheduled for Tuesday at the Milwaukee Mile, where the series will return after nine years to race twice on Labor Day weekend.

How much do the IndyCar vs. IMSA differences mean to Road America fans?

Looking back to the most basic elements of racing, though, how much do the differences in technology or the ownership business model mean to the fan along the fence line?

At Road America, the IMSA crowd has grown more than IndyCar in recent years, but that’s largely because it started smaller, said Mike Kertscher, the track president, without divulging numbers. There’s considerable crossover among the bases, but there are differences too.

“You have one that’s focused on technology for quite some time … and the other is focused maybe a little more on the competition side over the years, being very competitive and having great races,” Kertscher said. “When I look at size of events, activation in the paddock, what does the fan get for their buck, they’re pretty close in today’s day and age.

“On the technology side, our younger fans are into that more so than maybe some of our more tenured fans. Still, the technology still brings something new. Every car is cutting edge. We saw it last year with the electrification stuff, and it’s cool. IndyCar’s going there; it’s just not there yet. It’s coming. We hear about it. … It’s exciting to see.”

Are there things the series that put on the two biggest weekends at Road America can learn from one another?

Penske moved on without really answering that question. Ganassi, who fields five Honda Indy cars as well as a Cadillac entry in IMSA, said he saw things but didn’t think it’d be a good business move on his part to “sharpshoot (IMSA’s) Jim France and Roger Penske” with unsolicited advice.

Kertscher offered the promoter’s perspective:

“I think they both could probably teach our stock car friends a little bit about fan engagement.

“They both do some things well. The autograph sessions, the drivers are very approachable. Hell, last year I saw IndyCar guys down in the campground having dinner with random fans. That’s awesome. Those are stories that those people will tell forever.”

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'It just felt odd': How Team Penske's Tim Cindric's spent his two-week suspension

DETROIT – Through well over 400 race weekends with Team Penske’s IndyCar program – totaling 139 wins and more than 200 2 nd - and 3 rd -place finishes – team president Tim Cindric hadn’t missed a single one .

And yet on the eve of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 , Roger Penske’s righthand man sat in an unassuming old-timey bar nearly 600 miles away in Mooresville, N.C. Almost jokingly that Friday night, Cindric casually asked the owner, a member of the rabid North Carolina racing community whose establishment is only open Monday-Saturday, “Hey, Sunday, can I have the keys?”

“Yeah man, you can have the keys. You can have the whole place,” the man replied.

And that’s how three of the suspended Team Penske IndyCar members – Cindric, Ron Ruzewski and Robbie Atkinson, along with their wives – watched Team Penske make history, locking out the front row for the 500 for the second-time in race history .

“Luke (Mason) didn’t end up coming. He was like, ‘Man, I just want to be glued to the TV,’” Cindric recalled to IndyStar on Friday afternoon inside RP1 at the Detroit Grand Prix, his first race back after a two-race suspension levied by the team owner for his role in the program’s push-to-pass scandal . “We just had the bar and the TVs all to ourselves for three hours.”

It was but one part of what Cindric called an odd couple weeks during which he says he was virtually completely disconnected from Penske’s IndyCar arm, while ensuring its NASCAR and sportscar programs continued running as usual .

Outside of a couple phone calls with Josef Newgarden – one about his miserable Sonsio Grand Prix race, another about picking up his 2023 pace car – Cindric says he “wasn’t involved with the day-to-day running of the cars.”

“I think we know where the boundaries are without really talking about them,” he continued. “It is what it is.”

‘Was that legit?’: That whisper will continue to follow Team Penske in wake of scandal

And yet, there was, in fact, reason for the suspicion that Cindric hadn’t been able to stay away from Indianapolis during the Month of May. Having long ago made promises with his childhood best friend Gov. Eric Holcomb to watch Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever home debut from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Cindric worked from the team’s Mooresville headquarters for most of that week before flying in and finding a spot in a floor seat underneath one of the baskets between Holcomb and Pat McAfee.

“I wasn’t hiding,” Cindric chuckled. “Holcomb and I had planned that for quite a while.”

He stayed the following morning for a high school friend’s mother’s funeral and then flew home. He’d be back 10 days later to watch the Pacers fall to the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, alongside Holcomb and the Simon family.

“And I’m supposed to be giving a speech. Well, I shouldn’t say ‘supposed to’…” and then Cindric trails off. He catches himself and stops, because of course, he wasn’t the strategist on Newgarden’s 500-winning timing stand this May. Though Cindric spent the previous 50 weeks readying Team Penske’s next 500 push, following Newgarden’s breakthrough win in 2023 to cap a month where the program was still far from a force in qualifying, he says he experienced a weird mix of satisfaction and disconnect as the team stormed through May as the undeniable favorite.

Not only had he worked tirelessly behind the scenes since the checkered flag fell May 28, 2023 to strengthen Team Penske’s Month of May efforts – including landing the brilliance of A.J. Foyt Racing’s technical director Michael Cannon via the teams’ new technical alliance – but C indric had helped hand-pick those who would fill in for he, Ruzewski, Mason and Atkinson after Roger Penske decided additional action was needed to atone for the team’s mistakes that left Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin disqualified from a win and a 3 rd -place finish at St. Pete .

Roger Penske: 'Proper investigation' led to 4 IndyCar team suspensions including Indy 500

“I love seeing people coming here and succeeding. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about, ‘What can we accomplish that Roger hasn’t accomplished yet?’ And about those who decide to come here and put in everything it takes to work here,” Cindric said. “Seeing them succeed, to me, that’s honestly what makes me happy.

“In motorsports, there’s a lot of levels of euphoria, from the driver, to the pit crew, and you can go through all the different levels. And there’s no way to recreate that top level (when you’re not there). But fortunately, it’s something I’ve experienced many times. That’s not to say you don’t want to do it more, but it makes it easier.”

For race day, Cindric dealt with his own unique predicament, related to the rain delay that hampered the day for hundreds of thousands packed inside the few hundreds of acres at 16 th and Georgetown. With former President Donald Trump scheduled to visit Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coke 600, roads were set to shut down around the track around 3 p.m. And so Cindric hunkered down inside Penske’s condo at CMS with his wife, Megan, his oldest son Tanner and others from Penske’s NASCAR program and watched Newgarden, stand-in strategist Jonathan Diuguid, stand-in engineer Raul Prados and company make history.

“It just felt odd. Really weird,” said Cindric, describing his initial emotions of the day. “When you’re on the stand calling the race, you’re so deeply ingrained in your world, your numbers, your fuel, your pitstops, where your car is on-track, and it’s amazing how much of the race you don’t know how it happens until you watch the replay and you can really understand.

“That’s what’s so very different watching it on TV. When I watched on TV during the Split, I’m obviously still a huge fan of the 500, and I felt this time like I was a very vested fan. Like when you’re growing up and you meet somebody and decide to cheer them on like you have a connection to them. Now, multiply that by a massive amount. That’s what it was like.”

Insider: Newgarden doesn't want to be IndyCar's superhero or black hat. But he is.

There were times during the race, Cindric admits, he wasn’t sure Newgarden’s risky moves were going to hold – including the now-two-time-winner’s last-lap pass around the outside of Pato O’Ward two corners from the finish. When it did, the team president said the condo was full with a flurry of high-fives – even before the checkered flag fell. Newgarden’s ensuing run to the line sealed Penske’s record-extending 20 th 500 victory, something Cindric said The Captain made clear early in Cindric’s tenure was an ultimate goal.

“That first (500) with Roger in Victory Lane, for him that was his 11th. For me, it was my first, and I thought he yelled to me, ‘I want 12!’” Cindric said. “It turns out he was saying, ‘I want 20!’ And so I said, ‘Well, we can do that next year!’ But then he said, ‘No, 20!’

“Even just one for me seemed like an eternity, so to think you’re going to do that nine more times, that just didn’t seem possible at the time. I never thought I’d see that happen.”

‘Roger’s got to clean his house up’: IndyCar owners meet with Roger Penske over scandal

With this one, Cindric has and will continue to hold a special level of pride – not only for the on-track dominance and the history it now holds, but the adversity the team contends it fought through to get there . Inside the Team Penske walls, this 500 was fought for as a paddock full of fierce rivals sensed “blood in the water” and “took shots” all May. Some both publicly and privately continue to , as key questions around the scandal remain unanswered -- including why Cindric was allowed to continue working despite being "suspended" from IndyCar related activities

Tarnished reputation or not , Cindric says he and the team will press on. With May as the crowning example, he said, “We’ve got to focus on the things we can control.”

“Our choice was to separate as a team or just get more focused, and that was where my head was – trying to keep everyone focused on the job at hand,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would’ve sat there and expected to have the Month of May we had – especially these days when everyone has access to the same equipment.

“Now, I just look at it all like we’ve got to come back in and do the best job we can. I’ve played sports long enough to know you just have to focus on your part and the things you can control. When you start worrying about the things you can’t control, that’s when you don’t optimize the potential you have. That’s the mindset I’ve always had. I wouldn’t say we don’t care (about outside perception), because all that affects different people in different ways.”

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It's springtime in Indianapolis, but the bloom is off the rose for Roger Penske

INDIANAPOLIS — Up here in the Crossroads of America, they’re eagerly anticipating the pro debut — and possible rescue mission — of Caitlin Clark, who is now a member of the Indiana Fever, the bedraggled WNBA franchise that hasn’t finished above water since 2015.

But it’s also now the Month of May , which means the run-up to the Indy 500 in a place some also call the Circle City, and though it goes without saying in geometry, here we go: What goes around comes around.

Fifty years ago, one of the greatest all-around racers ever — Mark Donohue — briefly retired and during his downtime wrote a book about his career alongside team owner Roger Penske. He chronicled the mechanical and aerodynamic details he and Penske mastered to win and sometimes dominate in a variety of disciplines, including Indy-style racing.

NASCAR 2024 Cup Series bound for Kansas with Darlington, All-Star race approaching

These days, the title of that fabulous book is among the things coming back to bite Penske in the back pocket — “The Unfair Advantage,” it was called.

Unfair is among the nicer labels attached to the current storm of negativity hanging over the Penske operation as the IndyCar world approaches its High Holy Days. 

When Push comes to Pass

A lot of IndyCar’s casual followers were familiar with something called P2P, which is shorthand for “Push to Pass,” an electronic apparatus (on the steering wheel) giving a driver the ability to supply a burst of extra horsepower in order to overtake another car or defend position. 

They only get a certain amount of P2P per race, and it’s a no-no for the start of the race and all subsequent restarts. Though most purists hate it, it was designed to promote more passing and, over time, attract more fans.

Last week during warmups at the Long Beach Grand Prix, technical officials noticed a glaring bit of info (glaring in their world, anyway). Nearly two months earlier, at the season-opening race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Penske’s three cars had the P2P available during starts and restarts. 

And two of them used it — race winner and defending Indy 500 champ Josef Newgarden, and third-place finisher Scott McLaughlin. Teammate Will Power, who finished fourth, also had it available but didn’t misuse it, for whatever reason.

Newgarden and McLaughlin were stripped of their St. Pete finishes and the entire Penske operation was stripped of something much more valuable.

Here's Team Penske's Josef Newgarden explaining his violation at @GPSTPETE where he was disqualified. Head to https://t.co/33Ugb8JEvw for full coverage via @By_NathanBrown ---> https://t.co/nuCvw1bJ6n #indycar #firestonegp pic.twitter.com/c0oNTwKs7u — Clark Wade (@ClarkWade34) April 26, 2024

“I’ve emulated Roger Penske for many years on and off the track, so today’s news is quite a disappointment for me,” rival team owner Chip Ganassi told the Associated Press. “This is a blemish on his team, their organization, and the series. Very disappointing as a fellow owner and competitor in the series.”

Penske seems to still be on top of his game at 87, and still globetrotting to oversee his various racing interests — maybe England’s Birmingham one week, Alabama’s the next, and then back to Bloomfield Hills to manage his Detroit-based corporation.

The respect, admiration and genuine fondness he’s gathered over the years is largely the reason he’s mostly absolved from blame for this racing scandal. Team president Tim Cindric is obviously seconding that motion.

“The number one thing I wanted to understand, that Roger wanted to understand collectively is, was this done on purpose?” Cindric told Racer.com’s Marshall Pruett. “And if so, who, what, where and why? Who would think that they would even remotely get away with something like this? And if we did, for how long?”

Unfair advantages are old, far and wide

A couple of weeks back at Talladega, Kyle Larson’s crew rolled his NASCAR Chevy to the grid ahead of qualifying. Along the way, it was later discovered, the car’s safety-related roof rails had been messed with, presumably in a way to redirect air flow and provide the little oomph that could make the difference between starting fourth or first. 

How crude that sounds compared to IndyCar’s high-tech P2P manipulation. When these things happen in racing, you often wonder why they’d do such a thing when it could be discovered rather easily. But often, it only seems easily discoverable in hindsight. 

Frankly, if they’re up to these types of shenanigans, you could assume they get away with it as often as not. At least as often.

And no, it’s not part of our decaying norms. In auto racing, unfair advantages have been sought since the day Barney Oldfield bought his first set of goggles.

1971 . Roger Penske and Mark Donohue at the wheel of the Sunoco Ferrari 512M. #MarkDonohue #Penske #Ferrari pic.twitter.com/aN4iWQYvz7 — Jacques Alain (@jacqalan01) April 1, 2018

In Donohue’s book, he detailed the Penske team’s discovery of the advantages of acid-dipping their car’s sheet metal and thereby lowering its weight. Lighter is faster, of course. Pre-race weighing of all entries would soon follow, but the acid-dipping continued — ballast would be placed in favorable locations to help handling while also making proper weight. 

Penske and Donohue knew what they were doing in the 1960s, when they didn’t have the layer upon layers of engineers, mechanics and managers between their hands and the tool box. Just as you’d never suspect Rick Hendrick had any idea his guys were dabbing at roof rails in Talladega, you doubt Roger Penske endorsed something just as crude in its own technical way.

But it happened and here we go again with IndyCar, where signs of momentum can’t always be trusted. Since Penske added to his IndyCar portfolio by buying the entire series and North America’s most historic racing stage — Indianapolis — positive vibes have been in vogue. 

Or had been in vogue. An American sporting staple with an all-American, marketable defending champ, driving for a kingpin of American industry, and “Push to Pass” will be the unfortunate co-star.

— Reach Ken Willis at [email protected]

Real Time Net Worth

• Roger Wang is chairman of real estate firm Golden Eagle International, which builds malls and office buildings in eastern China.
• The Chinese native grew up in Taiwan and came to the U.S. in pursuit of an M.B.A. in 1970.
• He first got rich building condos around L.A. and returned to China in 1992 to start Golden Eagle.
• His firm's department store arm, Golden Eagle Retail Group, trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
• Wang stepped down as chief executive officer of Golden Eagle Retail Group in August 2022.

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Roger Penske tells AP cheating scandal overblown by critics because there’s ‘blood in the water’

Car owner Roger Penske with the the media, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in Detroit. Penske is well aware that his integrity has been questioned due to a cheating scandal that cost Josef Newgarden his IndyCar season-opening victory. (AP Photo/Larry Lage)

Roger Penske and Josef Newgarden pose with the Borg-Warner Trophy during the traditional winners photo session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Monday, May 27, 2024, in Indianapolis. Newgarden won the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 auto race Sunday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske delivers the command before the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

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DETROIT (AP) — Roger Penske is well aware his integrity has been questioned because of a cheating scandal that cost Josef Newgarden his season-opening IndyCar victory.

“It always bothers you when people take shots at you,” Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “But you know something, we have a strong foundation. People know who we are and how we operate. I guess we’ll have to move on.

“But sometimes when there’s blood in the water, people like to go after you and I think that’s what happened. I’m fine. I mean, we moved on.”

Newgarden moved past Pato O’Ward in the third turn of the final lap to win his second consecutive Indianapolis 500, giving Team Penske its record 20th victory in the race amid a scandal that has rocked IndyCar.

“The controversy, as far as I’m concerned, was way overblown,” Penske told the AP.

The series shifts to the Motor City this week, racing in the Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday.

Nearly six weeks after Newgarden’s victory in Florida, IndyCar discovered Penske’s three cars had an illegal version of the push-to-pass software installed that allowed their drivers to use the horsepower boost when no one else in the field had access to the advantage.

“Newgarden never should have had to worry about it because our team missed it, but it was not malicious,” Penske said. “By the way, it was available for everybody to look at it at all the races. So at the end of the day, we took our medicine and we’re moving on.”

Penske suspended four crew members, including team president Tim Cindric, the star strategist in IndyCar who calls Newgarden’s races, for the Indy 500.

“They weren’t there and we were able to show you how deep our bench was because we won the race,” Penske said, adding the previously suspended crew members are back with the team in Detroit.

Zak Brown, head of Arrow McLaren Racing, said the Penske punishments were too light.

Brown called Cindric’s presence at Penske’s sports car win at Laguna Seca earlier this month while under suspension “a bad look.”

Newgarden, following a luncheon to promote the Detroit Grand Prix, said he did not want to hypothesize to suggest the motivation behind the shots Penske has taken.

After Newgarden’s latest Indy 500 win, though, he did say he was grateful for everything during this turbulent season.

“It’s an experience that it’s got to either break you or tough you up, and for me, that’s all I’ll say about it,” he said. “We’ve been moving forward. We’ve never worked together more as a group, and I thought that was difficult to do.

“This is the most tight-knit team I’ve ever seen.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing