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Penske ahead of Indy 500: ‘We have found a way to keep moving forward’
Posted by Talbot Payne on August 22, 2020
When the green flag falls on the Indianapolis 500 this Sunday, it will mark the zenith of Roger Penske’s extraordinary racing career.
The Bloomfield Hills-based businessman and motorsports icon fell in love with America’s greatest race when his father took him to the track as a 14-year-old. Now 83, Penske will not only be looking to add to his record 18 Indy 500 wins as a team boss — he will be doing it as owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar series.
Penske has hardly had time to celebrate his trifecta.
The historic coronavirus epidemic threw a monkey wrench into the IndyCar series schedule. It has shut down racing for weeks and forced a rework of the schedule — including the Indy 500 that was moved to this weekend’s Aug. 23 date from its traditional Memorial Day.
“I think 2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for everyone,” said “The Captain,” as he is affectionately called, in an interview this week ahead of the big race. “Certainly, no one could have envisioned the challenges we have all faced this year. But the most important thing is we have found a way to keep moving forward.”
That relentlessly positive attitude has propelled Penske to a successful business career that includes not just the Indy jewels, but a sprawling empire that spans car dealerships, truck rentals, race engine manufacturing and supply chain management services.
At Penske Corp.’s heart, however, is a passion for racing. A passion seeded as a young teen growing up in Shaker Heights on the east side of Cleveland.
“My love for racing really began at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when my father took me to see my first Indianapolis 500 in 1951,” Penske said. “Since then, it was always a goal of mine to return to race at Indianapolis and, of course, competing at the Indianapolis 500 was the pinnacle of racing — and it still is.”
He was an amateur Sports Car Club of America racer in the early 1960s. Quick in sports cars, he earned Driver of the Year honors in 1961 and caught the eye of pro series like Formula One and NASCAR. He was even offered a rookie test at Indianapolis, but turned it down because he couldn’t get time off from his Alcoa day job — another rookie named Mario Andretti took his place instead.
Penske’s sights were set on business ownership.
“When I first began racing I really just enjoyed the competition and the challenge. … But once I got an opportunity in the automotive business through a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, I knew that was going to require so much of my focus,” he said. “I made the decision to retire as a race car driver in 1965 to build the business.”
He also built a racing team, starting in 1966. The two enterprises became inseparable as the years went by, the racing providing his businesses a halo marketing profile while also reinforcing good business practices.
“Racing continues to be the common thread that runs throughout our business. Our success on the track — especially at the Indianapolis 500 — has really helped build awareness of our brand,” he said. “But beyond that, the lessons we have learned and the philosophies that have brought us success in racing have been directly applied to all areas of our business: teamwork, technology, perseverance and focus.”
A key partner is his early team endeavors was Mark Donohue — nickname, Captain Nice — a rare racing talent who also was a skilled engineer. Their success began in sports cars, then Trans Am Camaros — an SCCA class that Team Penske would dominate in the late 1960s. But their eyes were set on bigger fish.
“The Indianapolis 500 was the pinnacle of racing. We worked with our sponsors to put together a program for the 1969 Indianapolis 500 with Mark,” remembers Penske. Success was immediate.
Donohue finished seventh, winning Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors. Just three years later, he stood atop the podium — the first of Penske’s 18 Indy wins. Penske started racing in NASCAR and the globetrotting Formula One series in the mid-1970s, an endeavor that cost Donohue his life in a tragic 1975 accident.
The Captain’s biggest successes have come at Indy. His parking spot in the paddock is #18 — in honor of the number of times he has won the 500.His winning drivers are a who’s who of Indy legends — Rick Mears (four-time winner), Al Unser, Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Helio Castroneves (three-time winner).
Associates who have worked for him describe a kind, driven entrepreneur with a keen eye for detail. He knows names and family details of team members right down to workers on shop floors. He attends every IndyCar race and serves as a driver race strategy manager.
The racers worship him.
“I’m very proud to know Roger, quite frankly. I think he’s a monument of racing — a monument of business in general,” Frenchman and 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud said. “I want to make him proud by winning. Frankly, I would like to be the driver to win his first Indy 500 as an owner of the speedway.”
Penske’s influence transcends his team. His efficient management style — even his white shirt and slacks dress code — is emulated up and down pit row.
“In the paddock, no one is more respected,” said former Car and Driver executive editor Steven Cole Smith, who covers motor racing for Autoweek and Grassroots Motorsports. “But interestingly, those who work for him don’t call him Mr. Penske. They call him Roger.”
The Indy 500 has changed dramatically over the years. Speeds have climbed from an average lap speed of 150 mph in the 1960s to over 230 mph this year. Yet perhaps nothing has altered the sport as dramatically as the coronavirus epidemic.
The racing world heralded a bold new era with Penske’s purchase of the Indy 500 and IndyCar from the Hulman family late last year. But the new boss couldn’t have had an inkling of what was to come.
The pandemic crippled the early 2020 racing season. May races at Indy and Detroit fell in quick succession, with the season not getting underway until June. The Indy 500 was rescheduled until late August, which seemed a safe bet at the time.
The season gained momentum as Wisconsin’s Elkhart Lake road course welcomed the return of thousands of fans to motorsport in July.
But a surge in national cases panicked officials, leading to the postponement of IndyCar’s Mid-Ohio race until October. Bad news for Sunday’s 500 inevitably followed: no spectators would be allowed for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Penske reacted with his trademark optimism: “The most important thing is we have found a way to keep moving forward. I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish together, and while this year’s Indianapolis 500 will certainly be different without fans in attendance, we are looking forward to putting on a great show for everyone watching on NBC.”
Says Cole Smith: “There is no better steward to pull IndyCar and IMS through this pandemic.”
Dealing with fast-changing health conditions hasn’t been Penske’s only Indy 500 challenge. As a team owner, he has watched his Chevy-powered team uncharacteristically struggle in qualifying.
His Fab Four of drivers — Pagenaud, Castroneves, reigning IndyCar champ Josef Newgarden, and Will Power — were frozen out of the top three rows of qualifying last weekend. It’s the first time that’s happened since 2002. Instead, Penske’s Honda-powered rivals dominated qualifying, with Newgarden the first Penske car on the 33-car grid in 13th.
But The Captain is not one to dwell on the past. Of past Indy winners, he confesses no single favorite. All carry special moments, he says.
His focus now is on Sunday, the next race. The next challenge.
“To me, I am always looking forward,” he said. “While I am so proud of all we have accomplished at Indianapolis, I am focused on our next opportunity to win there and that will come for us this Sunday.”