Roger Penske

Roger Penske
Penske at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Carb Day for the 2015 Indianapolis 500
Born (1937-02-20) 20 February 1937
Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality United States American
Active years 1961–1962
Teams Non-works Cooper and Lotus
Entries 2
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First entry 1961 United States Grand Prix
Last entry 1962 United States Grand Prix
1994 Indy 500 winning Penske PC23 driven by Al Unser, Jr
Penske in 2005

Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and formerly a professional auto racing driver himself. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, the Penske Corporation, and other automotive-related businesses.

Sports Illustrated named him Sports Car Club of America Driver of the Year in 1961. After retiring from driving a few years later, he created one of the most successful teams in IndyCar Series and NASCAR racing. He is the most successful owner in the Indianapolis 500 with 17 victories. He is known by his nickname of "The Captain".[1] In addition, Penske serves as a race strategist for his IndyCar team, currently for driver Will Power.[2]

Penske is a corporate director at General Electric and was chairman of Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Michigan. He was previously on the board of The Home Depot and Delphi Automotive before resigning to chair the Detroit Super Bowl Committee. He has an estimated net worth of $1.83 billion as of 2018.[3]

Early life and education

Penske was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1937.[4] His father, Jay, was a successful corporate executive for a metal fabrication company and encouraged his son to become an entrepreneur.[5] As a teenager he bought older cars, repaired them and sold them at a profit from his family's home in Cleveland, Ohio.[6] Penske is a 1959 graduate of Lehigh University.[7]

Racing career

Starting in the late 1950s, Penske purchased, raced and sold race cars, and was successful both financially and on the track. Penske made his first professional racing start at the now-abandoned Marlboro Motor Raceway in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

By 1960, he was a well-known race car driver (Sports Illustrated SCCA Driver of the Year). He competed in two Formula One Grands Prix, and won a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside in 1963. He never ran the Indianapolis 500: he was offered a rookie test at Indianapolis, but turned it down for business reasons; rookie Mario Andretti stepped in for Penske to take that test.

Penske continued racing until 1965, when he retired as a driver, to concentrate on his first Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[8]

Racing teams

Roger Penske was inaugurated into the Wall of Fame at Sonoma Raceway in 2015

Penske Racing debuted in 1966 at the 24 Hours of Daytona,[9] after Penske had retired from race driving. His team first competed in the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, winning that event in 1972 with driver Mark Donohue, and their first NASCAR win was in 1973. His teams have won many races in the subsequent years. He closed his European-based Formula One business in 1977.

Penske Racing now operates an IndyCar Series team composed of Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, and a NASCAR team with drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney. Previously, Penske Racing ran cars in the CART series that included some of the best drivers of the time, including Gary Bettenhausen, Tom Sneva, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Al Unser, Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan, Paul Tracy and Gil de Ferran. After many years of trying, his team won the Daytona 500 in 2008 with Ryan Newman driving. Penske, would later win another Daytona 500 in 2015 with Logano behind the wheel.

In 2005, Porsche set the stage to make a comeback in sports car racing in the United States and chose Penske Racing to run in the LMP2 class of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The Penske Porsches took center stage in 2006, winning immediately, including victories at Mid-Ohio finishing 1-2 ahead of Audi (competing in a higher classification) and the annual Petit Le Mans, a 10-hour showcase event held at Road Atlanta. His team scored an overall victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2008.

Penske also ran a Pontiac Riley Daytona Prototype in the 2008 Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Kurt Busch, Ryan Briscoe, and Hélio Castroneves driving. The car was run in conjunction with Wayne Taylor's SunTrust Racing. They finished third overall.

In 2009, Penske suspended his participation in the ALMS, switching to ALMS's rival Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series for the full season. They used a Porsche-powered Riley with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas driving.

Penske purchased the old Matsushita air conditioning plant in Mooresville, NC and reconditioned it to consolidate his racing business. All of Penske's racing operations are under one roof, with his IndyCar, NASCAR, and American Le Mans Series (through 2009) teams sharing over 424,000 square feet (39,400 m2) of space encompassing 105 acres (42 ha).

Penske won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with driver Brad Keselowski on November 18, 2012.

In late 2014, it was announced Penske would take a 51% stake in Australian V8 Supercars team Dick Johnson Racing, forming DJR Team Penske. The team entered one car in 2015, initially for Marcos Ambrose before he stepped aside to make way for Scott Pye. The team expanded to a second car for New Zealander Fabian Coulthard in 2016, before Pye was replaced with another Kiwi in Scott McLaughlin in 2017. Coulthard won the combined team's first championship race at the 2017 Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint.

On September 16th, 2018, driver Brad Keselowski won the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Roger Penske, giving the entire Penske organization it's 500th win.

Personal life

Penske has five children, two with first wife Lissa and three with second wife Kathy: Roger, Jr, Gregory, Blair, Mark, and Jay Penske.

An avid car collector, he owns many rare American and European automobiles, including a Ferrari FXX, of which only 30 were made.

Political activities

Penske Racing donated $500,000 to Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's Super PAC.[10] Penske was discussed as a potential candidate for Mayor of Detroit, but he declined to run.[11]

In 2016 a "Draft Roger Penske for US Senate (Michigan)" movement began.[12]

Penske Corporation

Penske is chairman of Penske Corporation, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Some of the company's holdings include Penske Automotive Group, an international company that operates automobile dealerships in the United States, Canada and parts of Europe; Penske Truck Leasing, a truck sales, leasing, and fleet maintenance company; and Penske Motor Group which has dealerships in California and Texas.

Racing awards

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

YearClassCarPosition
1960F ModifiedPorsche RSK1
1961D ModifiedMaserati/Cooper1
1962D ModifiedCooper Monaco1
1963D ModifiedZerex Special1

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 WDC Points
1961 John M Wyatt III Cooper T53 Climax Straight-4 MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER ITA USA
8		 NC 0
1962 Dupont Team Zerex Lotus 24 Climax V8 NED MON BEL FRA GBR GER ITA USA
9		 RSA NC 0
Source:[15]

References

  1. ↑ James, Brant (March 4, 2013). "Long-Range Vision". Autoweek. 63 (5): 54–60.
  2. ↑ "IndyCar: Without Hélio, Team Penske moves on". autoweek.com. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  3. ↑ Roger Penske - Forbes, Forbes.com.
  4. ↑ "2009 Kronk Gym Foundation Honorees: Roger Penske" (PDF). Kronk Gym Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  5. ↑ "Roger Penske Sports Biography, Photos & Rise To Success". Ca.askmen.com. 1937-02-20. Archived from the original on 2014-10-24. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  6. ↑ "Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Roger Penske". Answers.com. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  7. ↑ "Roger Penske". Forbes. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  8. ↑ "#382 Roger Penske". Forbes. 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  9. ↑ Team Penske - Year by Year Highlights, www.teampenske.com Retrieved 8 January 2015
  10. ↑ Lane, Amy (28 October 2012). "Penske drives to the lead of super PAC list". Crain's Detroit Business. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  11. ↑ Welch, William M. (20 August 2011). "Time to draft Roger Penske for president?". USA Today. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  12. ↑ JLenardDetroit. "Draft Roger Penske for USSenate (Michigan) | RedState". RedState. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  13. ↑ Brudenell, Mike (July 23, 2015). "Penske credits humble beginnings on Automotive HOF night". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved March 5, 2016. Local racing mogul honored in ceremony
  14. ↑ "Roger Penske". Hall of Fame Inductees. Automotive Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  15. ↑ Small, Steve (1994). The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who. Guinness. p. 284. ISBN 0851127029.
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