Team Penske has been the dominant force in IndyCar for decades and has become the team to beat in NASCAR in recent years, bringing that winning culture to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship with DJR Team Penske. We met with Roger Penske to discuss the rise of Team Penske.
Roger Penske was beaming at the 2019 Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is his home. A Team Penske car won the Indianapolis GP on the road course and claimed pole position and the race win in the Indy 500, another month of May masterclass from Penske’s team.
For the man known as ‘The Captain’, his playground is the biggest single-day sporting event in the world: 320,000 people fill the grandstands that line the iconic 2.5-mile (4km) track on the same day he had three cars lining up at Charlotte Motor Speedway for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 and, on the other side of the world, two Supercars at Winton Motor Raceway. Only his International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) team was sitting idle on that one weekend.
Team Penske is in action week in, week out in the United States of America. The season starts in January and ends in November with more than 65 weekends of racing. There are 14 regular series drivers across the four categories, between 60 and 80 cars in action or being prepared at any given moment with about 600 staff making it all happen.
It is a phenomenal enterprise that effectively started when Penske was just a driver. He retired from driving in 1965 to focus on his first business, a Philadelphia Chevrolet dealership. However, racing remained a key element in Penske’s overall business plan, and he soon entered cars in a variety of categories in North America.
Mark Donohue led the team on the track, delivering Team Penske’s first Indy 500 and NASCAR race wins. The American was killed following a crash at the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. Team Penske raced on and fittingly won in Austria the following season, becoming one of only two American teams to win a Formula 1 grand prix in Europe.
This story is from the August - September 2019 Issue 112 edition of V8X Supercar Magazine.
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This story is from the August - September 2019 Issue 112 edition of V8X Supercar Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
1960 – 2020 TOP 60 DRIVERS
Who are the greatest drivers in the 60-year history of the Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars? We rank the top 60 with an emphasis on best championship finishes, race-winning percentage and competitive longevity. Only drivers with top 10 championship finishes were considered, to emphasise championship performances over part-time or endurance campaigns. Also, results from the Bathurst 1000 and other endurance events were only factored in when they were part of the championship.
TOP END TALENT
Twenty-one-year-old Bryce Fullwood will become the first Northern Territorian to race in front of his home crowd as a full-time driver in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship when the main game visits Darwin in July. But, even more remarkably, Fullwood wasn’t even born the last time Walkinshaw Andretti United (formerly the Holden Racing Team) ran a rookie in one of its entries back in 1997.
HOLDEN IN MEMORIAM
From saddlery manufacturing in Adelaide in 1856, Holden grew into an Australian automotive giant. The news of its impending demise wasn’t unexpected, given its dwindling sales in recent years, but it was still felt acutely not only within Supercars but across Australia. This is the story of Holden’s journey in Australian touring cars, from the formative years to the present.
ENDURO MOVERS
The field for the 2020 PIRTEK Enduro Cup is taking shape with the offseason moves headlined by reigning Bathurst 1000-winning co-driver Alexandre Prémat finding a new home at Tickford Racing.
THE DARK HORSE
In a season of massive driver change, Kelly Racing is the only team to switch manufacturers. Now equipped with the Ford Mustang, the streamlined two-car team shapes as a real dark horse this season.
JACK BE QUICK
After championship wins in the Kumho Tyre Australian V8 Touring Car Series and New Zealand V8 Touring Cars, three seasons in the Dunlop Super2 Series, four main-game wildcard rounds and a PIRTEK Enduro Cup campaign, Jack Smith graduates into the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship with Brad Jones Racing in 2020.
EXPANSION & CELEBRATION
The 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship marks the 20th anniversary of Brad Jones Racing’s arrival in the category. And the team celebrates the milestone with an expansion to four entries, cementing its place in Supercars as the oldest team not to have had an ownership change since its arrival.
BETTING ON 18
Thirty-year-old Scott Pye joins his fourth Virgin Australia Supercars Championship team when he links with an expanded Team 18 in 2020, pairing with Mark Winterbottom in the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned team in his bid to find a long-term home.
AS THE DECADES ROLL ON...
With the Australian Touring Car Championship/Virgin Australia Supercars Championship celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2020, we look back at the decade-on years in the history of the sport.
Right On Track
REFLECTING BACK