Tag: Roger Penske

Roger Penske addresses possibility of selling the NTT IndyCar Series

Roger Penske addresses the possibility of selling the NTT IndyCar Series. Check out what Penske had to say about IndyCar changing hands!

[autotag]Roger Penske[/autotag] has been the center of attention in the NTT IndyCar Series over the last few seasons, and it has only increased. Team Penske recently suspended four key team members after the organization was caught manipulating the Push to Pass parameters in St. Petersburg. As the series owner, Penske has taken some heat as some people believe it’s a conflict of interest.

Following Team Penske’s announcement on its suspensions, Penske talked to IndyStar’s Nathan Brown and addressed the possibility of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Series being for sale. Penske was adamant that it’s not the case.

“I can say to you that [Indianapolis Motor Speedway] and [the NTT IndyCar Series] are not for sale,” Penske said. “I feel if my reputation and actions I’ve taken the last 50 years aren’t good enough for people to understand how we do business, then I’m obviously disappointed.”

IndyCar has been in the news for the wrong reasons while other series, such as NASCAR, continue to have serious momentum. Penske may not make IndyCar available on the open market, but it’s fair to wonder what the series should do next. IndyCar has a lot of talent, personality, and parity, and Penske needs to find a way to put the series in the right direction.

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Roger Penske releases new statement after big suspensions at Team Penske

Roger Penske releases a new statement after the big suspensions at Team Penske. Find out what Penske had to say about the cheating scandal!

[autotag]Team Penske[/autotag] has made significant decisions following the cheating scandal in the NTT IndyCar Series race in St. Petersburg. Tim Cindric, the president of Team Penske, and three other key race team members have been suspended for the next two IndyCar races, one of which is the 2024 Indianapolis 500.

[autotag]Roger Penske[/autotag], owner of Team Penske, released a statement alongside the decision to suspend Cindric and three other team employees. Penske expressed remorse for the situation and recognized its impact on IndyCar.

“I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I’ve dedicated so many decades,” Penske said.” Everyone at Team Penske, along with our fans and business partners, should know that I apologize for the errors that were made, and I deeply regret them.”

This story won’t go away anytime soon, as Team Penske will be down several vital members in the biggest event of the entire racing season. The Indianapolis 500 is under three weeks away, and the organization still faces public criticism. Team Penske must put this behind them, but keeping the attention away moving forward will be hard.

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Penske downplays short-term prospects for WEC race at Indy

The venue for the FIA WEC’s annual race in the United States beyond this season remains unclear, following comments earlier today from Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske ahead of the opening WEC race of the season at the Lusail …

The venue for the FIA WEC’s annual race in the United States beyond this season remains unclear, following comments earlier today from Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske ahead of the opening WEC race of the season at the Lusail International Speedway in Qatar,

Penske –whose team also operates Porsche’s factory Hypercar and IMSA GTP programs — appeared to play down the prospects of the Speedway joining the calendar any time soon.

“I think at the moment it’s a scheduling situation,” he said when asked for an update on talks between IMS and the WEC for a future event. “We’d love to have it come at some point. Now, we will have an IMSA six-hour race in September this year, which will be good.

“There’s a lot of interest in sports car racing worldwide now. Talking to Pierre (Fillon, ACO president) at Le Mans, you look at Imola, these places, the interest in tickets, there are some very very high levels of interest. It’s good for us, and good for Porsche.”

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This year the FIA WEC will visit Austin’s Circuit of The Americas for the first time since 2020. The return of the Lone Star Le Mans event replaces the championship’s Sebring doubleheader with IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but it is believed the deal for the COTA event is for a single year.

Penske, however, seemingly all but ruled out the WEC visiting the Brickyard in the short term. He suggested that he wouldn’t mind COTA remaining on the calendar if this year’s event proves to be a success.

“I don’t have anything to announce, I don’t think we are ready to do something in the next 24 months,” Penske said when asked about the possibility for IMS to be on the calendar for 2025. “But I’d love to do something.”

“We’re not here to push them (COTA) out — if they have a good race there, they should stay there,” he added.

This is a shift in tone on the subject from Penske, who said after Le Mans last summer that he had hoped to have Indianapolis on the calendar in 2024.

“We had good discussions,” he said last July. “We were going to do it in September (2024), which is when they are going to COTA. We were going to do it on the same weekend IMSA was coming and run an event like the doubleheader was at Sebring. But we couldn’t because of TV and the travel for them was going to be impossible.

“It was financial and there was no flexibility for IMSA to change its dates.”

Penske still hopeful of adding WEC to IMS race portfolio

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske says he is still hopeful that the FIA World Endurance Championship will visit the Brickyard in future seasons after plans to host a race at the world-famous venue in 2024 fell through. In 2024, as part …

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske says he is still hopeful that the FIA World Endurance Championship will visit the Brickyard in future seasons after plans to host a race at the world-famous venue in 2024 fell through.

In 2024, as part of an expanded eight-race calendar, the FIA WEC will return to Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas for the first time since 2020. This move follows the decision to drop the 1000-mile race at Sebring, as part of a doubleheader with the IMSA, from the schedule.

The decision to choose a different U.S. venue was made in part because there was no longer an appetite to run the WEC race on Friday at Sebring ahead of the IMSA 12-hour race. The new deal with Qatar to host the series’ pre-season Prologue and season opener at the Lusail International Circuit in March meant it also no longer worked from a logistical standpoint.

Speaking to select media last weekend at Monza, Penske, whose team also operates Porsche’s factory efforts in the top class of both the FIA WEC and IMSA, said there were discussions with the WEC about hosting a race at Indianapolis in September 2024. However, the WEC’s travel schedule in the second half of the season meant it simply wouldn’t be viable for the slot proposed.

“We had good discussions. We were hoping we could run one (a WEC event) in 2024. We would very much like a WEC race there,” Penske said. “We were going to do it in September (2024), which is when they are going to COTA. We were going to do it on the same weekend IMSA was coming and run an event like the doubleheader was at Sebring. But we couldn’t because of TV and the travel for them was going to be impossible.

“It was financial and there was no flexibility for IMSA to change its dates.”

Penske also reiterated that beyond 2024 he would welcome a doubleheader with IMSA at Indianapolis.

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From 2024 onwards the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Indy is expected to become a fifth round for the Michelin Endurance Cup, making it a perfect opportunity to showcase the expanded WeatherTech Series endurance field and the FIA WEC’s grid on the same bill.

“It would be great to have them on the same weekend. We are open to hosting both series, especially as the rules get closer and closer,” Penske said. “I’d love to see that (a doubleheader) at Indianapolis — we want to use the track for big events and international events, which is what the WEC would bring.”

Roger Penske reunited with his lost 1958 trophy

As a team owner, Roger Penske left the Indianapolis 500 with a claim to a special piece of silverware: his 19th Baby Borg. But as a driver, he didn’t fly out of Indianapolis empty-handed either. In this case though, it was a trophy he’d won 65 years …

As a team owner, Roger Penske left the Indianapolis 500 with a claim to a special piece of silverware: his 19th Baby Borg. But as a driver, he didn’t fly out of Indianapolis empty-handed either. In this case though, it was a trophy he’d won 65 years earlier.

Penske the driver first got his feet wet in amateur road races, but in 1958 he decided to up the stakes and acquire a used Porsche RS for SCCA events. The payoff was immediate – he won the 1500cc class in the SCCA National at Marlboro Raceway in Maryland – and he received an elegant silver cup for his efforts.

He continued to have success in sports cars for the next few years, including wins at the Riverside California Grand Prix and the Pacific Grand Prix in 1962, and the Nassau Tourist Trophy in 1964. But in 1965 he hung up his helmet to focus on his rapidly expanding business interests, and over the years that followed, that first trophy from 1958 became lost.

Fast-forward several decades, and Tennessean motorsports history enthusiast Mike Teske was browsing through an antique shop in central California’s San Joaquin Valley when something caught his eye.

The original Penske victory hardware, once lost, now found. Mike Teske

“I actually have a couple of NASCARs and I was searching for trophies, and I found a couple that were for cars that I had,” Teske told RACER. “So I’ve always kept an eye out for them, and when I saw this one… I didn’t even really know about Marlboro Raceway, so it piqued my interest. The guy in the antique store didn’t know what it was, so I had to do a little research.”

Research is Teske’s forte: he’s one of the world’s top authorities on the Ford GT40. But it still took some digging and cross-referencing for him to work out that he’d acquired the trophy from Penske’s 1958 win. Having established that, Teske decided to return the trophy to its original owner: a mission that took some time (“Roger Penske’s not an easy guy to get in touch with,” he said) but which finally came to pass this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the eve of the 500.

“Honestly, I have to believe it has been decades since I last saw that trophy,” Penske told RACER. “What a terrific surprise from Mike Teske while we were in Indianapolis. On top of Josef’s win in the 500, it made it a special week.”

The circumstances that led to the trophy falling out of Penske’s possession and making its way across the country to an antique store in California’s agricultural heartland have been lost to the mists of time.

“Since my driving days we have moved shops a few times, from Newtown Square, PA to Reading, PA to Mooresville, NC,” Penske said. “It is likely not the only thing that got misplaced in those moves. Very happy to have it back.

“It brought back some great memories of my driving days. We had a lot of fun and I’m proud of our success in those days. It is amazing that Mike was able to find it and give it back to me. I greatly appreciate it.”

For Teske, whose own house is a self-described “mini-museum” of GT40-related artifacts, there was almost as much pleasure in seeing the trophy return “home.”

“Roger’s done a lot, so to see his eyes light up was special” he said. “He said, ‘I like everything nice and bright and shiny’ – which this is not; it has aged – ‘and I’m going to get this cleaned up and I’m going to put it in my office in Detroit.’

“I think it’s hard to impress him with all he’s gone through and achieved in life, so it was very special for me to be able to give it to him.”

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Indy 500 fan whose car was damaged by a flying tire is getting a new one from Penske Entertainment

A tire from Felix Rosenqvist’s car flew off into the crowd during the Indy 500 and hit a parked car.

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Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, particularly the final 20 laps, was filled with drama, tension and some terrifying crashes, including when a tire from Felix Rosenqvist’s car flew off into the crowd and hit a parked car.

Rosenqvist made contact with the outside wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and spun out as a result. With traffic coming around the track, Kyle Kirkwood hit Rosenqvist’s skidding car, causing the tire to shoot out toward the grandstands. Kirkwood then slammed into the wall, flipped upside down and slid down the track.

Thankfully, no one was injured from the tire soaring above fans’ heads — though one spectator was treated for minor injuries from flying debris not related to the tire. But it hit a parked car, damaging the front left side.

MORE INDY 500: Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden on his thrilling last-lap pass and ‘Top Gun-style’ celebration

And now, as the IndyStar reported Wednesday, the owner of the damaged (passenger) car, Robin Matthews, is getting a replacement from Penske Entertainment, which owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series, per a track spokesperson.

More from the IndyStar:

“I didn’t see it come down,” said Matthews, a racing fan from Indianapolis. “I came down and they said, ‘Robin, it’s your car!’ I thought, ‘No.’ I thought somebody was pranking me. It’s a car. It’s fine.”

For racing fans who know anything about Roger Penske and the “Penske Way,” a new car for Matthews is hardly a surprise.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden on his thrilling last-lap pass and ‘Top Gun-style’ celebration

“I couldn’t have scripted it better for us to be able to have a green-flag finish,” Indy 500 champ Josef Newgarden told For The Win.

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More than a decade after his first time out, Josef Newgarden finally became an Indianapolis 500 champion Sunday, winning the 107th running of the iconic race.

Following three red-flag pauses in the final 15 laps of the 500-mile race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 champ, battled it out off a one-lap restart shootout. Newgarden surged past Ericsson on the backstretch for the lead and ultimately the victory in a thrilling final lap. Winning a record 19th Indy 500 for Team Penske, the No. 2 Chevrolet driver edged Ericsson by 0.0974 seconds for the fourth-closest finish in the race’s history.

For The Win spoke with Newgarden on Tuesday after his Indy 500 victory about his late-race strategy, adding to the Team Penske legacy and his “Top Gun-style” celebration.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

NASCAR rookie Austin Cindric ‘didn’t make a mistake’ on his way to a Daytona 500 victory

The 23-year-old NASCAR driver’s first career win was the Daytona 500.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the past three and a half months, Austin Cindric has been “haunted” by his performance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship race.

“Every moment of every day,” he said of how often he thinks about losing a second consecutive championship in the second-tier series by 0.030 seconds to Daniel Hemric in November.

“I’ve never been in so much pain that I wanted to vomit,” Cindric said. “Never in my life have I been in so much pain, felt like I let so many people down that I’ve wanted to just throw up on the sport.”

But in the 23-year-old rookie’s debut as a full-time Cup Series driver, he found redemption for that loss, taking the checkered flag in the biggest race of his life, Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500, for his first win at NASCAR’s highest level.

“This makes up for losing the [Xfinity] championship last year,” Cindric said.

“It’s a racer’s dream, and so many people get close to it. And I feel very grateful and very proud to be able to pull it off.”

Replacing Brad Keselowski — who became a driver-owner for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing — in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Cindric edged out runner-up Bubba Wallace by 0.036 in the third-closest finish in Daytona 500 history.

It was Cindric’s eighth career Cup start, and the rookie became the second-youngest Daytona 500 champ after 2011 winner Trevor Bayne, then 20 years old. He led 21 laps.

He raced like, and beat, hard-charging Cup veterans in the final laps around the 2.5-mile track, elevated by his No. 2 Ford that was fast enough to finish second in his qualifying race Thursday and start fifth in “The Great American Race.”

“If you looked at Austin this week and the way he ran, he didn’t make a mistake today,” said team owner Roger Penske, who celebrated his 85th birthday Sunday and got quite the present.

“He was up second, third, almost the entire race, and then at the end to be able to pull it off, [it] shows you the quality of kid he is and also the experience that he already has as a young man.”

With multiple wrecks in the final 10 laps of the 200 go-arounds scheduled — fairly standard for the end of the Daytona 500 — NASCAR went to overtime and ended the race with a two-lap shootout.

Cindric clung to his lead from the inside lane after the final restart with teammate Ryan Blaney, Keselowski and Wallace among those chasing down the No. 2 Ford. Coming out of Turn 4 on the last lap, Blaney moved to the top of the track to attempt to pass his teammate for the win, but Cindric went with him and threw a block.

Blaney made contact with the outside wall as Wallace went to the inside, but they ran out of time to get around Cindric.

“I was able to get Austin in front and off of [Turn] 4, where we were good enough to make a move,” Blaney said. “I got blocked and I ended up getting fenced. I’m happy for Roger Penske, winning the 500 on his birthday. I’m happy for [Cindric’s crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and everyone that works on that 2 car.”

Confident going into the weekend, Cindric said he knew he had a car capable of winning, but there are no guarantees at the Daytona track. NASCAR’s second-longest oval breeds chaos, and simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time can shatter very realistic shots at winning the Daytona 500.

“I did not pack an extra set of clothes, by the way, so I’m not that confident,” Cindric said, laughing about how his expectations influenced his weekend wardrobe.

“I’ll be re-wearing my clothes from [Sunday on Monday], and I will have fresh underwear,” he joked. “So that’s a win.”

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NASCAR rookie Austin Cindric edged Bubba Wallace in outrageously narrow Daytona 500 finish

Austin Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500 by 0.036 seconds.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It wasn’t the narrowest margin of victory in Daytona 500 history, but it was close. And Austin Cindric’s full-time NASCAR Cup Series debut couldn’t have gone any better.

The new Team Penske Ford driver held off a parade of furiously charging drivers behind him on the final lap of the 2022 season opener Sunday at Daytona International Speedway and narrowly edged Bubba Wallace for the checkered flag.

Inches, fractions of a car length, hundredths of a second — 0.036 to be exact.

That was the difference between Cindric in the No. 2 car and Wallace in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota in what became a true photo finish in the 64th Daytona 500.

“Oh, my god,” Cindric said afterward, seemingly in disbelief. “Do you know what makes it all better? A packed house. A packed house at the Daytona 500. …

“I’m surrounded by great people — that’s all there is to it. I know there’s going to be highs and lows, being a rookie in a field of drivers this strong. I’m just grateful for the opportunity, excited to climb the mountain we’ve got ahead of us on the [No.] 2 team.”

The 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, Cindric became the second youngest Daytona 500 champ following Trevor Bayne, who won the 2011 race at the age of 20 years and one day.

“He didn’t make a mistake today,” said team owner Roger Penske, who turned 85 on Sunday, praising the 23-year-old rookie.

Chase Briscoe finished third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Aric Almirola, in his final NASCAR season, fifth.

Cindric replaced Brad Keselowski, who became a driver-owner for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, in the No. 2 Ford this year and took his first career checkered flag in the biggest race of the season. The victory also locks Cindric into the 10-race playoffs in the fall.

Cindric got a big push from his Team Penske teammate Blaney in the No. 12 Ford in the two-lap overtime shootout to hold off Wallace, who collected his second runner-up finish at the Daytona 500 after finishing second in 2018. Wallace had captured his first career Cup Series win at last year’s Talladega Superspeedway playoff race after finishing second at the Daytona 400-lap summer race, which served as the 2021 regular-season finale.

Kyle Busch overcame early damage to finish sixth, last year’s winner, Michael McDowell, finished seventh, while David Ragan, Keselowski and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.

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Joey Logano sets his sights on second NASCAR Cup Series championship

SportsPulse: The 2018 winner explains the unique feeling of bringing home NASCAR’s top prize and why he’d love nothing more than to do it all over again.

SportsPulse: The 2018 winner explains the unique feeling of bringing home NASCAR’s top prize and why he’d love nothing more than to do it all over again.