Tag: Roger Penske

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.”

Presented by:

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.

Indy 500 made the right call to exclude fans, but it didn’t really have a choice

For the first time in 104 races, the Indianapolis 500 won’t have fans in attendance.

For the first time in 104 races, the Indianapolis 500 will be held without fans. That seems like it should have been a given, considering the COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the U.S. and Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s capacity is at least 350,000.

But the iconic track’s new owner, Roger Penske, was insistent in June that the Indy 500 only would happen with fans in attendance.

And up until Tuesday, the plan for the biggest motor sports event in North America — which was pushed back from Memorial Day Weekend in May to August 23 — was to hold it with a maximum of 25 percent capacity, which is still about 87,000 people. And even that decision was only two weeks old and a decrease from originally trying to allow up to 50 percent capacity across the grandstands, infield and suites.

However, IMS announced the change that fans will not be at the 104th running of the 500, which is, unquestionably, the smart, responsible and obvious choice, despite the massive track having space to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s  social distancing protocols for events.

It was made after “careful consideration and extensive consultation with state and city leadership,” the track said in a statement.

The Associated Press spoke to Penske — whose Penske Entertainment Corp. bought the track and the IndyCar Series and took over in January — by phone Tuesday, and the 83-year-old racing mogul said it was “the toughest business decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

A tough decision, sure, particularly for a new track owner looking to show off the latest renovations. But a blatant one to anyone who’s paying attention as more than 154,000 people in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus pandemic.

More from the AP:

“We didn’t buy the Speedway for one year, we bought it for generations to come, and it’s important to our reputation to do the right thing,” Penske said in a telephone interview. …

“We need to be safe and smart about this,” Penske said. “Obviously we want full attendance, but we don’t want to jeopardize the health and safety of our fans and the community. We also don’t want to jeopardize the ability to hold a successful race.”

Penske also said the financial hit for IndyCar and the track of not having fans didn’t factor into the decision, the AP reported. But that — in addition to the legendary status of the the Indy 500 — likely played a part in delaying the move to not have fans until the month of the race.

Team Penske driver Will Power and Roger Penske celebrate winning the 2018 Indy 500. Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud also won the iconic event in 2019. (Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports)

Having up to 25 percent capacity seemed dangerous, despite the previous plan to mandate masks and provide fans with hand sanitizer and a temperature check at the door. And it looked like this was just going to be the latest example of sports prioritizing profits over people’s health and safety.

More from the AP:

The situation was compounded last week when IU Health, the state’s largest health care system and a partner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said it opposed fans attending the 500.

“Until we sustain better control of this virus and its spread,” IU Health said in a statement, “we strongly encourage IMS to consider an alternative to running the Indy 500 with fans in August.”

IU Health also noted the risks extend far beyond fans attending the race and include traveling to the Indianapolis area, outside gatherings, restaurants and accommodations.

Other sports leagues, like the NBA and MLB, have been competing without fans in attendance, and, for the most part, IndyCar and NASCAR have severely restricted attendance at their respective events. Even for the two American racing series’ first-ever doubleheader weekend in July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, fans were not invited.

Finally, it appears Penske and other officials understand it’s irresponsible for anyone to host potentially tens of thousands of people at a race in a state where positive COVID-19 cases have been increasing. But Penske told the AP it was the spike in Indiana cases, not IU Health’s recommendation, that pushed him to exclude fans.

“As dedicated as we were to running the race this year with 25 percent attendance at our large outdoor facility, even with meaningful and careful precautions implemented by the city and state, the COVID-19 trends in Marion County and Indiana have worsened,” the speedway said in a statement.

“Since our June 26 announcement, the number of cases in Marion County has tripled while the positivity rate has doubled. We said from the beginning of the pandemic we would put the health and safety of our community first, and while hosting spectators at a limited capacity with our robust plan in place was appropriate in late June, it is not the right path forward based on the current environment.”

Clearly.

The Indy 500 is truly an unparalleled spectacle dripping with international prestige and history. But Penske and the track really had no choice but to keep the grandstands empty.

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Matt DiBenedetto promises ‘pretty physical racing’ for NASCAR’s 2020 experiment at Indy

“There is no doubt going to be some pretty physical racing,” Matt DiBenedetto said after testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After being the first NASCAR driver to test out Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course for the XFINITY Series race in July, Matt DiBenedetto is actually jealous of the drivers who will compete on it. By testing Wednesday on two different versions of the course — 12-turn and 14-turn layouts — DiBenedetto became ineligible to race in the second-tier series’ inaugural event.

NASCAR races at the iconic Brickyard are usually on the 2.5-mile oval. However, not long after Roger Penske officially became the track’s owner earlier this month, he announced that, while the premier Cup Series will stay on the oval, the XFINITY Series will move to the road course in the infield for the July 4th race weekend. It will be NASCAR’s first time with the two series running on different tracks at the same location over the same weekend.

And DiBenedetto — who is taking over the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in the Cup Series this season — told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Thursday that he’s bummed he can’t participate in the actual Indiana 250 race.

He said:

“It was cool and something I can say the rest of my life that I was the first guy out there in a stock car testing the road course at Indy. So it was a day that I’ll never forget. …

“All the good things that we can ask for in a road course are all combined in that one place, and it was so much fun. And it was neat to validate that I thought it was going to put on a really good show and then getting out there was even more so like, wow, I’m jealous of these XFINITY getting to race there. I’m excited I’m doing the test, but kinda mad I’m negated from being able to race in this thing because it was so frickin’ cool.”

In addition to answering some questions about safety and providing tire data, the test is supposed to help NASCAR determine whether to use the 12-turn or 14-turn course. Either way, the XFINITY drivers will go clockwise instead of the four left turns the oval offers.

More about the course options, via NASCAR:

The 12-turn layout (2.28 miles) uses the oval’s first turn as a sweeping right-hander before the frontstretch; the 14-turn configuration (2.41 miles) bypasses the oval’s Turn 1 with a sharp infield chicane.

NASCAR only visits a handful of other road courses, and DiBenedetto said during a press conference at the track Wednesday that in varying ways, Indy’s road course resembles Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

He said that his favorite part about the course is that there are so many passing opportunities, which is something he’s sure drivers will like. Fans probably will too.

Explaining some of the details from his track test, DiBenedetto continued, via ASAP Sports:

“So the cool thing is what we love as road racers is heavy braking zones. Clearly, the end of the front straightaway here, you have a very heavy braking zone. You also have another long back straightaway getting into turn seven, which is a heavy braking zone. And then on the 14-turn course, you have another braking zone coming into 12, 13, and 14. When you come up onto the short chute, get on the brakes, get on there.

“There’s high-speed stuff. There’s low-speed stuff. So it’s pretty much everything we could ask for from a competitor’s standpoint for raceability. Also, the little chicane back there coming on the back straightaway is really technical. I’m still figuring out my approach to that. There’s a lot of different elements to the race track that makes it exciting. …

“The good part is there is no doubt going to be some pretty physical racing because there’s a lot of areas not only to try and out-brake and pass, but actually set up in the prior corner, to set up for those passing zones and things like that. There’s some low-speed stuff where people might just use their bumper and knock them out of the way, whatever. So there’s opportunities for all of that.”

Running the XFINITY race on IMS’ road course is just one of the many changes and experiments (for NASCAR and IndyCar) expected under Penske’s ownership. And if it goes well…

“Who knows? Next year, we might run the Cup cars on the road course and run Xfinity on the oval,” Penske told the IndyStar.

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