Roger Penske, Team Penske, Indianapolis 500, Mark Donohue, United States Road Racing Championship, Can-Am, Trans-Am, CART, NASCAR, Formula 1, John Watson, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Helio Castroneves, Derrick Walker, Mercedes-Benz 500I
T he numbers speak for themselves: 14 pole
positions, 34 front row starts and 1835 laps led
since Roger Penske first entered a car in the 1969
Indianapolis 500 for Mark Donohue. Oh yes, and 14
victories. In numbers, that translates to a 37-percent
winning rate. In words, that translates to Dynasty.
Heck, the only organization with more Indy wins is
Firestone…but the tire makers had a 58-year head start,
not to mention the considerable advantage of
monopolizing many a Memorial Day starting grid.
Of course, Team Penske’s success at Indianapolis
should come as no surprise. The team has won in every
major racing series in North America from the United
States Road Racing Championship to Trans-Am, Can-Am,
CART and NASCAR dating back to the ’60s. And, of
course, they were the last American-based race team to
score a Formula 1 victory when John Watson led the field
home in the ’76 Austrian Grand Prix.
But many successful teams have competed at
Indianapolis with nothing like the success of Penske. For
32 2008 INDY500 PREVIEW
When Roger Penske first entered
a car in the 1969 Indianapolis 500,
could he have believed that four
decades later he’d have a record
14 wins at the Brickyard?4
Words David Phillips
Main Image Darrell Ingham/Getty Images
example, Newman/Haas/Lanigan
Racing has enjoyed a comparable
degree of success in Indy car racing
to Team Penske, yet NHLR is still
seeking its first Indianapolis 500 win.
Of course, the fact that Mario
Andretti spent the latter stages of his
career driving for NHLR may have
had something to do with that.
Even Roger Penske couldn’t get
Mario across the yard of bricks first
in four tries!
Mario’s infamously bad luck
notwithstanding, there’s undeniably
something special about Team
Penske’s hold on the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. It starts with Roger
Penske himself.
“Indianapolis means so much to
Roger,” says Derrick Walker, who
served as Penske’s team manager for
a dozen seasons in the 1970s and
’80s. “It’s the single most important
event in American open-wheel
racing, obviously. From the beginning,
Roger always had Indy in his sights. It
became a priority for his team.”
And when Roger Penske makes
something a priority, things have a
way of getting done…even when the
odds are stacked against him.
Although Team Penske has earned
its share of Indianapolis success by
dint of superior talent and
technology – can anybody say Rick
Mears or Helio Castroneves? PC-17
or Mercedes-Benz 500I? – some of
the organization’s greatest success
has come with its back against the
wall. Like the time Al Unser won his
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