Roger Penske, Team Penske, Indianapolis 500, Derrick Walker, Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, March, Lola, Reynard, Rick Mears, Al Unser Sr., Bobby Unser, Tom Sneva, Gil de Ferran, Helio Castroneves, Mark Donohue, Sam Hornish Jr., Danny Sullivan, Tim Cin
ROGER’S BRICKYARD DYNASTY
Penske watches over drivers Gil de Ferran
and Helio Castroneves in 2001. That year,
Castroneves won the race at his first attempt
fourth Indy 500 in a year-old March
86C Penske pulled out of a hotel
lobby after the PC16 chassis proved
uncompetitive.
“Preparation is the cornerstone at
Penske,” continues Walker. “They
always go for speed, of course, but
speed’s nothing unless your cars are
well prepared. From the outside [Team]
Penske may seem like a big group, but
it’s really a small unit that doesn’t often
lose control, one able to adjust to
changing circumstances quickly. Even
in the years where the cars were
terrible, Roger’d pull an old car out of
the showroom and win with it.”
Of course, Team Penske’s
Indianapolis record is not flawless.
Multiple Indy winners Al Unser Jr.
and Emerson Fittipaldi failed to
qualify for the ’95 race, just a year
after completely dominating the
34 2008 INDY500 PREVIEW
Hutson/LAT
“Roger (Penske)
has a sixth sense
about strategy.
He shoots from
the hip” DERRICK WALKER
Month of May. In retrospect, it’s
clear it was a sort of perfect storm
for Penske. The pushrod Mercs had
masked some deficiencies in the
Penske chassis and, when the team
came to the Speedway with a
conventional engine, the cars didn’t
perform. Nor did Team Penske make
the most of the Lola and Reynard
chassis loaned them by other
teams. And Roger Penske himself
famously waved off a last-ditch
qualifying run by Fittipaldi that, in
20/20 hindsight, was fast enough
to make the show.
That was a rare gaffe by Penske,
whose uncanny feel for strategy has
won many more races than he’s lost.
“Roger has an almost sixth sense
about strategy,” says Walker. “He
shoots from the hip, makes
spontaneous decisions. They don’t
always work, but more often than not, he’s right.”
In the end, though, it’s less about Roger Penske,
pushrod Mercs, March 86s or PC17s than it is the people
at Team Penske. It starts with the drivers, and Penske’s list
of Indy 500 winners reads like a Who’s Who of Indy car
racing: Mears, Fittipaldi, Donohue, Castroneves, Al, Bobby
and Al UnserJr., Tom Sneva, Danny Sullivan, Sam Hornish
and Gil de Ferran. It continues in the supporting cast, from
team president Tim Cindric to the floor sweepers.
“The intellectual horsepower and the talent in that
place is just gigantic,” says de Ferran. “Everybody who
works there is, if not the best I’ve seen, then definitely in
the top-three category of each job description. So the
truck driver is, if not the best truck driver I’ve ever seen,
then he’s right there. The chief mechanic or the tire
changer or the accounting guy, if not the best, are
probably among the top three I’ve seen.
“Roger actually makes you better than you are... You’re
able to extract more from yourself.”
And so, it seems, does Team Penske every May.
(Above left) Rick Mears won
four Indy 500s with Penske, the
last coming in 1991 (above)
F.Peirce Williams/LAT
LAT Archive
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