The winningest team owner in Indianapolis 500 history started out as a winning drag racer.

That little-known fact about Roger Penske was revealed in an exclusive interview the 15-time Indy 500 winner did with CompetitionPlus.com. The 100th anniversary running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is this Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“As a kid, in the 1950s, I used to go to the Akron (Ohio) drag strip and take my dad’s Buick Century there,” remembered Penske.

He has three drivers in Indy’s field of 33: Will Power starts fifth; Helio Castroneves 16th; Ryan Briscoe 27th.

His all-star roster of Indy winners includes: Mark Donohue (1972); Rick Mears (’79, ’84, ’88, ’91); Bobby Unser (’81); Danny Sullivan (’85); Al Unser (’87); Emerson Fittipaldi (’93); Al Unser Jr. (’94); Castroneves (’01, ’02, ’09); Gil de Ferran (’03) and Sam Hornish Jr. (’06).

The winningest team owner in Indianapolis 500 history started out as a winning drag racer.

That little-known fact about Roger Penske was revealed in an exclusive interview the 15-time Indy 500 winner did with CompetitionPlus.com. The 100th anniversary running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is this Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“As a kid, in the 1950s, I used to go to the Akron (Ohio) drag strip and take my dad’s Buick Century there,” remembered Penske.

He has three drivers in Indy’s field of 33: Will Power starts fifth; Helio Castroneves 16th; Ryan Briscoe 27th.

His all-star roster of Indy winners includes: Mark Donohue (1972); Rick Mears (’79, ’84, ’88, ’91); Bobby Unser (’81); Danny Sullivan (’85); Al Unser (’87); Emerson Fittipaldi (’93); Al Unser Jr. (’94); Castroneves (’01, ’02, ’09); Gil de Ferran (’03) and Sam Hornish Jr. (’06).

But back to drag racing.

As he was saying, Penske -- born in February 1937 in Shaker Heights, Ohio -- took his father’s Buick to the local quarter-mile. The Century was Buick’s performance line, featuring a 322 cubic inch V-8 rated at over 250 horsepower in 1956. The engine and powertrain had so much muscle the car was used by the California Highway Patrol and was featured on the popular TV series “Highway Patrol,” starring Broderick Crawford.

Penske’s class was A stock.

“Monday morning, when I got it home, the transmission would be out of it,” he recalled.

“That’s when Art Arfons had the Green Monster jet car. I saw the first jet car run and he used to run it there every weekend. I used to go every weekend.

“We won some. The Chevy power packs were the fast ones in those days.”

That essentially was the end of Penske as drag racer. He started in SCCA amateur sports car road racing in 1958 and later turned pro, landing a landmark sponsorship from Zerex for his Cooper-Climax. He was Sports Illustrated’s 1961 Driver of the Year and earned the same honor from the New York Times in 1962. He beat A.J. Foyt on the last lap of the 1964 Governor’s Trophy race in the Bahamas.

He went to Lehigh University, worked for Alcoa Aluminum, and became general manager of a Philadelphia-area Chevrolet dealership. He bought that business in 1965 and, to the surprise of the racing community, retired from driving to devote his full attention to business. But he quickly formed his own team, with Donohue, and over the years has also won in NASCAR, Formula One and various road racing series.

As founder and chairman of Penske Corp., Penske oversees a business empire that includes auto dealerships, truck leasing and transportation logistics. Revenues are in excess of $16 billion with more than 36,000 employees worldwide, according to the 2011 IndyCar media guide. It’s fair to call him the foremost authority on the Business of Racing, so what Penske has to say about the motorsports economy is of interest to those in every series.

While Penske has major sponsorships from Miller Lite, Shell Pennzoil and Discount Tire for his NASCAR teams, and Verizon for Power, he’s had to piece-together partial deals with Pennzoil, Izod, AAA, Meijer stores, Penske Truck Rental, PPG and Magellan for Castroneves and Briscoe.
 
“I think everybody’s getting pinched on sponsorship,” Penske explained. “I would say there’s a lot more people interested in partial sponsorship. The days of having the car with the same logo on it seem to be few and far in-between. What you have to do is start with these companies and show them value for money and then try to grow with them.

“The business-to-business relationship is so important. Today, it’s not just putting your name on a car. It’s not just going to a dinner and speaking. It’s about, ‘What do we do from a business standpoint?’ We built our brand, for years, through the common thread of racing. We don’t spend a lot of money on advertising. We compete. We have success. We have failures. At the end of the day, it’s been pretty consistent. That’s what I try to do.

“People want to understand what’s the value for money. It’s not just your name on the side of the car. You’ve got to have more than that.”

Kurt Busch, Penske’s lead NASCAR driver, made his NHRA Pro Stock debut at Gainesville last March. Penske said his numerous endeavors steered him away from drag racing.

“We just have so many (other things) we’ve involved with,” Penske concluded. “But I take my hat off to guys like (John) Force.”

 

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