Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 1214 | Page 13

Top: Racing in the rain at Riverside in 1962.
Left: Continuing a winning tradition at the ALMS race at
Houston in 2007 in Porsche RS Spyders.

Glenn Zanotti Photo

world by stepping away from the wheel in 1964 to concentrate
his efforts on business. Penske left Alcoa to become general
manager of McKean Chevrolet in Philadelphia. Selling cars
wasn’t enough to quench his thirst for competition, however.
In 1966, Penske established his own Can-Am team, Penske
Racing, with his engineer-driver, the late Mark Donohue, who
piloted a Lola to first place at Mosport Park.
“I did the right thing [starting my own racing team] because I’ve been able to hire people that were better drivers than
me,” Penske admits.
Subsequently branching out to field teams in the IndyCar
and NASCAR circuits and, briefly during the mid-1970s, Formula One, Penske Racing eventually became a sports dynasty

in its own right. It is to motorsports what the New York Yankees are to baseball:
Over the past four decades Penske Racing cars have racked up (as of this writing)
280 major race wins, 325 pole positions and twenty national championships, including fifteen first-place finishes at the Indianapolis 500. His prestigious stable of
drivers has included such hall-of-fame names as Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi, Danny Sullivan and all three generations of Unsers: Bobby, Al and
Al Jr. All the while, Penske has kept up with changing tastes and times to remain at
the top of his game.
“In the early days racing was pretty much who was the bravest guy and who
had the biggest motor,” Penske recalls. “Today it’s an integration of technology,
aerodynamics and the driver’s talents.”
Penske currently maintains both IndyCar and NASCAR teams, piloted by
Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish, Jr., Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

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