MILLER: How Roger Penske reinvented American racing

Mark Donohue, Penske, Chris Economaki. Image by Gene Crucean


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By: Robin Miller | 8 hours ago


It was 50 years ago when a fraternity house on wheels moved into venerable Gasoline Alley. The crew had collared shirts that said ‘Sunoco’, they polished the wheels of their Lola incessantly, and they scrubbed the floor of the tiny garage each night. A well-spoken young man with a coat and tie came into the media center and introduced himself as Dan Luginbuhl, the press officer for this Ivy League operation.

Well, not only was Indianapolis void of PR people back then, it had never seen anything like these sporty car racers with their baby-faced driver, sharply dressed owner, and spit-polished crew.

USAC’s old guard really didn’t know how to take them.

“I think it was more curiosity, like, ‘Who are these guys and why are they here?’” recalled Luginbuhl, who spent 40 years working full-time for Roger Penske and still adds his PR expertise on occasion. “Mark [Donohue] had run Riverside and one other IndyCar race before coming to the Speedway, and a few people knew about his success in sports cars.

“The USAC guys were very courteous and professional, and I think everyone was glad to have a new team coming in. There was no animosity; just curiosity.”

Of course, what nobody at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway could foresee in May 1969 was the impact Penske would have on Indianapolis and American racing in general. Just a few years after the rear-engine revolution changed the face of Indy, R.P.’s regimented style, attention to detail and sponsor presentation gave IndyCar racing a total makeover.

Penske singlehandedly gave IndyCar an upgrade – whether it wanted one or not. Towed race cars on open trailers was replaced by semi-trailers; teams began dressing in sponsor colors; crew chiefs suddenly started sharing space with guys called engineers; pit stops became an exercise in precision; and an element of professionalism soon permeated a paddock that had always been seat-of-the-pants racing.

Mario Andretti won his lone Indy 500 that year and recalls his first impression of The Captain:

“He made his mark very visible in sports cars, and he just had the look of somebody who would be successful,” said Andretti, who would race for Team Penske in 1976-’78. “He always did things first class, and he brought a whole new level of professionalism.

“I remember I thought it was welcome to have somebody with class coming into the series.”

At that time, people said that Penske would either be the best thing or worst thing to happen to IndyCar racing because his M.O. would drive up the price of racing. When he showed up with a McLaren for Donohue in 1971, the ante went up – just like the quality of teams and competition.

Penske with AJ Foyt in the early 1960s. Image by Gene Crucean


And when Donohue captured the 1972 Indy 500, it started a dynasty that continues today. Team Penske has won Indianapolis a staggering 17 times, with its own cars, customer models, standard engines, trick motors, fast pit stops and good strategy.

“Roger had a three-year program with Sunoco, and our plan was to be able to win the race by the third year,” continued Luginbuhl. “Mark was long gone [out in front] in ’71 before he had a gearbox problem, so it took us a fourth year before finally winning.”

From Donohue to Bettenhausen to Sneva to Andretti to Mears to Sullivan to Tracy to Castroneves to de Ferran to Montoya to Power to Newgarden to Pagenaud to all three Unsers, The Captain always went after the best available drivers and put the finest equipment under them.

The Captain joined Dan Gurney, Bob Riley and Captain Geometry (Antares), and began building his own cars sporting his name. And by the end of that decade, we had Lightnings, Parnellis, Wildcats, Fleagles, Vollstedts and a Kingfish as innovation was booming. Just like sponsorships and big events as Cleveland, Toronto, Vancouver, Portland, Road America and Mid-Ohio packed ’em in, and MIS, Milwaukee and Phoenix were pulling record oval crowds.

Penske asserted himself in every facet of open-wheel racing and it drew first-class teams owned by Jim Hall, Pat Patrick, Bob Fletcher, Jerry O’Connell, Bobby Hillin, Rick Galles and McLaren, which all joined All-American Racers in raising the level of competition to new heights. Backup cars became the rule rather than the exception, and road racing (which USAC had dabbled with in the ‘60s and ‘70s) and street circuits came to the fore when the USAC/CART war broke out in 1979.

“I think it sent a message to everybody, from Foyt on down, that presentation really counts, “ said Luginbuhl, referring to the 1980s. “You want your car to be competitive and fast, and it wasn’t long after that that most teams started looking the part. I think it helped everyone up and down the line sell sponsorship.”

Penske and Patrick spent their own money in launching CART, and there was no denying The Captain’s passion. He got PPG Industries to be CART’s title sponsor, and bought or built tracks to speed IndyCar’s growth.

There is no doubt that if R.P. had sold his team and focused solely on CART (see Bernie Ecclestone, Brabham, and Formula 1), it would have flourished way beyond what it eventually became in the early ’90s.

A time-honored part of Penske’s approach has been to outclass the opposition in every department, including drivers. Image by IMS


But as we prepare for the 103rd running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the undeniable fact is that Roger Penske still covets an Indy win as much as he did back in 1969. Sure, his team has 204 victories and 15 championships, but it’s all those Baby Borgs that he cherishes.

His dad brought him to IMS in 1952, and he visited in the early ’60s as he was mapping out his career plans. An accomplished sports car racer who had some great duels with Parnelli and Gurney, R.P. had a chance to test an Indy car for Al Dean and Clint Brawner but turned it down to focus on starting his car business.

A fella named Andretti wound up with that ride.

All these years later, The Captain’s footprints are all over IndyCar racing, from appearance to accountability to hospitality. He’s the rabbit that Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti are chasing and the yardstick for Ed Carpenter, Sam Schmidt, Dale Coyne, Trevor Carlin, Mike Shank, George Steinbrenner, Mike Harding, Ricardo Juncos and Dennis Reinbold.

He’s the smartest man I’ve ever met, and his business has grown from 55 employees in the late ’60s to over 60,000 today. He’s a billionaire and a hands-on boss that still jets all over the globe to manage the Penske Corporation.

He champions the unfair advantage because he knows how to play the game.

At 81, he still loves standing on his pit box and calling the race, but he lives for the month of May. Indianapolis was his goal before it became his calling card. And 50 years later it’s still the most important thing in his world.

Happy anniversary, R.P.

Image by Levitt/LAT



Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Insights & Analysis

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500

Image by Michael Levitt for BorgWarner


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By: Marshall Pruett 11 hours ago


Welcome to the feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969.

This 15-part series spans some of the greatest drivers, managers, mechanics, designers, and the man himself, Roger Penske, to document The Captain’s vast influence on America’s defining motor race, the Indy 500, and in many instances, the sport as a whole.

Our guest for the first episode is the man himself, Roger Penske.

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Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

“Well, I think you know we picked up this theme of unfair advantage. What we were trying to do is go to the next step. You know we were never good enough wasn’t good enough, and I think that there was a lot of monkey see, monkey do in this sport over time where people copied the guy next to them, but we tried to go a step further.

“I certainly was interested in if there’s no risk, there’s no reward, so I pushed and I never had anybody turn back and say, “No, we’re not going to do that.” And I think that gave us somewhat of an advantage that people called it unfair.”

MAYBE PEOPLE THINK WE DO FROM THE OUTSIDE

“To me it’s about this next race, and it’s hard to believe we’ve won 17, to be honest with you. If I had to go back and think about how did it all happened, it would probably take me a long time to understand each lap.

“I do know that looking at some statistics here lately that we’ve won 38 percent of the time that we entered here. We led over 2,300 laps which is more than 11 races, so that I do understand, and understand the commitment. But the more you race here, the more you prepare. And I think the little things are what takes people out here, and [in] many cases, we’ve made those mistakes, but you know I don’t look at we’re some big guys that come in to the Speedway and try to take over.

“Maybe people think we do from the outside. We’re really low-key here. I know it’s a tremendous hill to climb. We come here in 2019; there’s a lot of good cars. A lot of good teams and to me, we’re here to compete. People want to beat us and we want to beat them.”

MY NAME’S ON THE DOOR

“My name’s on the door, but there’s no way I can take all the credit. You know for what’s taken place, and what will take place in the future, good or bad, I think it’s a team effort. I want a flat organization when we go racing.

“You know the guy that drives the truck here, the one that airs the tires or cleans the shop is just as important as the driver, and the day we don’t think they are as important is the day we’ll never win. And to me, that’s our profile.”


Indy 500, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 2, with Robin Miller

Image by Michael Levitt/LAT


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By: Marshall Pruett | 15 hours ago


Part two of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first in 1969, features RACER’s Robin Miller.

Miller’s first Indy 500 as a cub reporter for the Indianapolis Star came the same year as Penske’s debut, giving the veteran journalist and TV commentator an inside look at the team and its influence since their shared debut at the Speedway.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

HE CHANGED THE FACE OF OPEN-WHEEL RACING


“He didn’t just change the face of the Indianapolis 500, he changed the face of open-wheel racing. His imprint is all over it. And when he came here, I knew who Roger Penske was. URRC Driver of the Year. Sports Illustrated cover once. We knew who Mark Donahue was because he was a hell of a road racer, [original Penske Racing PR man] Dan Luginbuhl walked into the old media center, shook everybody’s hand, and passed out his card. He had a tie and a coat on. We’re like, ‘What? You know, there were no PR people…’”

CULTURE SHOCK

“Mario [Andretti] said it best. Mario said he just looked like class when he walked. And Mario’s like, ‘I expected big things out of this guy because I knew what he had done in sports cars.’ But I don’t know that anybody expected they would roll the car out every night and they would polish the garage floor and then, they were constantly polishing the wheels and making sure the car was clean and USAC guys are laughing at them like, ‘What the F… what are you people doing? We’re here for three weeks, get serious.’

“That regimented system, that’s just the way they operated and nobody was mean to them or rude to them or anything. They weren’t treated poorly at all. It’s just that it was such a culture shock because [Indy was] a bunch of fly-by-night, seat-of-the-pants racers for the most part.”

BIG EAGLE BLESSING

“I remember Dan Gurney saying, ‘These guys will be serious players,’ because him and Roger raced and him and Parnelli raced and they both had high regard for Roger as a driver and obviously then as an owner and a manufacturer. [In] ’71 when he came with the McLaren [chassis], if you weren’t paying attention, you started then. Dan was paying attention.”

THIS IS WHAT HE LIVES FOR

“I can’t think of anybody that’s had the impact he’s had and the success, and he still gets as big a kick out of coming here in May as he did 50 years ago. This is what he lives for.”

Related

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 1

MILLER: How Roger Penske reinvented American racing

Indy 500, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 3, with Bobby Unser

Image by IMS


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By: Marshall Pruett | 12 hours ago


Part three of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, features the irascible Bobby Unser.

Starting in 1979, Uncle Bobby won the better part of a dozen races during his three-year stint driving for Team Penske. Controversy also shadowed his time with The Captain as hiding his setup info, warring with teammates, and cheating the ‘Pacer Light’ system – that eventually led to being awarded the 1981 Indy 500 win, after a long and expensive battle among lawyers and arbitrators – fueled a brief and explosive relationship in Penske’s collective.

At 85, Unser has a free pass to curse and cajole all he wants. And here, it’s an urging to beware: if your ears are sensitive to the unholiest of words and creative ways to describe fornication, this audio episode is one to skip, with haste.

The audio interview will not be produced on Tampa Racing.com


Bobby Unser, Indy 500, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 4, with Mario Andretti

Image by IMS archive


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By: Marshall Pruett | 18 hours ago


Part four of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, features Mario Andretti.

Andretti, whose lone Indy 500 win came the same year as Penske’s introduction to Indy, drove for The Captain at the Speedway from 1976 to 1980. Pictured above: Andretti with his Penske McLaren M24-Cosworth in 1977.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

FROM SPORTS CAR ENTRANT TO THE 1969 INDY 500

“The one thing that I always knew [is] that he would show up, with all the bells and whistles. Roger had always done everything just absolutely first class, and it’s so easy to talk about him, because it’s all superlatives. The only thing that we were hoping is that he would be a little bit green, setups and all that, but nevertheless he was a force to be reckoned with right from the very beginning, no question about it.”

RESPECT AS A DRIVER, FIRST

“He was right there with top-level cars and at the forefront of everything. A good-looking dude on top of everything else, and so before I even got to meet him, I knew of his exploits. The biggest surprise to me was that he came out of the cockpit so early, and he just wanted to just have his own team and go in that direction, the business side. I know that all along, while he was in our sport, he was building his own empire as well. We all know what he’s done with that.

“But the thing that always amazes me about this man is he’s all-in, total racer. Here’s a man that’s a billionaire and he could just go out there on an island and just soak up the sunshine and enjoy life in that respect.”

Related

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 3, with Bobby Unser

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 2, with Robin Miller

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 1

Mario Andretti, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

Penske credits continuity for his team's ongoing Indy success

Image by LAT


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By: Andrew Crask 20 hours ago


Team Penske’s appearance before the Indy 500 media is an annual tradition, but took added on weight Friday ahead of the 50th anniversary of the team’s first appearance at The Speedway. Asked what he felt were the key ingredients to his team’s ongoing success at the 500 — which to date includes 17 wins among 12 different drivers, including Will Power’s triumph last year — Roger Penske highlighted the continuity and commitment behind its program through the years.

“I think it’s all about the team. (We have) over 700 years of experience in the garage area this year. I think it’s the continuity. We have low turnover with our team. Always have had the best drivers.

“To me, the time and effort we put into Indianapolis is so important because over the years we’ve built our brand around Indy. You think about the notoriety we get for competing here, being successful. It’s amazing.

“I looked at a stat here a couple of weeks ago. We’ve led 2,300-plus laps here, over 11 races. It’s not just the race you win, but it’s the consistency, the team leading laps, which has given us the success.

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“But the interesting thing is we have four guys here that want to win the race. There’s only going to be one. I think the effort and time, to see them work together, we have an open and transparent relationship with the drivers. We’re a team — one team, not four teams. I think that’s kind of the way we operated.

“(Mark) Donohue was a student of that also, very open. We built with Gary Bettenhausen in ’72, two good drivers and cars. I came here back in ’51 with my dad. I guess we were gone for a couple years. I take my vacation so I can come here and have fun.”



Power gathers data for Penske’s “book” in practice. Image by IndyCar


The “fun” for the drivers will include plenty of challenge in using the tools available to master the ever-changing track conditions at Indy.

“I’ve been struggling with a loose car,” reigning champ Power admitted. “Just depends where you’re running, the wake of the car in front, how many cars in front of you, how your balance is.

“I guess this front wing is pretty sensitive because it’s a small front wing to dirty air. If you’re close, you’re going to get some push. You have to find a way to set your car up to be strong in traffic without losing the front.”

“I would agree with Will,” concurred Josef Newgarden, who joins Power, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves in Penske’s ‘Gang of Four’ at Indy. “I think everyone is trying to experiment. The tire, it is different. It reacts differently than last year. I think it has some similar characteristics, so I think a lot of what we were dealing with last year we’re still dealing with today. There’s also new variables. Will said he has trouble with the rear of the car, too.

“Trying to balance how you fix multiple problems is really what you fight here all the time. You fix the rear, you hurt the front. It’s a balancing act as always.

“Understanding the changes each day is important. Today could be very different than yesterday. Track has been washed off a bit. Temperature is going to be pretty high. You have to build this book so on race day you know the conditions, what it’s going to be, you can make the best decision possible.”

Pagenaud, who is looking to emulate Power’s 2018 trick of an Indy GP-Indy 500 double this year, agreed that the variety of configurations to try out — and getting them to work in concert with other elements of the setup — are a key part of what makes Indy unique from a driver’s standpoint.

“It’s just very important to try all these configurations, make sure that the car behaves the same with every one of them. That’s really the trick,” he noted. “That’s why it takes so long to set the car up, is to figure out all these little bits and pieces together, what does it do to the balance of the car.

“It’s fascinating. Sometimes the wind tunnel tells us something but reality is a little different. It’s another element we have to take into account.”

First up is the preparation for this weekend’s pole shootout. Asked how much emphasis he and his team put into the run for pole, The Captain indicated that the results from Team Penske’s half-century at Indy speak for themselves.

“Well, if you’re interested in numbers, we have 17 wins, 17 poles and 17 pit stop contests,” noted Penske. “I guess it’s pretty important…”


Indy 500, Team Penske, IndyCar

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 5, with Rick Mears

Image by IMS archive


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By: Marshall Pruett | 1 hour ago


Part five of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, is ‘The Rocket,’ Rick Mears.

Mears is the only man to win all four of his Indy 500s while driving for Roger Penske in a career that spanned 1978 through 1992 in the cockpit (pictured: Mears with his Penske PC10-Cosworth in ’82), and he remains involved to this day as a driver coach and consultant for Penske’s NTT IndyCar Series team.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

THE PENSKE DIFFERENCE

“I was walking in the garage one night [while driving for Art Sugai in 1977]. And this was the lesson learned: I’m walking along there, and I go by Roger’s garage to get to mine. And I look in the doors as I go by, and it’s like a slap in the face, I thought, ‘Now wait a minute.’ And not that our garage is bad, right? I mean, it’s clean, the guys did a good job. But I thought, if I had a sponsor on my arm right now trying to sell them, and I had to go by his garage to get to mine, where are they going to want to go?

“It was the presentation. And when I looked in his garage, there was effort, more effort put into his — elbow grease. More thought, and planning. Colors matching on all the tool boxes, and then the tools, everything had a place on the wall. The floor was clean — he’d laid down some of his own tile just to dress it up, clean it up, and make it nice to work off of. And everything had a place, it was organized.

DON’T BLAME THE DOLLARS

“Organization, elbow grease. That’s not money. I used to get so tired of hearing people say, ‘Oh if we had his money, we could do that too.’ A lot of what he does isn’t the money. Yes, money helps, but I know for a fact over the years there were teams that were getting higher sponsor dollars than he was. He’s always been pretty fair. And it’s planning, it’s presentation. And his saying, ‘Effort equals results.’ It’s across the board, that’s it. But that lesson learned, it’s just like a wake-up call.”

SETTING NEW STANDARDS

“I remember early on if you had trouble with a car, and you had to go jump in the backup car real quick, they weren’t always the same, as much as you thought they were. They never were. And so I remember at one point the team just really made it a focused effort on why are these cars not the same? We’re building them all out of the same pieces, all with the same measurements. And we really, really focused on the guys that are keeping the T-car up with the race car. They did an exercise in shop.

“They got everybody, and said, ‘OK, look, I want everybody to use the same wrench on the same part. I want everybody turn the same way, when you’re measuring something, I want everybody to measure from the same side of the line, instead of one guy measuring from the middle line, one guy measures off the left-side alignment, one guy measures off the right-side alignment.’ When you add all those little things up, that’s why they’re different.

“So they really did a big effort on getting all the guys to work together, and watch each other, and see how each one would measure things. And then everybody finds which is the best way, and then everybody agreed to do it all that same way, no matter what it is that they’re doing. And pretty soon you’ve got to where you can pull that backup car off the trailer, get it ready to jump in the car, and go out there, and feel like it’s the same car you just got out of.

“It’s that kind of effort to improve, and I really think the majority of it is him trying to improve the team. Which in turn was raising the sport, and improving the other teams along with it. Because you had to compete. If you want to compete with him, you’ve got to step up, and that’s the way you do.”

Related

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 4, with Mario Andretti

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 3, with Bobby Unser

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 2, with Robin Miller

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, Episode 1

Indy 500, Rick Mears, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 6, with Chuck Sprague

Image by Dan R. Boyd


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By: Marshall Pruett May 20, 2019 8:47 AM


Part six of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, is master mechanic and team manager Chuck Sprague.

Sprague’s time at Team Penske, from the late 1970s through the late 1990s, helped produce countless IndyCar championships and Indy 500 wins.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

BUYING BIG SHINY TRANSPORTERS

“He said, ‘It looks nice, but will it make us faster?’ And I hadn’t actually thought about that, but then when I did, I said, ‘Yes it will.’ I said, ‘There are things we can do now that we couldn’t do before.’ And that was where I think the evolution really started, as just giving yourself deeper capabilities and turning around your response time, and that translated over the years into keeping spare parts and spare cars and whatever up to speed.”

UNSUNG HEROES

“I think Penske Cars is the unsung hero of the history of Penske Racing and deserves far more credit than it’s been given and gets to this day. I know I keep in touch with Nick Goozee who was a managing director over there and a good friend, and a number of the other guys there; and the job those guys did was nothing short of spectacular. Like the team, they started off on a fairly basic level and as time went on they evolved as well to full-on CNC and composite capabilities. We worked together as a joint organization to capitalize on it where we could.

“The upside is you get something that nobody else has, but the downside is you have something that nobody else has, so it can play both ways and it certainly did over time. People criticized us for having to go buy somebody else’s car or having a car that nobody else had; it did seem there was a no-win situation no matter what we had. If we did well, it was because we had an advantage but you know, in the case of the 1984, we hadn’t even seen a 1984 March [chassis] until late April, yet we acquitted ourselves quite well in the race. First and third, if I recall.

“The capability of the team, the drivers, to adapt and to move on to a new protocol is there, but at the same time there are years when it swings the other way. For example, 1982, 1988, 1994. I mean, those were three particularly banner years, but there are others as well where we had something that gave us that edge and capitalized on it. The biggest thing there that sort of relates to my previous comments is that Penske Cars had to make everything. I mean, early on we were buying transmissions, but in the later seasons, even our gears and dog rings were bespoke to us, and the supply issues there could be dramatic — you couldn’t run down and borrow a wishbone from somebody else because it wasn’t going to fit, so you had to manage that program very carefully.”

Related

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 5, with Rick Mears

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 4, with Mario Andretti

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 3, with Bobby Unser

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 2, with Robin Miller

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 1

Indy 500, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 7, with Nigel Bennett

Image by Dan R. Boyd


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By: Marshall Pruett May 20, 2019 3:00 PM


Part seven of the 15-part feature series, ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, peerless chassis designer and race engineer Nigel Bennett.

Bennett’s immediate impact at Penske Cars produced the 1988 Indy 500 winner driven by Rick Mears, the 1989 winner driven by Emerson Fittipaldi, and more, including the legendary Penske PC23 chassis that carried ‘The Beast’, the 1000-horsepower Mercedes-Ilmor stock block engine from 1994.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

FREEDOM TO INNOVATE

“Roger Penske, from my point of view, was ideal to work for. He never ever questioned what I was designing or whether I was doing something right or wrong. I mean, he might say at the beginning of the year, ‘Is this car going to win?’ And I’d say, ‘Well I don’t know but I hope so. We’re doing our best.’

“Teddy Mayer was around because he was working for Roger in a financial sense and he would spend quite a lot of time at Penske Cars. He would question some of the things I was doing and … But we never had — I had very little interference with what I was designing.

“Of course, having success in the early years with the Penske PC17 and the 18, and later the 21 and 22 and 23, I suppose [Roger] had trust in what I was doing, and it was only in the later years with the 25 — well of course at Indy, the year after the PC24, where we failed to qualify. That started to raise a little doubt in what was going on, I think. In the later years we had a tire problem on the road tracks with the Goodyear tires we were contracted to run: They just were not competitive with the Firestones, and our performance in those years fell off; but we could still win on the ovals. There was an ingredient that Goodyear was not allowed to use in the United States because it was considered to be carcinogenic which Firestone could use because their tires were made in Japan…

ISSUES AFTER THE BEAST

“I now think that was due to a particular setup problem which is highlighted in the book, and I think explains it to my satisfaction why we weren’t competitive. It sort of hides the fact that perhaps the PC23, the previous era with the big engine, overshadowed the design flaws that were there on the Speedway.”

Related

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 6, with Chuck Sprague

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 5, with Rick Mears

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 4, with Mario Andretti

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 3, with Bobby Unser

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 2, with Robin Miller

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 1

Indy 500, Roger Penske, IndyCar, Podcasts

 

How Roger Penske changed the Indy 500, episode 8, with Jade Gurss

Image by Murenbeeld/LAT


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By: Marshall Pruett | May 21, 2019 10:12 PM


Part eight of the 15-part feature series ‘How Roger Penske Changed The Indy 500,’ which celebrates the most successful entrant at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 50th anniversary of his first which took place in 1969, welcomes author Jade Gurss.

His fantastic book “Beast” chronicles the unbelievable efforts expended by Roger Penske and Ilmor Engineering — along with the precarious nature of the project which could have failed on multiple occasions — to produce an unbeatable stock block engine for the 1994 Indy 500, which Al Unser Jr. used to win for Team Penske.

Below are a few excerpts from the interview:

MORE MONEY THAN A SINGLE-CAR TEAM TODAY

“I never got anyone on the record that would fair with me the budget. I don’t know why that is, but I never really got a handle on the full budget. My best educated guess is it had to be somewhere in the 10 million [dollar] range, which, with 10 million, you could run a whole team a whole season at that point and run it very well. It’s interesting to me that no one ever admitted to what that number was. You also had Penske who was committed to winning. It was the winning on the race track that was the halo for his entire brand — all of his auto dealerships, his truck leasing companies, Detroit Diesel. To him, winning [and] success on the track really brought a halo to all of his businesses.

“To him, it was a business decision that applied or that gave benefit to all of his other businesses. Mercedes came aboard very, very late. Roger was attempting to develop a relationship with Mercedes both for Formula 1 and in IndyCar. The rumors are that that Mercedes didn’t pay a cent to come aboard, put their name on this engine; that it was mere chance to prove to them what capabilities Penske and Ilmor had. It proved to be fortuitous for all of them, business-wise: Mercedes won Formula 1 championships with Ilmor and really came aboard in CART and did very well there, too.

ONE PART COULD SLAY THE BEAST

“It was really smart business on Roger Penske’s behalf even though it was hugely expensive and risky. He thought it was worth the risk. They would do things like the crankshaft, for example. The process to make a crankshaft was 23 weeks. That was the longest time frame to create a part. It became the very first item that had to be designed and then sent to start being constructed. That was the pressure, and they knew that. They knew that if this crankshaft failed, the project was done. It was off. They were aware of that and they recognized that.”

TORQUE MONSTER
“They also discovered that when Paul Tracy had come in from a run, the tire engineers looked at the back tires. They use markings to line up the tire with the wheel. Those markings had had moved. The tires had moved on the wheel. It was so much power. They said, ‘Look at this. It’s moved two inches.’ Rick Mears said, ‘No, it’s two inches, the wrong way. It going around the entire wheel.’ Rick said, ‘We don’t know if that’s just one rotation or many.’ They ended up finding a local shop. They had to sand blast every one of the wheels at the bead to get it to connect, where the tires wouldn’t spin around on the wheels at speed, which is just the best example of how much torque this thing had.

“It just exceeded the capabilities of the tires. Come race day, they again were not only worried about the engine, but about the Goodyear tires. Would they last? Would they be reliable? It was just another element of the problems that 1000 horsepower would cause you at the Speedway. There was no shortage of amazing things they had to overcome to make sure it would get to the finish line.”