Indianapolis – All things being equal, there is no equal to Roger Penske when it comes to competing in the Indianapolis 500.
Penske’s record 13 victories have come in his past 29 starts. Since returning to the race in 2001 after a six-year hiatus because of the schism between the Indy Racing League and CART, Penske’s teams have won three of five times at the famed 2.5-mile oval. A big reason he didn’t capture the past two races was because of a contract to run Toyota engines at a time Honda was dominating the series.
Honda is the IRL’s only engine provider this year, helping make Penske’s Marlboro Team Penske drivers the favorites once again. That takes us back to the equal-equals-inequality theorem.
Sam Hornish Jr. captured Penske’s 13th Indy 500 pole last week, and Helio Castroneves secured the team’s sixth 1-2 start at the Brickyard.
It hardly seems fair. What makes Penske so good?
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” said Rick Mears, who won here racing for Penske in 1979, ’84, ’88 and ’91. “Everybody always tends to blame it on the money, but I’ve seen other teams have as much money or more and not get the same result. You can throw all the money in the world at something, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to work. … It’s attention to detail, his work ethic, his ability to surround himself with good people. You see that not only in races, but all his other businesses.”
Despite all that, Penske’s drivers fell back the past two years when Honda-powered teams captured 14 of 16 IRL races in 2004 and 12 of 17 in 2005. Among the manufacturer’s wins were the Indy 500 triumphs of Buddy Rice (2004) and Dan Wheldon (2005).
“Ironically, this is the same team that’s been here the last couple years,” Penske said after his drivers clinched front-row starting positions for the 32nd and 33rd times. “I think there’s no question that we were at some disadvantage because of the power. We didn’t say anything about it. We’re really not complaining about it today. We had commitments to people. We live with them.”
Castroneves and Hornish stand first and third in the IRL standings, and have combined to lead 413 of a possible 500 laps in this season’s three races. Castroneves has won twice, but it appears Hornish is the man to beat Sunday.
“Everything Roger does is kind of focused towards Indy,” Hornish said. “I knew that it means a lot to him to come here and have the success that we’ve had. The big thing for us is to go out there and try to make him happy. I want to win this race, and one of the most meaningful things when I came to this team was when Roger said, ‘I want to win you this race.’ He knows how much it means to me, and I thought that was a pretty neat statement that, above all else, he wants to win the Indy 500 for me.”
It’s more than money
Mears understands perfectly how the two Penske drivers have ascended to the top of the Indy field.
“If you had a series that gave each team the same tools, the same equipment and everybody had the same amount of money, his determination and work ethic would come to the top,” Mears said of Penske. “This year is a good example because we have one engine.”
Penske, 69, will call strategy for Hornish during the race. Team president Tim Cindric will do the same for Castroneves.
“If we execute and don’t get caught up in someone else’s accident, we’ll be competing for the win,” Cindric said.
If Hornish and Castroneves fail to win Sunday’s race, Penske will refocus on his second annual goal: winning the IRL championship. But first comes Indy.
“I’m not sure we prepare any differently for Indy, but the speedway is on everyone’s mind every day of the year,” Penske said.
That may be the case, but there are plenty of other ventures to keep Penske occupied. He might be the richest man in motorsports. He is founder and chairman of Penske Corporation, a diversified transportation services company that employs more than 34,000 people in more than 1,700 locations worldwide. His UnitedAuto Group, a Fortune 500 company that operates 277 auto franchises, reportedly has annual revenues of more than $9 billion. His corporation also includes auto-related businesses in Germany, Italy, Mexico and Canada.
Most teams aren’t big spenders like Penske, but the other big teams – Andretti Green Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing – use similar financial resources in the sport.
Cindric, who left Bobby Rahal’s team in 1999 to become Penske’s first president, said Team Penske doesn’t leave any stone unturned.
“We spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel, and devote a lot of time to aerodynamic efficiency, which is down force vs. drag, and mechanical grip, the mechanical setup of the car that has do with the shock package, the spring package,” Cindric said. “If you took all the bodywork off the car, we have maximum adhesion through the tires.”
A real team
Team Penske’s success also stems from experience, low employee turnover, executive loyalty and engineering. Recently, the team’s invention in the garage landed it a prestigious award and could give its cars a big advantage Sunday.
The engineering team led by Tom German developed a battery-operated tool that allows a tire changer to make a rear-wing adjustment in seconds. The rear wing, which creates down force and can be altered during an IRL race at Indy, could take other teams up to a minute or longer to adjust with a hand-operated tool.
Down force is a major component of a car’s setup. But in the past, adjusting the rear wing would be the last option because of the extended pit time.
Penske isn’t sharing, or selling, his device.
“We’re always looking to make changes to the car to compensate for changes during the race,” German said. “In the past, we had the same amount of down force at the start and finish of the race. Now we can adjust the down force during the race and hopefully extend our lead.”
Last week the tool landed Penske the annual Louis Schwitzer Award for Engineering Innovation and Excellence for the fourth time. Penske also won the prestigious award in 1980, ’82 and ’93 for design on the Penske chassis.
Some of Penske’s engineers have been with “The Captain” since 1980.
“Our success at Indianapolis is a testament to the guys on the team,” Penske said. “We have around 700 years of combined experience with guys working for us. Most everyone involved with our program has been around for a win at Indianapolis, many multiple times.
“Success breeds success and an environment where everyone is committed to achieving goals.”
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
