Racing With Roger Penske

Auto racing legend Roger Penske began as a successful sportscar driver before transitioning to owning a race team and opening a car dealership. Within eight years, Team Penske won the Indianapolis 500. Today, the team boasts more than 580 victories, including an unparalleled 18 Indianapolis 500 wins and two at the Daytona 500. Penske's efforts on the track have been intertwined with his business ventures. Penske Corporation, with $32 billion in revenues, includes Penske truck leasing and rentals, retail automotive centers and logistics. In 2019, he bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and related assets, including IndyCar, and led both through the coronavirus pandemic, when racing continued with no fans in the stands. This book chronicles more than 50 years of Roger Penske's racing history, with an overview of his business career, including the turnaround of Detroit Diesel.

Celebrating fifty years of Team Penske competing and winning at the Indianapolis 500, Team Penske charts the team's unrivaled 17 victories throughout the decades with exciting race photography, detailed statistics, and profiles of the drivers and teams and their quest for glory at the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing." No other team in history has come close to matching the record of Roger Penske's team at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Team Penske has won 17 times in its 44 Indy 500 races at the Brickyard for a remarkable win rate of 38%. Penske first attended the Indianapolis 500 with his father in 1951. He became a champion sport car driver in the 1950s and 60s, before forming his own team. Team Penske made its debut at Indianapolis in 1969 and earned its first victory in 1972 with legendary driver Mark Donohue. To celebrate Team Penske's 50th anniversary of competing at the Indy 500, this 224-page volume captures all the highlights from each year's journey at Indianapolis including individual driver's details, race highlights and team statistics. Illustrated with exciting photography and race ephemera, the book features legendary racers like Rick Mears, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Danny Sullivan and Helio Castroneves, who all helped establish Team Penske as an Indy car powerhouse. Team Penske is a commemorative tribute to the spectacle and prestige of auto racing's most historic event and is a must-have book for aficionados of the Indy 500, motor sports and automotive innovation.

From its modest beginnings behind a Philadelphia-area watchmakers shop some 40 years ago, the Penske Racing Team, more than any other organization, has influenced the development, growth and direction of auto racing in the United States as both a sport and a business. Led by former race driver turned "Fortune 500" business mogul Roger Penske, this team has won more than 250 major auto races around the world, captured 19 national championships (including 12 Indy-Car titles), and have enjoyed success in all forms of racing--Indy-Cars, sports cars, Formula-1, endurance racing and NASCAR. Penske Racing Team...40 Years of Excellence documents the fascinating history of this unique organization, focusing on the talented drivers and innovative engineering that have been responsible for the teams spectacular and enduring success. This book also highlights the key events that have defined American motorsports during this timeframe; including the rise and fall of U.S. sports car racing in the 1960s and 1970s; the politics of the USAC-CART split in the late 1970s; the CART-IRL battle that unfolded 20 years later; and the phenomenal transformation of NASCAR from its moonshine roots into the mainstream commercial phenomenon that it is today.

Beast was the nickname of a shocking new race engine unveiled for the 1994 Indianapolis 500. The massive effort to design and build it in a seemingly impossible timeframe is still hailed as one of the most herculean efforts and well-kept secrets in the history of the Indy 500. In the award-winning book, Beast, bestselling author Jade Gurss chronicles the subterfuge and debunks the myths about this legendary power plant that persist twenty years on. Gurss interviewed key players involved in the race to uncover the story of how this engine powered the Penske PC23 chassis to one of the most talked-about Indy 500 races in history. The British race-engine experts at Ilmor Engineering offer detail about the design and manufacture of the engine. Roger Penske's team reveals how the engine and car were tested and developed, and how Mercedes came to be involved in the project. The story unfolds as Roger Penske and Mario Illien and Paul Morgan of Ilmor play every card they possess to create an incredible race engine--even rare World War II fighter planes and supersonic jets roar into the heart of this high-tech tale. Drivers Al Unser Jr. of the United States and Paul Tracy of Canada provide details on the tense weeks leading up to race day. The book reaches a suspenseful climax at 240 miles per hour at the Indy 500 noone can forget. Wrapped up in the drama and intrigue are real business and motivational lessons which made Roger Penske one of the most successful businessmen in the world and that helped Ilmor and its cofounders, Mario Illien and the late Paul Morgan, design and manufacture Indy car and Formula 1 championship-winning engines. Beast is not only a must-read for sports and race fans, but a compelling narrative for those who enjoy genuine lessons in business and technology or thrilling mysteries based on actual events.

As soon as there were automobiles, there was racing. The first recorded race, an over road event from Paris to Rouen, France, was organized by the French newspaper Le Petit Journal in 1894. Seeing an opportunity for a similar event, Hermann H. Kohlsaat--publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald--sponsored what was hailed as the "Race of the Century," a 54-mile race from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois, and back. Frank Duryea won in a time of 10 hours and 23 minutes, of which 7 hours and 53 minutes were actually spent on the road. Race cars and competition have progressed continuously since that time, and today's 200 mph races bear little resemblance to the event Duryea won. This work traces American auto racing through the 20th century, covering its significant milestones, developments and personalities. Subjects included are: Bill Elliott, dirt track racing, board track racing, Henry Ford, Grand Prix races, Dale Earnhardt, the Vanderbilt Cup, Bill France, Gordon Bennett, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Mercer, the Stutz, Duesenberg, Frank Lockhart, drag racing, the Trans Am, Paul Newman, vintage racing, land speed records, Al Unser, Wilbur Shaw, the Corvette, the Cobra, Richard Petty, NASCAR, Can Am, Mickey Thompson, Roger Penske, Mario Andretti, Jeff Gordon, and Formula One. Through interviews with participants and track records, this text shows where, when and how racing changed. It describes the growth of each different form of auto racing as well as the people and technologies that made it ever faster.

This book details the story of Paul Tracy and his rise through racing’s minor leagues, setting and breaking records as he went. At 17 he was racing cars with twice the horsepower of the family cars his friends were just learning to drive. Veteran team managers and drivers knew they were seeing someone special on the track: a quiet kid with the looks of a boy scout and the desire of a champion. Soon Tracy dominated kart racing, won at Can-Am racing, and ruled Indy Lights. He then stormed into the Championship Auto Racing Team circuit, racing wheel to wheel with Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. In those early races, even driving an underpowered car, Tracy proved he could run with the big boys. But Paul Tracy’s success has come with its share of hardships. His aggressive driving style on the cart circuit has made almost as many enemies as fans. He’s been criticized, penalized, and vilified both on and off the track. Nevertheless, two things remain consistent—his desire to drive fast, and his desire to win.

The world of Champ Car auto racing was changing in the 1970s. As cars became more sophisticated, the cost of supporting a team had skyrocketed, making things difficult for team owners. In an effort to increase purses paid by racing promoters and win lucrative television contracts, a group of owners formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1978. Soon after, CART split from its sanctioning body, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Though Champ Cars ran on numerous tracks, the Indianapolis 500 was the payday that supported most teams through the season. From the beginning, CART had most of the successful teams and popular drivers, and they focused on driving a wedge between the track owners and the USAC. Over the next 30 years, the tension between CART and USAC ebbed and flowed until all parties realized that reunification was needed for the sake of the sport. This book details the fight over control of Champ Car racing before reunification in 2008.

The fascinating, definitive story of Australia and New Zealand's quest to win the world's greatest motor race Winning the Indianapolis 500, the greatest spectacle in motorsport, has been a quest for Australians and New Zealanders since the first race in 1911. Seventeen have tried and two have succeeded: Scott Dixon in 2008 and Will Power in 2018. Rupert Jeffkins, Australia's original speed king, entered the first Indy 500 and on his second attempt in 1912 came within five kilometres of victory. He and Italian Ralph De Palma created legend when they pushed their car to the finish line after it blew up while leading. Speed Kings tells Jeffkins' full story for the first time. The lure of the Brickyard, paved with 3.2 million bricks, has drawn champions from both sides of the Tasman. Sir Jack Brabham, his son Geoffrey and grandson Matthew have each tried to win. So have the 'big three' of New Zealand motor racing: Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon. Now Scott McLaughlin looks set to become the next driver from down under to chase American motor racing's greatest prize. Indy doesn't offer up victory lightly. Blinding speed - nudging 380 km/h and averaging 280 km/h over 500 miles - makes the Brickyard one of the most precarious racetracks in the world. Forty-two drivers have died attempting the 500. Speed Kings tells the story of the Australian and New Zealand drivers, team owners, engineers, even commentators who've made the Brickyard their quest.