Roger Penske has multiple irons in the fire during a typical racing season.
From the NASCAR Cup Series and NTT IndyCar Series to a sports car program in both North America and Europe, the owner of one of racing’s most recognizable teams has a lot to balance.
However, through more than five decades of owning a race team, Penske’s found success in every area, most recently winning the Cup Series championship with driver Joey Logano at Phoenix Raceway earlier this month.
It was Penske’s third straight title in NASCAR’s premier series.
With Logano’s title-sealing victory at Phoenix, it was Penske’s 150th in Cup Series competition, which is the fourth-most all time.
“We’re trying to climb up the ladder,” Penske said. “The five wins this year by Joey, including the All-Star race… when you look at the stats, from the All-Star race to the end of the year, Team Penske won 42 percent of the NASCAR races. So, this wasn’t a fluke that Joey got lucky.”
Penske attributed the team’s success to a mindset shared across the organization — one-team effort.
“I mean, he put it together and there’s no question he and (Ryan) Blaney and even (Austin) Cindric helped a lot as we were starting to build that one-team effort,” Penske explained. “To me, as we go forward, it’s so important in our business… Racing is a common thread through our company.
“It shows teamwork, it shows performance, integrity, transparency, but also it builds our brand. That brand is the glue and this race team is what’s a glue for our 74,000 people. So, that’s why you see us continuing to invest.”
Pushing a common goal-based mindset throughout Team Penske takes leadership. Not only from Penske but also from Logano, who’s been with the team 12 years.
“I mean, we got to put ourself in position and Joey… you all know him, there’s no harder worker on the team,” Penske said. “I think that when Brad (Keselowski) moved on, Joey kind of took the leadership to pull it together.”
Alongside drivers Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, Penske said the staff in charge of the team’s NASCAR operations propels the organization in the right direction.
“I rely on our people,” Penske said. “When you think about Mike Nelson (Penske’s President of NASCAR Operations) and Travis Geisler (Penske’s NASCAR Competition Director) and the team there, they’ve been with us for a long time. I think they give our group the confidence that we can deliver.
“A perfect example is when we had our jackman have an issue in the middle of Phoenix, we were able to take the guy off the 2 (Cindric’s team) and you never knew the difference.
“I think that’s that cross pollination and that deep bench.”