The racing life Roger Penske left behind
It is easy to look at the sprawling legacy of Team Penske and forget that the man at the top was once a serious, high-velocity talent himself. Long before he was managing giants like Rusty Wallace, Rick Mears, Mark Donohue, Will Power, Joey Logano, Hélio Castroneves, Brad Keselowski, Josef Newgarden, and Ryan Blaney, Roger Penske was the one behind the wheel, making his own mark on the asphalt.
He was a quick study. At just 21, he started competing in Sports Car Club of America events, and by 1961, he was the SCCA National D Modified champion and Sports Illustrated’s Driver of the Year. He followed that up the very next year by winning a United States Auto Club championship and earning top driver honors from The New York Times. He even snagged a win in a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside International Raceway in 1963.
But then came the crossroads. Faced with the choice between a life in the cockpit and a career in the automotive business, Penske chose the latter, buying a Philadelphia dealership in 1965 with his father’s help. It turned out to be the right move, resulting in 48 national championships and nearly 700 race victories under his banner.
Yet, the racing instinct never left him. His drivers, like Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, have often spoken about receiving feedback so specific it could only come from someone who truly understands the machine. As Walt Czarnecki notes, Penske still talks to his drivers as if he were in the car himself. He might have walked away from the track to run the business, but as Rusty Wallace put it, when you look at what he achieved in those early years, he was a damn good driver.
