“Look, on Race Day, you’ll have to run here a perfect day. Both McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden are very positive about their cars in race trim. “Will Power starts near the front, has a pretty good car this year. Jacob Musselman/For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK Then you look at us and Andretti further back, but we know how to win races. Last year, we won nine races and won the championship but weren’t competitive at Indy. We’ve won two races already this year in the series, so we are competitive. I have to stay away from it to have a Chinese wall between what is going on, on the track. “I used to stand on the box for seven or eight days and run the race, which I really miss. “That would be a real honor to win the race as the owner of the track,” Penske said. Penske could pay himself as the winning team owner if one of those drivers is the first to the checkered flag. There are three star drivers in the Team Penske lineup for Sunday’s 107 th Indy 500: 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power starts ninth two-time NTT Ind圜ar Series champion Josef Newgarden starts 17 th four-time winner Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand starts 14 th. Penske, however, remains confident that he can reach 20 victories in the Indy 500 during his lifetime. Since that time, a Team Penske driver has not won the Indy 500. 6, 2020, Penske already had earned acclaim as the winningest car owner in Indy 500 history with 18 wins. Prior to closing officially on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and Ind圜ar from the Hulman-George Family of Terre Haute, Indiana on Jan. “I guess the seat I have now are better than every up in the Pagoda.” Our seats were coming off Turn 4 and weren’t the best in the house. “I remember getting a chance to sit in that car before we went to the track. We got there late, but there was a show car there if you can believe it. We got down here and were supposed to go to someone’s house for lunch. “Someone sponsored one of the lap prizes and gave him a couple of tickets. “My dad got a couple of tickets,” Penske recalled of that 1951 Indianapolis 500. Conquering the business world was far off in his future. “From that point on, we never stopped coming here.”Īt that time, young Roger was like most boys his age who had big dreams and ambitions. For me, as a young boy who loved cars, it was a special time with my dad to bond with him at the race. They brought their cars in on trailers and put them together in the garage in the early days as I remember. “It was pretty special to see them in those days. Having a chance to race here and be successful has been amazing to me, my family, and my company. “It certainly helped me build a brand within my company.

“I’ve been back every year since except when we had the IRL/CART debacle at that point. “When I think about going back to 1951, when I came to the Speedway with my Dad when I was a young guy and had the chance to see the cars and be here at the race and see the spectacle, I guess I was bitten at that point,” Penske recalled. It changed Penske’s life back in 1951 when he was just a boy and joined his father, Jay, on a business trip to Indianapolis to see the big race.

The Indianapolis 500 is more than a race, it’s a life-changing experience. Many of those fans have been coming for 30, 40, 50 and even 60 or more years. “I’ve had my own (health) issues as you go along the way, but right now, I’m ready for another 500.”Īnd that is great news for the 325,000 fans that make the annual pilgrimage to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for what is by far, the biggest race on the planet. That keeps me as a person from a physical perspective in good shape. I like to lead, not from the top, but from the bottom. “I think it motivates you because you have decisions to make every day.

Roger penske net worth 2021