Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American auto racing team owner, businessman, and retired professional driver. Penske is the owner of Team Penske, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, and other auto racing-related businesses. Penske is the founder and chairman of the Penske Corporation, a holding company for his various businesses. Penske is also a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Early life and education

Penske was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1937. Born to a devout Episcopalian family, Penske was heavily involved with his church as a boy, singing in the church's choir and serving in the ministry as an acolyte. His father, Jay, was a successful corporate executive for a metal fabrication company and encouraged his son to become an entrepreneur. As a teenager he bought older cars, repaired them and sold them at a profit from his family's home in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1955 and is a 1959 graduate of Lehigh University, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

Racing career

Penske's first racing venture was in hillclimbing, but then ran road course racing at the Vineland Raceway in Vineland, New Jersey, as a member of the Philadelphia Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in Porsches. Penske made his first professional racing start at the now-abandoned Marlboro Motor Raceway in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Sports Illustrated named him SCCA Driver of the Year in 1961. He competed in two Formula One Grands Prix and won a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside in 1963. He never ran the Indianapolis 500: he was offered a rookie test at Indianapolis with the Dean Van Lines team. Penske continued racing until 1965, when he retired as a driver, to concentrate on his first Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Racing teams

Penske Racing debuted in 1966 at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He developed one of the most successful teams in IndyCar Series and NASCAR racing. He is the most successful team owner at the Indianapolis 500 with 20 victories. He is known by his nickname of "The Captain". Penske also served as a race strategist for his IndyCar team, most recently for driver Will Power. Penske won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with driver Brad Keselowski on November 18, 2012. On September 16, 2018, driver Brad Keselowski won the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, giving Penske his 500th race victory as an owner across all racing series. Later the same season, Joey Logano would clinch the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, winning Penske his second championship in the Cup series.

Penske Corporation

Penske is chairman of Penske Corporation, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Some of the company's holdings include a significant stake in publicly-traded Penske Automotive Group, an international company that operates automobile dealerships in the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe; Penske Truck Leasing, a truck sales, leasing, and fleet maintenance company; Penske Motor Group which operates auto dealerships in California and Texas. On November 4, 2019, Penske acquired the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile course in Speedway, Indiana, the Indianapolis 500-mile race and IndyCar from the Hulman Family for an undisclosed amount.

Personal life

As of October 2023, Penske's estimated net worth is $3.8 billion. Penske Racing donated $500,000 to Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's Super PAC. He was discussed as a potential candidate for Mayor of Detroit but declined to run. Penske endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. He contributed $45,000 to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

Awards and honors

Auto racing Halls of Fame National

Motorsports career results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

24 Hours of Le Mans results