Several drivers benefited from Penske's winning touch. "And for that I have to thank Roger and the team." "I couldn't have hoped for or dreamed of having a better career," said Mears. In all, he won twenty-nine races and three season championships for Penske before retiring from driving in 1992 to become a team consultant. Known as the "King of the Ovals," Mears won the Indianapolis 500 for Penske in 1979 and repeated the feat in 1984, 1988, and 1991. One driver who did stay with Penske for the long haul was Rick Mears. It wouldn't be the last time Penske parted with a successful driver. But Penske let Sneva go because he failed to win enough races. We did what he wanted." In 19 the duo broke the 200-mile-per-hour barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and teamed for consecutive season championships. "Roger told me what he wanted, and I told him what I wanted," recalled Sneva in The Norton Spirit (1978). In 1975 he met and offered Tom Sneva a chance to drive his Norton-sponsored car. Nicknamed the "Captain," Penske developed a reputation as the unquestioned leader of his team. Donohue died in 1975 after crashing during a practice run for a Formula One race, and Team Penske soon began focusing almost entirely on Indianapolis-style "Champ Car" racing. The team quickly succeeded at several levels of racing and hit the jackpot when Donohue won the Indianapolis 500 in 1972. With Mark Donohue as his driver, Penske started running his own race team in 1966. "I don't want to be known as a race driver," he reportedly said before quitting. But after winning races in several classifications and a road racing championship, Penske retired from driving in 1965, since it began to conflict with his business career. By 1962 he had earned Driver of the Year honors from Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. Penske drove in his first sports car race in 1958 and won his first race a year later. But as successful as Penske became in the corporate world, auto racing would be his claim to fame. Beginning his career in aluminum sales, he later used a loan from his father to purchase a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia that spawned various transportation businesses. Penske graduated from Lehigh University in 1959 with a business administration degree. Not long after, he severely injured his ankle while riding a motorcycle and nearly had to have his foot amputated, but recovered to play high school football. In 1951 he attended his first Indianapolis 500. Penske was a prize-winning newspaperĬarrier and, as a teenager, bought and fixed used cars to sell at a profit. Penske was raised in Shaker Heights, the son of Martha and Jay Penske, a corporate executive who taught his son the value of hard work. 20 February 1937 in Shaker Heights, Ohio), accomplished business executive whose auto-racing team won numerous championships and races, including the Indianapolis 500.
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