Tuesday, February 22, 2022

The "House Of Penske" Influence Owns Winning To Open 2022 Racing Season

What a great day for the speedway, and a great day to celebrate Roger Penske’s 85th birthday! "So I went back to the speedway this morning to get my painting that I did in the suites overlooking Ruoff Victory Lane," said events artist Bill Patterson.  "I just happened to find myself with my painting in victory Lane and my timing was perfect!" Pictured from Left to Right - Event Artist Bill Patterson, Event Painting of Daytona 500 finish with the Penske Racing's Discount Tire sponsored No, 2 Ford Mustang of Austin Cindric at P1 and the 23XI Racing's McDonald's sponsored No. 23 Toyota Camary of Bubba Wallace in P2, Daytona 500 Winner Austin Cindric. Image Credit: Bill Patterson via META/FB (2022)

The "House Of Penske" Influence Owns Winning To Open 2022 Racing Season

Looking back from the holding of the NASCAR Daytona 500, there have been three races to open the professional 2022 automobile racing season here in North America - IMSA's Rolex 24 Hours Of Daytona followed by the NASCAR non-points paying, attention-getting promotional short-track race one-week before the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum (the original home of the RAMS when they came to Los Angeles), and last weekend's NASCAR Daytona 500. 

Team Penske driver Joey Logano, who started 4th, celebrates, with many donuts at the Start/Finish Line, his hold off win against race start leader Kyle Busch in the 150 lap heat race performed on the "one-of" 1/4 mile temporary track built on the floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This venue was normally the collage football house of USC, but no matter how NASCAR tried to make this weekend NASCAR's house, the title sponsor had kept the USC front and center - BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum.  Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2022)

All three of these races were won by a Team Penske operation or through efforts started by Team Penske and carried on through the legacy efforts of drivers and engineers familiar with the motor culture path cut by Roger Penske. 

What began this above focus was the occasion of a ZOOM Call - to kick off the first race of the 2022 season at Saint Petersburg, Florida - sponsored by INDYCAR that featured two drivers, one who will race for Team Penske, and the other who performs double-duty this season between IMSA DPi Class sports car racing and INDYCAR for Meyer Shank Racing - Will Power and Helio Castroneves respectively.

Q. I find it interesting with all the activity in auto racing that we've had in 2022, we have seen a lot of influence from the "House Of Penske" ... after all, you have Acura DPi, you and Simon winning the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. We have the NASCAR Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum won by Joey Logano, Team Penske. And then, of course, the Daytona 500 with Austin Cindric … also Team Penske.

What do you think it is with the Penske culture that delivers this kind of success? 

Rolex 24 At Daytona Victory Lane from above - #60: Meyer Shank Racing W/Curb-Agajanian, Acura DPi, DPi Drivers:Simon Pagenaud, Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves. This car was originally introduced to IMSA prototype racing through an agreement reached by Team Penske with Acura Motorsports on July 11, 2017 and ended its campaign at the end of 2020. Two DPi cars were fielded and then transferred to Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing. It was the second overall victory for Michael Shank’s MSR team, which also won the 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona. “I just make it happen,” said Castroneves, who was teamed with Simon Pagenaud (his teammate with Team Penske in IndyCar, and a first-time Rolex 24 winner), Oliver Jarvis and Blomqvist. “I had amazing teammates. What a great, incredible race.” Image Credit: Michael L. Levitt - LAT Images via IMSA (2022)

First, Helio.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, I worked with the organization for over 20 years, and no question they're looking for every small detail and continue to develop in off-season and during the season. It's a great organization and they don't see any limits. They actually -- the same way -- and I believe the INDYCAR started that with kind of like the work attitude translates to the NASCAR world, and probably that's why one of the successes that happened is having that mentality from INDYCAR to the NASCAR world.

Now it's not only that but INDYCAR and NASCAR, IMSA, they all have that kind of mentality, which helps. It helps everyone to stay in the program, understanding what they need to do. It gives you the tools that you need to go there and execute. The results obviously come out later, and it's no question the team that has the most record in a lot of the series, and they'll always be a contender.

Team Penske's Will Power rounds Turn 6 at the 2021 late September season finale at the ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach. Power (2021 P9) will be on a three driver team with Josef Newgarden (2021 P2) and fellow Southern hemispherical colonies born, New Zealander Scott McLaughlin (2021 P14). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2021)

Q. Will, your reflection on Penske culture?

WILL POWER: Yeah, it starts from the top down. You see the way Roger runs his corporation, the business, any business that he's in, and like he always says, it's human capital. It's the people that you invest in. He always has a very good team at the top, and that filters all the way down through the whole organization to really anyone doing anything within the shop.

Great people preparing the cars. You've got great people doing development behind the scenes, and you're expected to win. Roger expects the team to win. That's why last year was so disappointing on the INDYCAR side, because we did win but we didn't win enough, and we weren't competitive enough at Indianapolis.

Certainly went into this last off-season really, really digging deep, and the whole team looked at everything and has done some great development.

Hopefully that translates on to the track. It's a super competitive series and environment right now, so you can never know. But Roger expects all of us on the INDYCAR side to be contending for a championship.
ENDS


The culture that Roger Penske instills has expectations for high standards followed by finding the right people to deliver the deepest understanding of every small detail, from equipment, personnel, and processes that yield planned winning results. 

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is back and bigger than ever as the NTT IndyCar Series opener.

A field of 26 cars — tying a St. Pete GP record set in 2008 and 2012 — will take the green flag Sunday as the race opens the season for the first time.

TV: Noon ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com. Leigh Diffey is the announcer with analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns are the pit reporters. Click here for the full NBC Sports schedule for IndyCar in 2022.

COMMAND TO START ENGINES: 12:23 p.m. ET

GREEN FLAG: 12:30 p.m. ET

DISTANCE: The race is 100 laps (180 miles) on a 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course through downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, including a runway of Albert Whitted Airport

PRACTICE: Friday, 3:40 p.m. ET (Peacock Premium); Saturday, 9 a.m. ET (Peacock Premium), Sunday warmup, 8:45 a.m. ET (Peacock Premium)

QUALIFYING: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET (Peacock Premium)

TIRE ALLOTMENT: Six sets primary, four sets alternate. One additional set is available to rookie drivers for use in the Friday afternoon practice session. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race.

PUSH TO PASS: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum single duration of 15 seconds. The push-to-pass is not available on the initial start or any restart unless it occurs in the final two laps or three minutes of a timed race The feature increases the power of the engine by approximately 60 horsepower.

FORECAST: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 73 degrees with a 3% chance of rain at the green flag.

We will have to wait and see if this "House Of Penske" string of wins can extend itself to the 2022 season opener on the streets and around the salt waters of Saint Petersburg. 

... notes from The EDJE


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UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE

After all that was said and done given the events held by NASCAR in the Wise Power 400 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and the season opening of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES at St. Petersburg, Florida in the Firestone Grand Prix at St, Petersburg, the "House Of Penske" added to their impressive opening to the 2022 professional racing series seasons. After NASCAR's Austin Cindric captured the pole in Fontana and INDYCAR's Scott McLaughlin captured the pole in St. Petersburg, another promising outcome awaited for a total of 5 wins in 3 racing series with no other racing organization other than Team Penske winning a race in these - IMSA DPi/NASCAR/INDYCAR - racing series in all of 2022. 

Firestone Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg Podium celebration - P2 Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex Palou, P1 race winner Team Penske, Scott McLaughlin and P3 Team Penske, Will Power - Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Image Credit: Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski (2022)

By days end on Sunday, February 27, 2022, a 100% sweep was not in the cards, but all was not lost. While no Team Penske driver was able to score a win in the race held by NASCAR at Auto Club Speedway, Team Penske did go on to win the NTT INDYCAR SERIES opener in St. Petersburg with New Zealander Scott McLaughlin registering his first win in the racing series to begin his second year driving the Chevrolet Dallara. 

In the end, the "House Of Penske" won all of the season opening races in the three professional motorsports racing series at the highest levels in North America - IMSA DPi through the legacy of Acura fielded by Meyer Shank Racing driven by Penske legacy drivers Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud | NASCAR in two races where one was a non-points paying race known as the BUSCH Light Clash at the Coliseum won by Team Penske driver Joey Logano followed by a win in the first season points paying race at the Daytona 500 won by Team Penske driver Austin Cindric | NTT INDYCAR in the season opener won by Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin - that's 4 wins in 5 races in all of the top professional racing series (3) here in North America! 

That's what OWNS WINNING looks like.

Viva and congratulations to all in the pursuits of excellence at the "House Of Penske" ! 
ENDS




TAGS: Team Penske Roger Penske, Happy Birthday, ACURA DPi. NASCAR, IMSA, INDYCAR, Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Penske Hall Of Fame, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Simon Pagenaud, MSR Racing, House Of Penske, The EDJE

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