Roger Penske

Roger Penske, Founder and Chairman of Penske Corporation, was recently inducted into The Automotive Hall of Fame along with automaker Elwood Haynes, former Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, and industrialist Ratan N. Tata.

“To me, it’s a real honor (to be inducted),” Mr. Penske told Mike Brudenell from The Detroit Free Press. … “But, most of all, it’s about the people who have supported me — my family, my business partners and all my employees. I think that is the most important thing.”

Mr. Penske was inducted for his accomplishments in building a leading international transportation services organization that includes: Penske Automotive Group, Penske Truck Leasing, Penske Logistics, and Team Penske, one of the most successful automotive sports teams in history.

Story Credits:
Video: The Automotive Hall of Fame | Article: Penske Truck Leasing | Quote: Detroit Free Press

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (November 5, 2013) – Penske Racing announced today that AutoZone will join the organization as an associate sponsor for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

AutoZone and Penske Racing will embark on an extensive business-to-business relationship as the company’s logo will be prominently featured on the C-post of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion driven by 2013 Chase driver Joey Logano beginning next season. AutoZone will also work with other Penske Racing partners to increase its presence in the racing community. In addition, the Memphis, Tenn.-based company will launch a marketing campaign focused around Penske Racing and Logano.

“We are very excited to welcome AutoZone to the Penske Racing family,” said Roger Penske. “We take great pride in the companies like AutoZone that invest in our organization. This partnership will help us continue to grow at Penske Racing and provide an opportunity for the rest of our partners to work with yet another great company in Auto Zone.”

AutoZone is the nation’s leading retailer and a leading distributor of automotive replacement parts and accessories with more than 5,000 stores in the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Each store carries an extensive line for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and light trucks, including new and remanufactured hard parts, maintenance items and accessories. Since opening its first store in Forrest City, Ark. on July 4, 1979, the company has joined the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AZO) and earned a position in the Fortune 500.

AutoZone has an extensive history in motorsports, including various sponsorships in NASCAR, powerboat racing and regional racing series around the country. This marks the automotive company’s first sponsor relationship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“When you decide to enter into an agreement like this, you want to work with a company that everyone respects and that’s what Penske Racing is, especially in the motorsports world,” said Bill Rhodes, President and CEO of AutoZone. “We are all really excited to form this new partnership with Roger Penske and his first-class organization. Already from the beginning, they’ve made us feel very welcome. And to get to work with an up-and-coming driver and a car guy like Joey Logano is about as good as it gets.”

Logano, who is in his first season driving the No. 22 Ford Fusion for Penske Racing, has posted career-high numbers in 2013 with one win, two poles, 11 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes. He qualified for his first Chase for the Sprint Cup this season in his fifth full-time year competing in the series. Logano has also won three races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2013, giving him a total of 21 wins in the series since 2008.

“It’s pretty cool to see a new company come into our sport and to get involved at the level that AutoZone is planning to do next season,” said the 23-year-old Logano, who won at Michigan International Speedway earlier this season. “To have a company come in and be really excited about working with you and your team, it really makes you feel good. Having Auto Zone on board starting next season is great for our sport and Penske Racing and it makes me want to go out there and win even more races for them.”

[Source: PenskeRacing.com]

 

Joey Logano took first at the Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway last Friday. It was his first win since joining Penske Racing, and the win wasn’t the only highlight of the day. Logano broke the track record of 203.241 mph previously helped by Marcos Ambrose. Logano’s No. Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion took the track at 203.949 mph. His qualifying lap enters the record books as the ninth fastest pole-winning lap in the history of the Sprint Cup Series.

Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson also bested Ambrose’s record, coming in as the second- and third-place qualifiers for the day. Driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., acknowledged the speed, saying, “The car’s got a lot of grip. I think the track is even more abrasive than the first trip here. The cars are carrying a little more speed than the first trip here in practice and qualifying.”

Overall, it was a pretty good day for Logano on the MIS, which has been described as the sport’s fastest track thanks to the greater amount of banking. He tailed Mark Martin, his childhood hero, in the final stages of the race, finally taking the lead when the No. 55 Toyota ran out of fuel with only three laps to go. Not only did he best Cup veterans Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, but he also moved from 16th place in series points to the number 13 spot. There are still three races left before the Chase for the Championship, and Logano’s momentum might push him far enough to make it.

Logano began racing in 2009 at Joe Gibbs racing. This win was the third in his Cup career and the first for 2013. The risk that Roger Penske took on the young driver has paid off. Penske, former owner of MIS during the early 1970s, called Logano’s win one of the biggest in 30 years. It was particularly meaningful since Penske hails from Detroit.

“What a great time to win, being in Ford’s backyard, being in Roger’s backyard,” Logano said in an after-race interview. “I’m glad to make the most of it.”

Rounding out the race’s top ten were Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

[Photo Source: http://www.freep.com]

From the start of his career as an Ohio teen-ager selling old used cars he’d fixed, Roger Penske has built a successful empire in racing and auto dealing unique in American history. Once the SCCA’s Driver of the Year in 1961, Penske’s racing team has won 23 national championships, 12 Indy Car titles, 15 wins at the Indianapolis 500 and last year, its first championship in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. On the track, the team calls him “The Captain”; in the 340 Penske Automotive dealerships and offices known for Disney-like order and cleanliness, there’s usually his motto: “Effort Equals Results.” Here’s a rare video of Penske behind the wheel, racing in the 1962 Grand Prix Riverside. Look for him in the #6 car, finishing where you’d expect him to:

Brad Keselowski didn’t dare take his phone in his car before the biggest race of his life. NASCAR’s social media champion handed it over before pulling on his helmet and chasing the Sprint Cup title he promised to deliver to Roger Penske.

But when Sunday’s race ended, Keselowski crossing the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the champion, he didn’t even consider getting out of his car to celebrate before getting that phone back.

Keselowski, the kid you first heard about when he tweeted from inside his car during the season-opening Daytona 500, opened his championship reign by tweeting from inside his car: “We did it,” he posted with a picture.

He did it with Penske, forming NASCAR’s oddest couple to capture its biggest prize.

Keselowski brought Penske his first Sprint Cup championship 40 years after his first stock car race, beating five-time champion Jimmie Johnson of mighty Hendrick Motorsports while delivering the crown that fills a glaring hole on Penske’s otherwise sterling racing resume.

Penske is considered the gold standard of open-wheel racing — he has 15 Indianapolis 500 wins — and his empire makes him one of the most successful businessmen in America. But until Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his NASCAR program was never more than average.

“Personally, I feel amazing that I’ve been able to achieve this in racing,” Penske said. “I think it took guts for me to stay in the sport. We could have thought, ‘Well, we won the Indy 500 15 times and we’re a big deal.’ But I’ll tell you one thing … I think I just woke up here tonight, and it’s a big thrill.”

As always, Penske credited the entire program.

But the program really turned behind Keselowski, a blue collar, Michigan native, who chugged sponsor Miller Lite’s product, donned goggles to douse the Blue Deuce crew with champagne, and imagined how his life will change as NASCAR’s champion. At 28, he’s the eighth youngest champion in NASCAR history and proud he doesn’t have a date for the Nov. 30 champions banquet in Las Vegas.

“I’ve always wanted to date a celebrity,” said Keselowski, “I’m just throwing that out there. That would be really cool, don’t you think?”

Penske could only shake his head in bewilderment.

“Maybe I am conservative, but I like to have a little fun, too,” Penske said. “And I think when you’ve won the NASCAR championship, the driver, you can kind of give him a little wider path, and he’s certainly taken it side to side. I think it’s all good.”

Keselowski might not have seemed like Penske material three years ago, but he’s a cornerstone now.

He was a developmental driver for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 when he went to see Penske, determined that he could be the driver to bring “The Captain” a coveted Cup championship. He wiggled free from his contract a year later, and had a second-tier Nationwide championship — and a closet full of starched white Penske shirts — to show for his convictions.

Now, three years into the plan, he and Penske have that Cup championship and a connection no one saw coming.

(Source: WashingPost.com)

Brad Keselowski has won his first NASCAR championship.

The 28-year-old Detroit native clinched the Sprint Cup title Sunday when fellow title contender Jimmie Johnson pulled out of the season finale because of a parts failure. The championship is the first for longtime NASCAR owner Roger Penske and gives outgoing car manufacturer Dodge the sweetest of parting gifts.

All Keselowski had to do was stay out of trouble over the final 60 miles, which essentially turned out to be 40 victory laps around Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Keselowski says over his radio, “If he’s in the garage, let’s race.”

It is Dodge’s first Cup championship since Richard Petty’s title in 1975. And it surely will help Penske get over a heartbreaking second-place finish in the IndyCar championship in September.

(Source: Washingtonpost.com)

Luxury automaker Lexus recently inaugurated its newest dealership on Route 2 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The $1.5 million, 4,000 square-foot facility features a four-vehicle showroom, a 60-vehicle parking facility, a certified, pre-owned sales department, as well as parts and service areas.

United Auto Caribbean, a subsidiary of the Roger Penske Automotive Group, recently inaugurated the Lexus Ponce dealership late last week, announcing the creation of 15 direct and 40 indirect jobs, and sales projections of 25 units per month.

“This is the ideal time to open Ponce Lexus because the local market has a growing population of consumers who value good taste, luxury and perfection, are connoisseurs who demand more because they reflect the spirit of the southern region’s economic, cultural and social development,” said Charlie Vaillant, president of Lexus Ponce.

“This dealership offers the widest range of vehicles with the highest levels of luxury, innovation, performance, quality, reliability and durability,” he said.

The newest addition to the Lexus dealership chain will have sedans, SUV, convertibles, performance and hybrid vehicles in its sales lineup.

[Source: NewsIsMyBusiness.com]

Roger Penske’s opening of a seven-story auto dealership in downtown San Francisco last month was a daring step for the global industry magnate.

San Francisco leans left and buys green. And for 40 years, its consumers have shopped for cars and trucks in the suburbs.

But Penske, seeing opportunity downtown, put a combined Nissan and Infiniti dealership into an abandoned building that was arguably the jewel of the city’s one-time auto row.

But the 75-year-old auto retailing, racing and truck leasing mogul was not the only powerful mover and shaker behind the new store. Before he could think of doing it, he first had to win the favor and approval of Mrs. Brooks.

Marie Brooks, the grande dame of San Francisco auto retailing, is elegant and dark-haired at age 86, respectfully referred to as “Mrs. Brooks” by auto industry executives. Hers is a life story that intertwines the history of the car business and the history of one of America’s biggest retail markets.

She is the former owner of Ellis Brooks Chevrolet and one of the first female franchised auto dealers in America, and now reports for work daily at her Ellis Brooks Automotive Center used-car lot in downtown San Francisco. She operates a leasing company, owns a Honda store in Yreka, in far northern California, and is a franchisee of the Wheego electric car startup.

More to the point for Penske, she owns the building at the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Bush Street that he needed to make his daring deal pencil out. And it was never a sure bet that she would let him rent it.

How his Penske Automotive Group, with $11.6 billion in auto retail revenues, won over Mrs. Brooks, put the deal together, bucked the historical direction of the local market and worked with Nissan North America to fit its factory real estate specs onto a piece of historic urban real estate is a story of what Roger Penske is famous for: attention to detail.

“San Francisco is not the real world,” observes Peter Blackstock, a Toyota and Lexus dealer in the region’s Monterey peninsula, and also the northern California representative for the National Automobile Dealers Association. “It’s a very political and liberal city, and just a very challenging place to do business. People don’t buy cars there the way they do in other cities.

“Hats off to Roger Penske for figuring out how to make it work.”

(Source: Autonews.com)