By Andrew Cutler
December 8 2007

Roger Penske, often called "the Captain", seems to have the Midas touch when it comes to any endevour he undertakes, and he keeps a very full plate. A promising young racer in the late '50s-early '60s, he turned his attention to the management end of racing and has built an impressive empire.

And runnning Team Penske is what he does as "relaxation" from the stresses of his vast business empire, which includes several car dealerships, trucking lines and other transportation-related industries!

Penske had a varied driving career, not only racing but also often selling race cars. By the time that he stepped out of the cockpit for the last time, he had even been in two Formula 1 events - the '61 & '62 USGPs, driving non-works Cooper & Lotus cars.

By 1969 his racing organization had grown to the point where he was ready to take on the Indy 500 - an event that he never drove in personally. Four years later, in 1972, driver Mark Donahue gave Penske the first of an incredible 14 Indy victories - so far! Down through the years, the list of drivers who have been employed by Team Penske has been a "who's who" of the USAC, CART and IRL eras of Indy Car: names like the afore-mentioned Donahue, Tom Senva, Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser, Rick Mears, Al Unser Jr., Emmerson Fittapaldi and Paul Tracy all drove for Roger at some point in their careers.

When the CART/IRL split came about in 1996, Penske opted to remain on the CART side of the schism initially, but the lure of racing at Indy in May would prove to be too strong to resist for long. After seeing rival CART team owner Chip Ganassi run Indy in 2000 as a "one off" effort and dominate the race with Juan Pablo Montoya, Roger did the same in 2001, winning with Helio Castroneves.

By 2002 Team Penske had left CART and was in the IRL: a move that would soon be copied by both Ganassi and Rahal-Letterman, gutting the ranks of CART teams. Castroneves would win Indy again that year, followed in '03 by his teammate, Gil de Ferran. Penske's latest Indy victory, and the team's first series championship, would come in 2006, courtesy of Sam Hornish Jr.    

In addition to his IRL squad, Roger owns a NASCAR team and an ALMS team.