Roger Penske shows no sign of slowing down

INDIANAPOLIS -- Roger Penske would be on the short list of billionaires with whom you'd like to hang out. Despite having more money than God, Penske is remarkably normal, infectiously friendly and open.

Penske's companies sell cars and trucks, rent them, repair them, make parts for them and race them. They generate about $18 billion in annual revenue. Just one segment, Penske Automotive Group, announced first-quarter earnings that more than doubled over last year, from $14.9 million to $33.9 million.

People who have that much money tend to have little time for anything other than making more of it.

Not so the 71-year-old Penske.

"He's a people person much more than a money person," says Rick Mears, longtime friend, business partner, member of the Penske racing team and four-time winner of the passion of Penske's life.

That would be the Indianapolis 500, which will be run for the 92nd time here Sunday.

Penske will have two cars in the race, both near the front. Australian Ryan Briscoe will start on the outside of the first row and Brazilian Helio Castroneves on the inside of the second. But even before they drop the checkered flag, Penske's days leading up to that have been a blur of activity for a man who, if he isn't the most important figure in the sport, is certainly its godfather.

This morning, at the drivers' meeting, he will be given the Roger McCluskey Award of Excellence, named in honor of a former star driver. On Friday, he had the headset on for Briscoe and Castroneves for carburetion day, a fancy name for the last day of practice.

And the day before that, he had lunch with former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, in Kennebunkport, Me., before flying back here for a drastic drop in class and dinner with a bunch of sportswriters.

Somewhere along the way, he made sure that 87-year-old Jim Travers of Kanab, Utah, a chief mechanic for 1950s racing legend Bill Vukovich, got a chance to return to the Speedway after nearly 30 years. Penske sent his plane for Travers and picked up the tab for the entire weekend.

The call and invitation from Penske "just came out of the clear blue sky," Travers told the Indianapolis Star.

Penske, part Rockefeller and part Robin Hood, juggles all this while keeping enough concentration and energy toward that which matters most to him, outside of family and friends. That would be winning another Indy 500, which would be his 15th as an owner.

A win by Briscoe or Castroneves would also mark the 300th victory for Penske Racing, including Indy cars and the NASCAR and sports car circuits.

Penske, originally from Ohio but now from Birmingham, Mich., has been coming to the Indy 500 since 1951.

"My dad brought me," he says. "I haven't missed many years since."

He was a driver of note in the late 1950s and early '60s. He won consistently on the sport car tours, even drove on the Formula One circuit, and was headed for success as a driver. But he was also a Lehigh graduate with a mind for business, so when he reached a crossroads in 1965, the driver's seat lost out to a desk chair.

"I had a chance to buy a Cadillac dealership in Philadelphia," says Penske, who was then 28. "I had a bank loan, no insurance and driving race cars wasn't appropriate right then.

"I even had an invitation to take a rookie's driving test at Indy, but I turned it down. They gave my spot to some other guy. I think his name was Mario Andretti."

So Penske never drove in the Indy 500. But that has never lessened his desire to be an integral part of it. He has won the race with Mark Donohue, Bobby Unser, Al Unser Jr., Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sam Hornish Jr., Gil de Ferran, Castroneves and Mears.

His love of the sport wavered only once, when close friend Donohue died in 1975. Donohue, practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix, crashed and hit his head hard. He walked away from the wreck, even talked to track workers, before collapsing a short time later.