Roger Penske

Penske in 2023
Born	Roger Searle Penske (1937-02-20)February 20, 1937 (age 88) Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Relatives	Gregory Penske (son) Jay Penske (son)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	American
Active years	1961–1962
Teams	Non-worksCooper andLotus
Entries	2
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Careerpoints	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1961 United States Grand Prix
Last entry	1962 United States Grand Prix

Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937), also known as "the Captain", is an American auto racing team owner, businessman, and former professional driver. Penske is the owner ofTeam Penske, theIndianapolis Motor Speedway,IndyCar, and other auto racing-related businesses. Penske is the founder and chairman of thePenske Corporation, a holding company for his various businesses. Penske is also aPresidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Penske was born inShaker Heights, Ohio, in 1937^[1] into a devoutEpiscopalian family. He was heavily involved with his church as a boy, singing in the church's choir and serving in the ministry as anacolyte.^[2] His father Jay was a successful corporate executive for a metal fabrication company who encouraged his son to become an entrepreneur.^[3] As a teenager he bought older cars, repaired them and sold them at a profit from his family's home outside Cleveland, Ohio.^[4]

After graduating fromShaker Heights High School in 1955, he matriculated atLehigh University, where he was a member of thePhi Gamma Delta fraternity, and he graduated in 1959.^[5]

Penske's first racing venture was in hillclimbing, but then ran road course racing at the Vineland Raceway inVineland, New Jersey, as a member of the Philadelphia Region of theSports Car Club of America (SCCA) inPorsches.^[6] Penske made his first professional racing start at the now-abandonedMarlboro Motor Raceway inUpper Marlboro, Maryland.

Sports Illustrated named him SCCA Driver of the Year in 1961.^[7] He competed in two Formula One Grands Prix and won a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside in 1963. He never ran theIndianapolis 500: he was offered a rookie test at Indianapolis with the Dean Van Lines team.^[8]

Penske continued racing until 1965, when he retired as a driver, to concentrate on his first Chevrolet dealership inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.^[9]

During college, Penske worked at Alcoa as an intern, and joined them as a sales engineer in 1959 after graduating, while also pursuing a career in race-car driving where he met people involved in Chevrolet. In 1963, he left Alcoa to become a manager of a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, which he bought a year later with a loan from his father.^[10] He shifted his focus away from race-car driving to the dealership after the purchase.^[10]

In 1969, he founded Penske Truck Leasing inReading, Pennsylvania by purchasing a truck rental and leasing business with three locations serving eastern Pennsylvania.^[11]

Penske Racing debuted in 1966 at the24 Hours of Daytona.^[12] He developed one of the most successful teams inIndyCar Series andNASCAR racing. He is the most successful team owner at the Indianapolis 500 with 20 victories. He is known by his nickname of "The Captain".^[13] Penske also served as a race strategist for his IndyCar team, most recently for driverWill Power.^[14]

Penske won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with driverBrad Keselowski on November 18, 2012.^[15]

On September 16, 2018, driver Brad Keselowski won the South Point 400 atLas Vegas Motor Speedway, giving Penske his 500th race victory as an owner across all racing series. Later the same season,Joey Logano would clinch the championship atHomestead-Miami Speedway, winning Penske his second championship in the Cup series.^[16]

Penske is chairman ofPenske Corporation, based inBloomfield Hills, Michigan. Some of the company's holdings include a significant stake in publicly tradedPenske Automotive Group, an international company that operates automobile dealerships in the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe;Penske Truck Leasing, a truck sales, leasing, and fleet maintenance company;Penske Motor Group which operates auto dealerships in California and Texas. On November 4, 2019, Penske acquired theIndianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile course inSpeedway, Indiana, theIndianapolis 500 andIndyCar from the Hulman Family for an undisclosed amount.^[17]

Penske was married to Lisa Stouffer, daughter ofGordon Stouffer,^[18] with whom he had two sons, Roger Jr. and Gregory.^[19]Gregory is vice chair of the board ofPenske Automotive Group and CEO ofPenske Motor Group,^[20] and Roger Jr. owns several automotive dealerships.^[21] Penske was later married to Kathryn Penske (née Hulbert),^[18][22] and the couple have three children: Jay, Mark, and Kathryn Blair.^[23][24]Jay is the owner ofPenske Media Corporation.^[25] Roger Penske received a kidney transplant from his son Greg in 2017.^[26]

As of October 2023, Penske's estimated net worth is $3.8 billion.^[27]

Penske Racing donated $500,000 toRestore Our Future,Mitt Romney'sSuper PAC.^[28] He was discussed as a potential candidate forMayor of Detroit but declined to run.^[29] Penske endorsedDonald Trump in the2020 United States presidential election after receiving thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.^[30] He contributed $45,000 toDonald Trump's2020 presidential campaign.^[31] On April 9, 2025, Penske and his NASCAR, IndyCar andIMSA SportsCar Championship drivers and cars visited the White House.^[32] Trump was invited to the2025 Indianapolis 500 by Penske, but did not attend.^[33]

Auto racing

• Six-timeIndyCar Series Champion as owner (2006, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022)^[34]
• Five-timeNASCAR Cup Series Champion as owner (2012, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024)^[34]
• 1990 Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement^[35]
• 2018Simeone Foundation Spirit of Competition Award recipient^[36]

Halls of Fame

• 1995Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee^[37]
• 1998International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee^[34]
• 2002Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame inductee^[34]
• 2015Automotive Hall of Fame inductee^[38][39]
• 2019NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee^[34]
• 2025Trans-Am Series Hall of Fame inductee.^[40]

National

• 2019Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient^[34]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1963	North American Racing Team	Pedro Rodríguez	Ferrari 330 TRI/LM	P +3.0	113	DNF	DNF
Sources:[42][43]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1961	Brumos Porsche Company	Bob Holbert	Porsche 718 RS 61	S1.6	199	5th	1st
1962	Briggs Cunningham	Bruce McLaren	Cooper Monaco T57Maserati	S3.0	190	5th	2nd
1963	Mecom Racing Team	Augie Pabst	Ferrari 250 GTO	GT3.0	203	4th	1st
1964	McKean Chevrolet, Inc.	Jim Hall	Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport	P+3.0	177	18th	4th
Sources:[44]

• Puerto Rico Grand Prix

• Roger Penske - Sports Car Club of America

• Penske Corporation
• Penske Racing
• Roger Penske owner statistics at Racing-Reference
• Roger Penske driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1937 births
• Penske Corporation
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• People from Shaker Heights, Ohio
• Racing drivers from Ohio
• American automobile salespeople
• American billionaires
• American Formula One drivers
• Auto racing crew chiefs
• Culver Academies alumni
• Formula One team owners
• Formula One team principals
• IndyCar Series team owners
• NASCAR team owners
• Lehigh University alumni
• General Electric people
• Michigan Republicans
• Ohio Republicans
• International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• Sportspeople from Cuyahoga County, Ohio
• Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
• American Magic
• NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees
• Team Penske
• American motorsport people

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2019