Driven.

• Author: Johnson, J. Douglas
• Position: Team Penske owner Roger Penske - Includes related articles

Roger Penske heads the most successful IndyCar racing team in history and one of America's largest private companies.

As Indianapolis 500 race day nears, Roger Penske tells people, "It'll be a close one. I can see as many as 10 cars and drivers who could win. Speeds won't be any slower and it's hard to believe they could be much faster. This year we'll enter three cars and have Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. driving."

Penske is enthusiastic, confident, dedicated, deliberate and driven.

So was that 11-year-old kid on a bicycle riding through a misty Ohio morning in 1948. He would brake, take careful aim and fire a Cleveland News at the nearest front porch. The paper would land in a dry corner, waiting for one of his satisfied customers.

The boy had so many satisfied customers that the publisher gave him an award. That check and money from his route helped the kid buy his first auto. He fixed it up, sold it, bought another and fixed it up, and then worked in a gas station. His life revolved around wheels then, and it has ever since.

In those early years Penske developed two lifelong compulsions. As a newsy who kept his papers dry, he was almost obsessive about attention to detail. As a shade-tree mechanic who repaired engines, he cultivated an enduring curiosity about how things work and how they might work better.

The boy became an erect six-footer, silver-haired, impeccably groomed captain of the industry who turns 58 next February. His company, Penske Corp., is one of America's largest private companies, with $3.3 billion in annual revenues. Penske Corp. ranked 32nd on the latest Forbes magazine listing, just behind Amway and a few notches ahead of Hallmark Cards.

Though Roger Penske is not a Hoosier, his name has been synonymous with IndyCars and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for more than a quarter century. Team Penske is the most successful IndyCar racing team in history. Many say Roger Penske brought orderliness and professionalism to auto racing and to the tracks around the country.

Penske Corp. is a Detroit-based transportation conglomerate composed of several businesses which involve vehicles. Various parts of Penske Corp. manufacture diesel engines and racing engines, lease trucks, sell automobiles, manage racing courses and, of course, compete in auto races.

The Automotive Performance Group may be the most widely known of the three major Penske Corp. business groups. It operates the auto-racing team and manages professional motorsports facilities. The Transportation Services Group operates Penske Truck Leasing Co. and has a controlling interest in the publicly traded Detroit Diesel Corp., a diesel-engine development and manufacturing firm. The Retail Automotive Group sells some 38,000 vehicles annually through a network of car dealerships in Southern California.

Roger Penske's interest in the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar racing in general, he says, "goes back a number of years to 1951, when my father brought me here." A lap sponsor had given his dad tickets, which allowed the 14-year-old Roger to be on hand as Lee Wallard took the checkered flag. Young Roger became addicted...