Roger Penske

The Captain: Team owner, businessman, and former driver who built a motorsports empire.

Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937), often referred to by his nickname "the Captain", is an American auto racing team owner, businessman, and former professional racecar driver. He is the owner of Team Penske, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, and other auto racing-related businesses. Penske is the founder, chairman, and namesake of the Penske Corporation, a holding company for his various businesses. Penske received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump in 2019.

Quick Facts

Nationality: USA American
Birth name: Roger Searle Penske
Born: 20 February 1937
Birthplace: Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Years: 1961–1962
Teams: Non-works Cooper and Lotus
Races: 2
Championships: 0

Lore & Background

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

After graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1955, Penske matriculated at Lehigh University, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and he graduated in 1959. Penske's first racing venture was in hillclimbing, and then he drove in road course racing at the Vineland Raceway in Vineland, New Jersey, as a member of the Philadelphia Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in Porsches. Penske made his first professional racing start at the now-abandoned Marlboro Motor Raceway in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Sports Illustrated named Penske SCCA Driver of the Year in 1961. He competed in two Formula One Grands Prix and won a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside in 1963. He never ran the Indianapolis 500; however, he was offered a rookie test at Indianapolis with the Dean Van Lines team. Penske continued racing until 1965, when he retired as a driver, to concentrate on his first Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

During college, Penske worked at Alcoa as an intern, and in 1959 joined them as a sales engineer after graduating, while also pursuing a career in racecar 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. He shifted his focus away from race-car driving to the dealership after the purchase. In 1969, Penske founded Penske Truck Leasing in Reading, Pennsylvania by purchasing a truck rental and leasing business with three locations serving eastern Pennsylvania.

Penske Racing debuted in 1966 at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He developed one of the most successful teams in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR racing. He is the most successful team owner at the Indianapolis 500 with 20 victories. He is known by his nickname of "The Captain".

Reader's Guide

Six-time IndyCar Series Champion as owner (2006, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022). Five-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion as owner (2012, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024). 1990 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. 2018 Simeone Foundation Spirit of Competition Award recipient. 1995 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee. 1998 International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee. 2002 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame inductee. 2015 Automotive Hall of Fame inductee. 2019 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. 2025 Trans-Am Series Hall of Fame inductee. 2019 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.