Team Penske

With a record 14 victories in the Indianapolis 500, Penske Racing has established itself as the premier team in the world’s premier auto race. Here’s a look at the team’s most significant accomplishments at Indy and some of the stories behind the facts:

• Wins in four consecutive decades with 10 different drivers. Penske Racing has won at Indy with five different chassis (Penske, Dallara, G-Force, March and McLaren), seven engines (Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mercedes, Oldsmobile, Cosworth and Drake-Offenhauser) and two tire manufacturers (Firestone and Goodyear).
• Winning three in a row with Helio Castroneves (2001 and 2002), including Castroneves’s win as a rookie in ’01, and Gil de Ferran (2003). Since returning to the Indy 500 in 2001, Team Penske has won four of seven races. In its last 31 Indy 500s, Roger Penske’s team has won the race 14 times, including two 1-2 finishes (2001 and 2003).
• After six previous tries, Sam Hornish Jr. won his first Indianapolis 500 in 2006 in dramatic fashion when he passed Marco Andretti on the final stretch of the final lap. His .0635 second margin of victory was the second closest in the history of the Indianapolis 500, and his last lap pass marked the first time that the winner has made the winning pass on the final lap.
• In 2001 and 2002, Castroneves became the first driver in 31 years and the fifth in history to win the Indy 500 consecutively. In 2003, de Ferran took the checkered flag just 0.299 seconds ahead of Castroneves, who was attempting an unprecedented third straight triumph.
• With de Ferran’s win, Penske joined Lou Moore (1947-49) as the only team owner to win three consecutive Indy 500s.
• Four wins by Rick Mears, who also won six pole positions and led 429 laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, making him one of just three drivers to win the race four times. A.J. Foy and Al Unser – who captured his fourth Indy 500 win with Penske Racing – are the other two.
• In 1991, Mears won the race for the fourth time in dramatic fashion, passing Michael Andretti on the outside in turn one just 12 laps from the end. “That was my most memorable win with Penske, “ Mears said.
• The only team to score a 1-2 finish at the Speedway twice Castroneves/de Ferran in 2001 and de Ferran/Castroneves in 2003.
• Al Unser’s fourth victory was straight out of a Hollywood script. He arrived at Indianapolis in 1987 without a ride. When Danny Ongais crashed in practice and was ruled out of the race for medical reasons, Penske hired Unser as a replacement. The team did not have a current-year chassis available for Unser. It reclaimed an ’86 March that had been converted to a show car from the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Readin, Penn. Unser qualified 20th and was lapped early in the race by Mario Andretti who led 170 laps until engine problems slowed him. Unser roared to the lead with 17 laps remaining and held it to the checkered flag.
• Sullivan’s famous “spin-and-win” in 1985. Midway through the race, just after he passed Mario Andretti for the lead, Sullivan’s car spun. It didn’t hit anything, and Andretti, who was right behind Sullivan, narrowly avoided the spinning car. Sullivan had flat-spotted his tires, but the car wasn’t damaged. He pitted to replace the tires and resumed on the lead lap. Twenty laps later, Sullivan passed Andretti for the lead and did not relinquish it.
• A total of 14 pole positions, including a record six by Mears.
• De Ferran’s win in 2003 after sustaining serious injuries in a crash at Phoenix just weeks before. Still recovering from fractured vertebrae in his back and neck and a concussions, de Ferran passed his teammate with 30 laps remaining.
• In 2002, Castroneves became the first driver in 31 years to win consecutive Indy 500s, but the team had done it previously three times: Mears and Sullivan in 1984-85, Al Unser and Mears in 1987-88 and Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. in 1993-94.
• Bobby Unser’s win in 1981, which led to a decade of dominance by Penske Racing. The team won four more times at Indy in the 1980’s, including two wins by Mears, the spin-and-win by Sullivan, and Unser’s win in 1987.
• Penske cars have started from the front row 34 times and have led more than 1,800 laps. The team has achieved the dominant double, winning from pole six times. Three of those were recorded by Mears (1979, 1988 and 1991), two by Unsers (Bobby in 1981, Al Jr. in 1994) and one by Hornish Jr. (2006).
• Castroneves’ win in 2001, Penske’s first competition in the Indianapolis 500 since Unser’s win in ’94. The team had tried and failed to qualify for the race in 1995 with Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr., who had wont the previous two 500s respectively. After the 1995 season, Team Penske competed in CART races from 1996 through 2000 before returning to the Indy 500 in 2001.
• Unser Jr.’s win in 1994, in which Penske took advantage of a loophole in the rules to produce a purpose-built engine with Ilmore Engineering. The engine, the Mercedes 209, had a larger capacity and more turbo boost than the competitors’ engines, with some tests indicating it had an advantage of as much as 150 horsepower over the closest competitor. The engine, which later became dubbed the “Unfair Advantage,” wasn’t tested on a dynomometer until Jan. 15, giving the team little more than four months to prepare it for the race. As a result, the project was kept top-secret. Unser Jr. and Fittipaldi, driving Penske PC23Bs, made good use of the Unfair Advantage, combining to lead 193 laps. But Fittipaldi crashed trying to lap Unser Jr. with 16 laps remaining, and Unser Jr. took the checkered flag.
• Fittipaldi’s win in 1993 in a Penske PC22-Chevy, which was won when Fittipaldi passed Nigel Mansell on a restart with 16 laps remaining.
• In 1988, Penske Racing swept the front row in qualifying, the only time one team has ever accomplished that feat in the 90-year history of the Indy 500. Mears started on pole, with Sullivan in the middle and Unser Sr. on the outside. Mears dominated the second half of the race in his Penske-Chevy and led 89 laps en route to victory. He and runner-up Fittipaldi, then driving for Patrick Racing, were the only two cars to finish on the lead lap.
• Bobby Unser won the 1981 race from the pole, leading 90 laps. But results did not become official until 8 a.m. the next morning. When they were posted, Andretti was shown as the winner and Unser second. USAC ruled that Unser had passed under the yellow by violating a blend line exiting the pits on lap 150 and penalized him one lap. The ruling was overturned several month later by a USAC appeals panel.
• Mears’ first win, in 1979, was the first at Indianapolis in a Penske-built car. A part-time driver for Penske when he was named rookie of the year in 1978, Mears started the ’79 race from the pole. When teammate Bobby Unser slowed because of gearbox problems with 19 laps remaining, Mears seized the lead for good.
• The team’s first win, in 1972, can at the hands of the legendary Mark Donohue and stands as the defining moment for a young team and its leader. Donohue had dominated sports-car racing, winning Trans-Am championships for Penske in 1967, ’68, and ’69. In 1972, Donohue started third, and, when teammate Gary Bettenhausen fell out in the closing stages, Donohue was in position to take the lead.