To fans of motorsport, especially US motor sport, the name Penske needs no introduction, having been been associated with automobile racing for over sixty years. In 1958, Roger Penske raced his first official race in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National at Marlboro Motor Raceway in Maryland. He was running in second place until his car overheated and he had to drop out of the race. The next year, Penske won his first race at the SCCA Regional at Lime Rock, Connecticut, driving an F-Modified Porsche RS. Penske’s fame shot up like a skyrocket. In 1961, Penske won the SCCA National D Modified Championship and was named SCCA Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine. The next year he was named the New York Times Driver of the Year, with winnings totalling $34,350. In 1963, Penske won his first NASCAR Grand National series race. In 1964, he took the checkered flag at five races driving a Chaparral Corvette GS. In 1965, Roger Penske announced his retirement as a race car driver and purchased a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia. The next year Penske moved into race car ownership, launching Penske Racing and Team Penske. In 1967, in just its second year of competition, Penske Racing won the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) with driver Mark Donohue behind the wheel of a Lola T70 MKIII chassis with a Chevrolet power plant.
These days, Team Penske, formerly known as Penske Racing, is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organization has also competed in various other types of professional racing such as Formula One, Can-Am, Trans Am, IMSA and Australian Supercars. Altogether, Team Penske has earned over 500 victories and over 40 championships in all of auto racing. Team Penske is a division of Penske Corporation, and is owned and chaired by Roger Penske. With such a rich history from over 50 years of racing, the company has an extensive collection of historic race cars and memorabilia, so it is no surprise that they have a museum in which some of the items are displayed. It can be found as the centrepiece of a long row of new car showrooms at Penske’s site just off the Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale. What’s even better is that entry is free. I visit this site almost every time I am in the Phoenix area, but don’t always pop into the museum, which is something of an oversight, especially since admission is free of charge. The Penske collection is extensive and there is not space to display everything here, with room for only around a dozen or so cars. The exhibits are changed around periodically, though some of the cars would seem more or less permanently to be on show whilst others come and go. As well the display cars, there is also plenty of memorabilia, with a lot more of it upstairs where there is also a cafe. Here is what was on show at the time of my September 2023 visit.
This 1963 Pontiac Catalina is a very significant car, as it is the one which Roger Penske raced and won at the Riverside 250 at the now defunct Riverside track in California.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Penske race cars won one race after another. Retired chief engine builder Karl Kainhofer considered 1968 the most successful season in Penske Racing history when they won ten of thirteen Trans-Am races en-route to the SCCA Trans-Am Series Championship. The same year, the team won the USRRC points championship. This car, a Lola T-152, was the first entered in the Indy 500 by Roger Penske, one of the rare 4 wheel drive cars to run at the “500”. It was driven by Mark Donohue. Donohue had a good start having qualified fourth and was running third with about 20 laps to go when a lengthy pit stop dropped him back to seventh at the end of the race. He was named “Rookie of the Year”.
That same year Donohue won six of twelve races he competed in, to earn Penske Racing its second SCCA Trans-Am Championship in as many years, in a Chevrolet Camaro. Mark Donahue continued to win races and trophies for the Penske organization for the next six years, including their first Champ Car victory at the Pocono 500 on in 1971, the SCCA Trans-Am Championship, and their first Indianapolis 500 win, in 1972. In 1973, Donohue, driving the #16 AMC Matador, won Team Penske their first NASCAR race at Riverside, California, in the Winston Western 500. Donohue finished out the year by winning the SCCA Can-Am Championship.
This 1972 McLaren M16B, driven by Mark Donohue, was the winner of the 1972 Indy 500, and was the Penske Racing’s first victory at the event. the Drake Offenhauser engine in this car put out 850 bhp at 9000 rpm. Not bad for 1972!
A suitably adapted road car is chosen every year to be the Pace Car at the Indianapolis 500, and on many occasions, the chosen manufacturer has then offered a limited number of similar cars for sale to the public. Latterly the almost inevitable collection of Corvettes, Camaro and Mustangs have been chosen, but wind the clock back a bit and there has been quite an array of different models and marques chosen. In 1972 the Pace Car was a 1972 Hurst/Olds Cutlass Convertible with a Hurst Performance modified 455 cubic inch W-30 engine built to pre-smog high compression 1970 specs. It was equipped with a TH-400 transmission and a “His and Hers” Hurst Dual Gate shifter, plus a 3.42 rear axle ratio. An all aluminum W-27 differential cover was used for weight and cooling purposes. Mark Donohue was given the car for winning the race that day. About 629 of these cars were built for public consumption of which 130 were convertibles, 220 with sunroofs and the remaining 279 being hardtops. Almost all of these Pace Car replicas had the less powerful L-75 455 engine and 3.23 axle. A W-30 (L-77) could be ordered but only with 1972 specs netting 300HP with only 8.5 compression. All were painted Cameo white and carried unique 3M Firefrost Gold reflective fade out(pin dotted) laser stripes. In addition to this package, special Indy Pace Car decals with festival stickers could be ordered with large H/O stickers adorning the quarter panels.
This 1974 Penske PC-1 Formula 1 car is the first car designed and manufactured by Penske Racing themselves. It was driven by Mark Donohue in 1974 and 1975 and John Watson in 1975
The Penske racing family experienced tragedy in 1975 when hard-charging race car driver Mark Donohue was killed in a crash while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix Formula One race. The same year they lost Mark Donohue, Bobby Allison joined the Penske team and won at Darlington. In 1976, Penske Racing competed in the Austrian Grand Prix Formula One race, and driver John Watson, in a PC4-Ford powered machine, claimed the first and only Formula One victory for Penske Racing. The 1977 Penske PC-5, seen here, was the first Penske designed chassis to compete at Indianapolis that was designed by Penske. During time trials on May 14th 1977, Penske driver Tom Sneva, in a Penske PC-5 powered by a Ford Cosworth DFX V8, became the first driver to officially break the 200 mph barrier at the speedway, setting a new one-lap track record of 200.535 mph on his second qualifying lap, and a four-lap track record of 198.884 mph to secure Pole Position.
In 1979, driver Rick Mears had a record-breaking year with Team Penske. Mears won the pole position at every oval track all season. He won the prestigious Indianapolis 500 for the second time in Team Penske’s career, on the way to becoming the third consecutive national points championship for the team in as many years. The next two decades were just as successful for Team Penske. In 1981, and again in 1984, Penske drivers won the Indianapolis 500.
The Penske PC-10 is a CART open-wheel race car, designed by Penske Racing, which was constructed for competition in the 1982 season. Designed by Geoff Ferris, it is considered possibly the most dominant Penske race car design ever and that from a team that typically dominated. Rick Mears has been quoted as acknowledging this was his favourite racecar chassis ever. Twelve total were made (1-12), six raced by Penske (1-6), with four confirmed destroyed (4, 7, 8, 11). They were manufactured at Penske Cars, Ltd. in Poole, England during 1982, and delivered to Penske Racing, Inc., in Reading, Pennsylvania. So outstanding was the PC-10’s design, it won the prestigious Louis Schwitzer Award for innovation and engineering excellence in the field of race car design at the Indianapolis 500 in 1982. The PC-10s were active in the years 1982–1984. In fact, the PC-10 was ultimately much better than the following year PC-11, so Roger Penske bought back one of the PC-10s he had sold to another team for the 1983 season, and which then won another race for his team. The PC-10s were driven for Roger Penske by Rick Mears and Kevin Cogan in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Series in 1982. Mears campaigned the car as the GOULD CHARGE car (red-blue-white), and in which he again won the CART Championship. It carried number 1 when Mears drove it as he was also the previous year’s champion in 1981. When Cogan drove the car, it carried the NORTON livery (yellow-blue-white) and carried the number 4. The PC-10s were powered by the 2.6-liter Cosworth DFX turbocharged engine, delivering as high as 840 bhp. The DFX engine was the Indy car version of the highly successful 3-litre Cosworth DFV Formula One engine developed by former Lotus engineer Keith Duckworth and Colin Chapman, with financial backing from Ford for the Lotus 49 to campaign the 1967 season. This engine had 155 wins between 1967 and 1985 in F1. The DFX variant was initially developed for Indy car use by Parnelli Jones in 1976, with Cosworth soon taking over. This engine won the Indianapolis 500 ten consecutive years from 1978 to 1987, as well as winning all USAC and CART championships between 1977 and 1987. It powered 81 consecutive Indy car victories from 1981 to 1986, with 153 Indy car victories total.
After wrecking their car in a crash while qualifying for the 71st Indianapolis 500 in 1987, the team took a year-old March chassis that was on display in a Reading, Pennsylvania hotel lobby back to the shop to prepare it as a replacement. Al Unser qualified the car in the field in 20th position and after race leader Mario Andretti slowed with mechanical problems late in the race, Unser went on to take the lead with only 18 laps to go, scoring the team’s sixth victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Penske drivers won the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race again in 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2006. During that time period, Team Penske also won numerous CART, NASCAR races, and championships, and set a number of automobile racing records. It was with this car that Penske scored their 100th Indy Car win in 2000 at the Nazareth, PA Circuit. It is a Honda-engined Reynard 2K1, driven by Gil De Ferran.
This Ford Fusion, as driven by Joey Logano, was the 2015 Daytona 500 Winner.
Also a Ford Fusion – even if it bears very little relation to the road cars of the same name – is this car which was the 2018 NASCAR Brickyard 400 Winner, driven by Brad Kaselowski.
Dating from 2017 is this Dallara W12 Verizon Indy Car which was driven by Josef Newgarden
This is a 2019 Ford Falcon FGX – the last season for the Falcon, where with 9 of the 30 races won, it was the Supercar Champion driven by Scott McLaughlin.
The 2022 Indianapolis 500 was the sixth race of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season. Four different drivers won the first five races of the season, including one first-time winner. Scott McLaughlin won the season opener at St. Petersburg, his first career IndyCar win. At Texas, Josef Newgarden won, passing McLaughlin coming off the last turn of the last lap. Newgarden followed up with another win at Long Beach and Pato O’Ward won at Alabama in a time-shortened race (two hours) due to rain. The GMR Grand Prix was won by Colton Herta. Despite zero wins thus far on the season, Will Power entered the 500 as the series points leader. This is his car from that race. All entries utilized the Dallara DW12 chassis with the Universal Aero Kit 18, with Firestone tyres. A total of 32 car/driver combinations were made official in time for the Open test on April 20. There were two different engine suppliers used, though. Will Power’s car had a Chevrolet engine. Some other cars used Honda engines. Power was placed 15th in an eventful race.
As ever, there are some interesting cars in here, and ones which will not be familiar to those who follow motorsport in Europe, as things are quite different State-side in terms of the race series, cars and drivers.
More details can be found on the museum’s own website: https://www.penskeautomall.com/penske-racing-museum/
