For Penske, Daytona win fills a notable career void

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- He has long been considered one of the foremost innovators in auto-racing history, and has 14 Indianapolis 500 titles to show for it. Only Roger Penske could have pulled off a coup like the one he managed in 1994, when in total secrecy he oversaw the construction of a new, Mercedes-powered engine that would go on to dominate his discipline's greatest race. Only about a dozen people knew about project until they unleashed it on the Brickyard, where it led 192 of 200 laps.

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That's the Roger Penske they know in places like Indianapolis and Long Beach and Laguna Seca, a brilliant businessman and who wins races by the force of his personality and consistently being ahead of the curve. But he never quite duplicated that success in NASCAR, where he sometimes struggled to manage conflicting personalities and was best known for the sheer vastness of his 424,000-square-foot shop.

All of which why Sunday night, and the 1-2 finish recorded by the legendary car owner in the Daytona 500, was so significant. Hard to believe there are significant voids in the career of a man generally considered one of the leading motorsports figures in the world, but that was unquestionably the case until the final laps at Daytona International Speedway. Ryan Newman's dramatic victory before 190,000 at last brought Penske one of the stock-car crown jewels he had long sought, a trip to Victory Lane at Daytona after 23 previous unsuccessful attempts.

"Coming down here's been tough," said Penske, whose drivers have now won 61 events on the Sprint Cup tour, but never on a restrictor-place venue until Sunday night. "This one goes to the top of the charts for victories here at Penske Racing."

That's saying something, coming from a man who's won more times at Indianapolis than any other car owner, who has won 124 open-wheel races and 11 open-wheel championships since first fielding a vehicle for Mark Donohue in 1968. His organization has long been the Hendrick Motorsports of the single-seat, open-cockpit set, the team all others strive to beat. But he could never quite weave the same magic in NASCAR, where his outfit has always been good, but never quite good enough.

The driver that defined his NASCAR operation, Rusty Wallace, won his NASCAR title in 1989 with a Blue Max team that Penske raided after it shut down the next year. The closest he's ever come to a title was 1993, when Wallace won 10 races and finished second overall to Dale Earnhardt. As the open-wheel victories piled up, his NASCAR fortunes waxed and waned. Wallace clashed with Jeremy Mayfield, and then Newman. Penske consolidated all his motorsports operations under one huge roof in North Carolina, but the Cup wins only trickled in. Newman's victory Sunday, powered by a push from teammate Kurt Busch, snapped his winless streak of 81 events.

Roger Penske

Career Cup Victories

Driver	Wins
Rusty Wallace	37
Ryan Newman	13
Bobby Allison	4
Kurt Busch	3
Mark Donohue	1

To those fans who preferred their racing of the closed-fender variety, Penske has seemed just another owner trying to make it work in NASCAR. The mythical Mercedes engine, the 14 Indy 500 triumphs, all those victories in Champ Car and the Indy Racing League -- they never seemed to help him beat Richard Childress or Rick Hendrick. In fact, some wondered if they got in the way, if his NASCAR entry was but a side project for a man whose true passion was in wide tires and front wings.

All of which why Sunday's Daytona victory is so important. It filled a gap for a man who has very few gaps left to fill, and reminded everyone once again of the indelible legacy the snowy-haired man called the Captain has left on his sport.

"Obviously when you think of Rick's team and RCR and Gibbs, these are world-class teams that have won this race many times. We wouldn't be here if we didn't think we could win. Every year we've been here, we've been close. I think this year we were confident a lot of things had come together. We have a long way to go before we can sit at the table with those guys, but we're coming close," Penske said.

"You needed to win this race to get in that class, and we did that. Certainly, our wins at Indy have been important to us, but there is no question to run 35 or 36 races a year with the type competition and the way this sport has been developed by the France family, it's tough. And I don't think it's any easier this year than it was last year. If you can get in and race with these guys, I love it. We've won a lot, but to have the opportunity to win here and be able to execute, that's special."

Everyone seemed to understand that, even the driver who was the runner-up. "I was very emotional crossing the line finishing second," Busch said, "because I knew we did something very special for the Captain [on Sunday]."

Even in the afterglow of a long-awaited Daytona 500 victory, Penske was smart enough to realize he's still playing catch-up. He had talked to his friend Hendrick earlier Sunday on the telephone, and joked that he needed one of those H caps always worn by employees of the seven-time championship team. After all, Penske told Hendrick, it doesn't seem these days that you can get into Victory Lane without them.

He managed just that Sunday evening, and Hendrick was there to offer congratulations -- and an H cap, which he plopped onto Penske's head. The Captain was so proud of it, he even wore it into the media room.

"We're in the same business, and share a lot of the same experience," said Penske, who like Hendrick owns a number of automobile dealerships. "That's the fun of this thing -- competing with your friend, and winning every once in a while."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.