Trimmed-down Stewart hoping for big final season

Posted on January 21, 2016 by

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tony Stewart might be in the best shape of his life, and just in time.

At 44, the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has declared this to be his final Sprint Cup season as a driver, and he’s doing everything in his power to make it memorable.

“I’m eating better, drinking better, working out, doing stuff I swore I would never do — and I’m doing it in my last year,” said Stewart, facing Thursday’s a media during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom.

“I’ve changed my diet. I’ve changed everything for this year, so if anybody has any questions about how dedicated we are to having the best year we possibly could have, that’s the answer. I’m more excited about this year than I have been in a long time.”

Stewart would love to emulate the farewell season enjoyed by Jeff Gordon, who went into the final race of the 2015 season with a shot at his fifth Sprint Cup title.

“That was 99 percent of a perfect (final) season,” Stewart said. “I don’t have any grand illusions that I’m going to have that kind of year. It may or may not be in our cards. We’re going to give 100 percent, but the main focus will be to have fun this last year. If we can go out and win races and have an opportunity, trust me, I’ll be ready.”

In his dream scenario, Stewart said he would win the Daytona 500, the Southern 500 at Darlington, and a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway to give him checkered flags at every track on the circuit.

Kurt Busch said he wouldn’t put anything past Stewart, who is both his teammate and boss.

“Jeff Gordon had a fantastic final season. I don’t see why Tony Stewart can’t do the same thing,” he said. “He’s a three-time champion in stock cars, he’s a champion from open-wheel … he’s won in everything. Having a teammate and a car owner going through a retirement tour, there will be times when I’ll be giving that extra five percent on a given day to help him out.”

Stewart knows that two more victories would get him to 50, but even one victory would be enough to get him to the Chase with a shot at one last title. No matter what, he insists this will be his Sprint Cup swan song.

“Even if we went out there and won 15 races and won the championship, we’re done,” he said. “When Homestead happens, no matter how the year went, we’re done. If it’s a terrible year, I’m not going to sit there and go, ‘Wow, that defined my career,’ because the stats will define how we did over 18 years.”

Stewart’s past two seasons have not been indicative of his 48 career wins and 300 top-10 finishes in 590 Sprint Cup starts. He has not won a race since June 2, 2013 at Dover and failed to notch a top-five finish last season.

There have been extenuating circumstances — a broken leg which halted his 2013 season and the tragic incident in August 2014, when Stewart struck and killed a fellow competitor while running a caution lap during a sprint car race in upstate New York.

Although it will be Stewart’s final season as a Cup driver, he’ll remain active as a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing with Gene Haas, participating in the day-to-day operations of a high-profile team with championship expectations.

“I think we have two guys who definitely have a great opportunity to race for a championship (this year),” said Stewart, referring to 2014 Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick and Busch, a former champ who finished eighth in points last season.

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Team Release

MINNEAPOLIS (January 21, 2016) — Thrivent Financial is proud to announce its continuing sponsorship of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing and driver Michael McDowell in the 2016 race season.

Thrivent, a not-for-profit financial services organization that serves Christians, will be the primary sponsor for fifteen (15) races during the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with McDowell behind the wheel. The organization will also serve as a secondary sponsor on 15 additional races.

Thrivent started its relationship with Leavine Family Racing and McDowell in August of 2014. The mutually beneficial relationship expanded in 2015 for a 20-race sponsorship that included 10 primary races. This year, Leavine Family Racing has partnered with Circle Sport to field the No. 95 in the full 36-race schedule and entered into a new technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, making the manufacturer switch to Chevrolet.

“We’re thrilled to extend our sponsorship with Michael McDowell and Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing in 2016,” said Craig Stacey, Director of Marketing at Thrivent. “We had a tremendous response and reception from NASCAR fans in our first full season as a sponsor. In 2016, we’re planning to provide more unique opportunities and content for fans through our social media channels and website. We like to think of our fans as part of our team and it’s fun to give them a behind-the-scenes view of Thrivent Racing!”

For Thrivent, the off-the-track integration with McDowell and the race team was just as important as the race weekend competition. In 2015, McDowell and the race team raced go-karts with Wounded Warriors, packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and volunteered alongside Thrivent members to repair homes of those in need through the organization’s Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity program. Additionally, by creating a custom, fan-driven online game, Thrivent Financial donated $95,000 to Habitat for Humanity on behalf of NASCAR fans at the end of the 2015 season.

“I love working with Thrivent! Their mission to help Christians be wise with money and live generously is really a good fit with my personal values,” said McDowell, who became a member of Thrivent in 2014. “We were able to team up and do some great things last year with race fans and Thrivent volunteers — especially at the Habitat events and speaking with Thrivent members nationwide. This is a perfect partnership and I’m excited to have Thrivent back as a sponsor in 2016.”

This season, Thrivent will be featured as the primary sponsor at major NASCAR events and tracks including the Daytona 500, Talladega Superspeedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season kicks off on Sunday, February 21, 2016, with the Daytona 500. Fans can keep up with all the action on Twitter by following at @ThriventRacing, via the organization’s Thrivent Racing Facebook page, on Instagram at @ThriventRacing and via the web at www.ThriventRacing.com.

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Team Release

RELATED: See the changes for the 2016

CONCORD, N.C. (January 21, 2016) — Leavine Family Racing (LFR) will join forces with Circle Sport Racing to run the full 36-race schedule in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS). In addition, the race team will enter into an alliance with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and will make the switch to run Chevrolet SS race cars powered by ECR Engines this race season.

Veteran driver Michael McDowell, who is entering his third season driving for Leavine Family Racing, will be the primary driver and compete in at least 26 NSCS races in 2016. RCR driver Ty Dillon, who finished third in the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship, will pilot the team’s entry for the remaining NSCS races. Specific races for each driver are being determined but both drivers will enter the Daytona 500.

Leavine Family Racing team owner Bob Leavine has been preparing to take the team from a partial schedule to the full series schedule since the team’s inception. The 2016 season proved to be the perfect time to make the leap, thanks in part to the new alliance with Joe Falk’s Circle Sport Racing team and technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.

“The manufacturer and alliance switch provides our team with the best opportunity to improve on-track performance and to create long-term sustainability,” said Leavine. “This was the right time for us to make this change. We have been turning over every stone looking for the right plan for our team and our people in 2016, and we’ve finally found a great fit that’s going to help us continue to grow both on the track and as an organization.”

Joe Falk, owner of Circle Sport Racing, had been an owner in NASCAR starting in the late 1990’s. Circle Sport competed in its first race in 2012 and has been associated with Richard Childress Racing during that time.

“I’m happy to be working with Bob (Leavine) and the team to combine our efforts for a successful 2016 and beyond,” said Falk. “We’ve put together a top notch program obtaining all cars and engines from RCR.”

McDowell is entering his ninth season as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and is scheduled to make his 200th start in 2016.

“This is a big step for our competition program,” said McDowell. “The technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing is a huge asset to our growing team and we’ll have access to some of the top equipment in the Cup Series. This type of alliance has worked really well for single-car teams such as JTG Racing and Germain Racing in the past and I’m excited about what we’re going to be able to do in 2016.”

Primary sponsorship of the No. 95 Chevrolet SS will include Thrivent Financial, K-LOVE Radio and Cheerios Brand. Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing is seeking additional sponsorship to fill out the season.

Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing will kick off their first full season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Daytona Speedweeks in February 2016.

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Pat DeCola

RELATED: See the changes for the 2016

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ty Dillon is set to expand his Sprint Cup Series horizons, signing on to the newly-merged Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing team in 2016 for an undetermined number of races.

Richard Childress Racing, owned by Dillon’s grandfather and organizational namesake, and Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing have agreed to form a technical alliance in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, beginning with the 2016 season with drivers Dillon and Michael McDowell.

The partnership includes technology sharing, engineering, research and development provided to Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing as they switch its No. 95 Sprint Cup Series cars to Chevrolet beginning with the 2016 season. Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing will also benefit from utilizing ECR Engines.

Dillon will run select races, including the Daytona 500, for Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing in 2016, while McDowell will be the primary driver for the team.

“This is a big step for our competition program,” said McDowell in a team release. “The technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing is a huge asset to our growing team and we’ll have access to some of the top equipment in the Cup Series. This type of alliance has worked really well for single-car teams such as JTG-Daugherty Racing and Germain Racing in the past and I’m excited about what we’re going to be able to do in 2016.”

For Dillon, a favorite to win his first XFINITY Series championship behind the wheel of RCR’s No. 3 entry, it’s a chance to expand on a brief Cup slate in 2015 in which he picked up a better finish than his starting position in each of his five appearances.

At the very least, it’s a chance to expand his overall racing knowledge as he looks to lock up a title he nearly had last year with an eye on a full-time Cup ride in 2017.

“Every time I get an opportunity to run the Cup Series, I use it to add notes to my notebook for hopefully a full season to come,” Dillon said Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. “I can’t thank the Leavine family and Joe Falk and Circle Sport enough for giving me the opportunity to run some races in the Cup Series this year. I want to do the best I can with them. I want to go out there and take this team and show people what we’re made of … run with it and get some really good finishes. I know I can do it at this level and I’m ready to show people.”

All of Dillon’s seven Cup starts (he made two in 2014) have come with Circle Sport, behind the wheel of the No. 33, so familiarity certainly won’t be an issue. Sharing a ride with a fellow driver, however, may be a different story.

Luckily the 23-year-old knows the value in the extra feedback that McDowell can give and thinks it can be beneficial to his overall driving ability.

“Michael is a great, accomplished racer and he’s been running in the Cup Series for a while now,” Dillon said. “He’s a really, extremely good road racer so hopefully I can lean on him for that a little bit and just grow a relationship that I have with him.”

According to the team, McDowell is expected to run at least 26 of the season’s 36 races, with Dillon’s slate expected to be anywhere from six to 16. Both drivers will be in certain races, starting with the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 21, 1 p.m. ET, FOX).

Posted on January 21, 2016 by George Winkler

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two guys in need of a fresh start are getting one as Kyle Larson and new crew chief Chad Johnston embark on their first season together for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Both were on hand on Thursday for the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour, and it didn’t take long before questions surfaced about what went wrong last year and how those issues would be corrected.

“My biggest issue was the rules changes didn’t really work out for our team,” Larson said. “In 2014, I thought the rules package really suited our team well. We were always really fast on the mile-and-a-halves. When NASCAR cut the horsepower, it definitely didn’t suit my driving style.

“This year with the lower downforce it will be back to kind of suiting my driving style. I wish we had a little more horsepower, but we don’t, so we got to get the hang of it.”

Larson won Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2014, but 2015 was considered a sophomore slump for the driver. He didn’t break through in the win column, and his number of top-five and top-10 finishes each decreased in his second year.

CGR and crew chief Chris Heroy parted ways a day after the season ended, and Heroy later took a crew chief spot with Richard Petty Motorsports‘ Brian Scott.

Enter Johnston, who was crew chief for Tony Stewart for the past two seasons, which saw “Smoke” finish 25th and 28th in the standings, respectively.

With Larson’s dirt track racing, preparation for the Rolex 24 and a trip to Japan for sponsor ENEOS, there hasn’t been a lot of face time between Larson and Johnston. However, Johnston said the two have been bouncing ideas off each other over phone calls and via text, and already Johnston believes a bond is forming.

“Kyle’s pretty soft spoken and laid back, and I think that’s kind of my approach, try to keep an even temperament whether things are going good or going bad,” Johnston said. “So I think that will help. Calmer heads will prevail. When you stay calm in tough situations, you think more rationally. On that aspect we’re a lot alike.”

For Larson this is the first time he’s gone through a major change such as crew chief as a Sprint Cup driver, but he said he’s eager to have a new crew chief who has some similarities to himself.

“He actually raced dirt open-wheel cars in Indiana,” Larson said. “And I think with him working together with “Smoke” for the past couple of seasons, I think me and Tony have similar driving styles. The way we communicate will probably be similar, and I hope the transition goes well for both of us.”

In order for the union to be a success, Larson will most likely need to win a race and make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. A fast start would be a great way to build confidence as the duo searches for a bounce-back season.

“To win championships, you got to win races, and just getting his first win under his belt and him having the confidence that he can do it is going to be a big thing,” Johnston said of Larson. “I think once you get your first one with him you’re going to see a lot more behind him.”

Posted on January 21, 2016 by RJ Kraft

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is one of change for Danica Patrick. Yes, she is back with Stewart-Haas Racing, but gone is the familiar GoDaddy green that adorned her No. 10 Chevrolet. Instead, the car will feature new primary sponsor Nature’s Bakery for a majority of the season.  

Another notable change for Patrick is a new crew chief in Billy Scott, her third pit boss in as many seasons. So far the fourth-year driver is getting to know her new crew chief and knows that there will be a bit of an adjustment period for the new pairing once cars hit the track.

  ”The biggest thing we are going to have to do is just start the dialogue,” Patrick said during the SHR portion of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour on Thursday. “It’s not going to happen until I get in the car, but what I’m feeling in the car and how that translates to a change.”

Every driver has certain changes they like more than others. That familiarity will take time to build.

  ”I think every driver tends to lean towards changes they feel more,” Patrick said. Later adding that a key would be “identifying from his perspective (Scott’s) what changes are really effective for me, what are game changers, what moves the needle.”

  Scott spent the last two seasons as a crew chief at Michael Waltrip Racing. He closed out last season on Clint Bowyer‘s No. 15 Toyota that made the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. So far for him, the early returns have been promising.   

“Right now, it’s just feeling good about our communication and she is very technically based,” Scott said. “She wants to know what’s going on. She likes looking through data, so I think having an engineering background and being able to communicate on setup-related stuff on an in-depth level, I think that would be good.”

  During his time at MWR, Scott worked quite a bit with Rodney Childers, the championship-winning crew chief for the No. 4 team of Kevin Harvick. Childers thinks that the new addition is a perfect fit for Danica.   

“I think the two of them, their personalities are perfect together,” Childers said. “I said that awhile back and I guess you could say, I kind of pushed it along a little bit. You got to have that magic. Somebody you can talk to every minute of everyday about anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s about race cars, about life, about your family or whatever.   

“It’s all about having that relationship and being able to communicate and having people that want to be around you and pulling on the same rope all the time. I feel like they will have that. You can tell already when you are around them and the way they talk to each other.”

  Patrick enters the 2016 campaign coming off her best finish in the final standings, 24th, but she knows there is plenty to be done to take the next step in her career and to make the 16-driver Chase.

  ”In 2014, I feel like we finished off the season with (crew chief) Tony Gibson solidly being top 15, top 10 and being relatively pretty fast every weekend,” Patrick said.   ”I feel like with Daniel (Knost) being a new crew chief in a new situation last year, I feel like we didn’t quite achieve that all the time. Sometimes we were there. Sometimes we were worse than that. That was a step back from ’14.

  ”I’d like to get back to that top-15 running of where you have a good day and you are in the top 10. Once you start doing that regularly, then you have a chance to win. Obviously, top 15, lead lap every weekend and running competitively is where we need to be to start making things happen and making a run at the Chase.”

The Sprint Cup Series season is a 26-race marathon to the end of the regular season with a 10-race elimination sprint to the finish. Scott believes maintaining that perspective and not reacting too high or too low is key to their success.  

“It’s a long year,” Scott said. “You got to be able to keep that in perspective. I don’t think you want to be too quick to judge a season going in a good or bad direction really. We are just going to focus long term. Plan to be together hopefully several years, sponsors signed for several years. Just want to take each race as a learning experience and keep building on that from week to week and race to race at each track.”

Posted on January 20, 2016June 29, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

Joey Logano has essentially the same thoughts about last year’s drama with Matt Kenseth as the driver of the No. 20 car does: No regrets and let’s move on.

“I can’t speak for anyone else. I feel like there’s only one person who can judge me, and it’s no one standing across from me right now,” Logano said, indicating the throng of reporters surrounding him during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour on Wednesday. I know there are some things I need to work on as a person, and I try to work on that every day.

Patience is not one of Logano’s virtues, he admits, saying he’s really eager to get back into the race car at Daytona. But he’s not apologizing for his Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Kansas, where he spun leader Kenseth in the closing laps, or how he handled himself the rest of the 2015 season.

RELATED: Recap Logano’s 2015 season

Logano said he and teammate Brad Keselowski are both passionate, competitive drivers, and nothing about that is going to change. He wants to win another Sprint Cup title for Roger Penske, and Team Penske‘s 50th anniversary year would be a great time for that. And just maybe duking it out with Kenseth during the 2015 Chase can help Logano as a competitor.

“People are drawn to the negative side, but there are a lot of positives,” Logano said. “Maybe as a positive thinker, that’s how I get through life, but I want to look at the positives like ‘where did I grow from this whole thing, internally as a person or externally as what we do as a race team and how we gained a lot of fans through this whole thing?'”

“I’m proud of how we handled everything, and the way my fans supported me is greatly appreciated.”

Kenseth, too, said his fans had weighed in heavily during the offseason.

“I’ve got to be honest. I’ve had more fan support in the last three months than I’ve ever had in my life,” Kenseth said Tuesday during JGR’s media tour availability. “But this isn’t a popularity contest, it’s about winning.”

Logano said one aspect of the feud — and fans’ reactions to it — was amusing. When he went to Talladega Superspeedway the week after Kansas and received a rousing chorus of boos from the crowd, he said it reminded him of Jeff Gordon‘s usual reception at the Alabama track. “Hey, at least I have one thing in common with Jeff Gordon!”

Posted on January 20, 2016June 29, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

Joey Logano has essentially the same thoughts about last year’s drama with Matt Kenseth as the driver of the No. 20 car does: No regrets and let’s move on.

Posted on January 20, 2016 by

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 20, 2016) — The world will be coming to Daytona International Speedway for the grand opening of its motorsports stadium, with a solid international field set for the debut race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 30-31.

A 54-car field with drivers representing 24 countries serves as the opening race for Daytona Rising, the $400 million reimagining of the historic venue. In addition to kicking off the WeatherTech Championship, the race also will open the four-race Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

“As the International Motor Sports Association, we take great pride in having strong international representation in the Rolex 24 At Daytona,” said IMSA CEO Ed Bennett. “We are fortunate to have an outstanding field of drivers, teams and manufacturers representing every corner of the world join us for this year’s race. The eyes of the racing world truly will be on Daytona International Speedway during the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Between the debut of many awe-inspiring race cars and being the first race in the Daytona International Speedway motorsports stadium, the view will be spectacular.”

Daytona International Speedway founder Bill France Sr. envisioned sports car racing as bringing international recognition to his venue with the running of the inaugural Daytona Continental in 1962, an event expanded to 24 hours in 1966.

Now, 50 years later, that event has grown into the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The field will include 12 world-class automotive manufacturers across the four classes, reigniting decades-long rivalries in addition to building new ones.

In the Prototype category, the battle for the overall victory will include the classic Ford vs. Chevrolet rivalry, but will be expanded to include Honda, Mazda, Nissan and BMW-powered prototypes, in addition to the one-of-a-kind DeltaWing. Ford and Chevy have split the overall victories the past two years, but if speeds at the recent Roar Before The Rolex 24 At Daytona were any indication, any one of the 13 entries in the Prototype class could feasibly pull into Victory Lane on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 31.

The GT Le Mans (GTLM) class features the pair of Corvette C7.Rs that won the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015, as well as the defending WeatherTech Championship GTLM championship-winning Porsche North America team.

However, many sports car racing headlines over the past year have gone to the new Ford GT program, which makes its competition debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with a two-car effort fielded by Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. The return of the Ford GT begins a new chapter in the Ford-Chevrolet battle, while also reigniting a 50-year-old Ford vs. Ferrari fight. The field also will include a pair of brand-new BMW M6 GTLM race cars from BMW Team RLL.

The GT Daytona (GTD) class, which has adopted full FIA GT3 technical regulations in 2016, features a 22-car field and seven different manufacturers. Familiar GTD brands Audi, Porsche and BMW all will debut brand-new race cars in the Rolex 24, alongside updated machinery from Ferrari, Dodge and Aston Martin. Joining the GTD fray this year for the first time will be Lamborghini, with five Huracáns in a field stacked with manufacturer, team and driver talent.

In Prototype Challenge (PC), eight teams and a host of strong driver lineups will battle it out for class honors.

In total, all but three of the 54 entries feature driver lineups with mixed nationalities. The United States has the most drivers entered with 87, while Germany leads the list of visiting countries with 23 drivers represented in the preliminary Rolex 24 entry. Great Britain is next with 19 drivers, followed by Italy, 16; France, nine; and Canada, seven. Austria, Brazil and Mexico are each represented by six drivers.

Four female drivers are set to compete in this year’s race. British driver Katherine Legge returns to the No. 0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing coupe in the Prototype class. Competing in GT Daytona (GTD) are German Sabine Schmitz in the No. 30 Frikadelli Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R; Christina Nielsen of Denmark in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 GT3; and American Ashley Freiberg in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.

Practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona begins the morning of Thursday, Jan. 28, with qualifying taking place later than afternoon. The weekend also includes the BMW Performance 200; the opening round of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, on Friday at 1:45 p.m. Television coverage of the Rolex 24 gets underway on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Nascar

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Team Penske kicked off its 50th season Wednesday night with a private function in the Crown Ballroom of the Charlotte Convention Center.

Forty-two drivers, all Penske people at one time or another, from the open-wheel, stock car and road racing ranks were among the 1,000 or so expected to be on hand to help team owner Roger Penske celebrate the milestone.

The white-haired, soon-to-be 79-year-old Penske has no plans to go gently into the night, however.

“I don’t know when I’m going to leave the sport. It will probably be pretty abrupt when I do,” Penske said during the second day of the annual Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. “I’m counting on this legacy will continue on.

“My sons and our family love the sport, it’s a … common thread through the company so there’s no reason not to be involved. If we can sustain the sponsorship and the key people stay with us and will continue to help us we can go on forever and I don’t see any reason we can’t do that.”

In NASCAR, Penske teams have won 147 times, including 93 in the premier series. Brad Keselowski, who along with Joey Logano makes up the organization’s Sprint Cup lineup, scored Penske’s first NASCAR premier series title in 2012.

His organization has won 181 times in IndyCar, a total that includes 16 victories in the Indianapolis 500.

“His work ethic is what you would expect from a 25-year-old man and then some,” Keselowski said. “There have been countless times where I wake up in the morning, slept longer than (normal) and the first thing that enters my mind is ‘Gosh, Roger beat me to work by a long way.’

“He motivates me to work harder. He pushes me in direction that I didn’t think of before. He has such a deep understanding on so many levels of what it takes to be successful that I find myself constantly trying to emulate him. …

“He really just amazes me more than anything else with some of the things he does.”

In addition to Keselowski and Logano, among those finding NASCAR success with Penske have been Mark Donohue (the organization’s first stock-car winner), NASCAR Hall of Fame members Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace, as well as Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.

His lieutenants ensure that his racing entities run like clockwork and although racing is just one of his many successful business endeavors it has proven to be a crucial part.

“Racing has given me the opportunity to compete on a world-wide stage,” he said. “It shows execution, it shows we can handle adversity … there’s no question that the partnerships that I’ve been able to generate with the OEMS from my business have been amazing. Without racing I would have never had the connection in the automobile business and that’s really the heart of my company.”

The focus on the 50th year celebration has generated much interest among those inside the organization and helped fill in a picture for those who have been part of the amazing run.

“It seems like I learn a little more every day as we’ve gone through talking about the … anniversary,” Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Keselowski, said. “And being able to be a part of things with Rusty and Rick (Mears) and just all the amazing people that have been able to work and be a part of the history with Penske, I’m just a small part of that. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to.”

Success in the stock car ranks came slowly and Penske left the series briefly, from 1978-79, before returning for two races with Wallace in 1980. The return was short-lived; he left again and didn’t return for a decade.

With IROC, Can-Am, IndyCar, “and some sports car stuff,” Penske said, “our plate was full. And costs were escalating.”

“Everybody in the world wanted to drive for Roger,” Wallace said. “For me to be able to drive the car in 1980, I thought that was my big break and that I had made it.”

Wallace returned nearly 10 years later, in ’91, with much more experience and a championship under his belt. And Penske was ready. The organization hasn’t missed a step since.

A celebration of five decades covers a lot of ground. But Penske insists the end isn’t in sight.

“I will be at the races as long as I can stand up,” he said. “We’re there for one reason and that’s to win.”