SCENEDAILY
BY KENNY BRUCE
ASST. MANAGING EDITOR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - When Penske Racing announced the hiring of veteran crew chief Chris Carrier to oversee the No. 77 team and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. for 2008, officials noted Carrier's calm demeanor.

With a rookie driver making the transition from open-wheel to stock cars, the team wanted a crew chief who could deal with problems without panicking, one who could keep his driver at ease when the need arose.

Carrier, 47, is laid back. But even he admits he's had his share of eruptions at the race track.

"It's been a few years ago, and I don't want to mention the driver's name," Carrier said. "It was at the Chicago race, and we just grated on one another's nerves. I was trying to get something done, we had a little problem with the car, I wanted to do this, he didn't. ... We were battling back and forth, he went off on me a little bit, and I just exploded. I really acted terrible.

"As soon as it was over, I thought, 'Boy, I just made an idiot of myself.'"

That it took place during the race was even more embarrassing for the Abingdon, Va., native. The race ended, and he and his driver eventually talked out their differences. But not immediately after the race.

"No, right after the race, it was pretty tense," Carrier said. "I was up in the front of the truck changing my clothes, and I was still hot about it. All the crew guys would come in, and they wouldn't say anything, they wouldn't look at me. They'd just get out of their firesuits or whatever and get out.

"We had a truck driver, Randle, that knew how to break the ice in any situation. I'm trying to change my clothes and wondering how I'm going to get over this when he hollers up in there and says, 'Hey, when you get done dressing, ESPN is out here and they want to interview you about how you and your driver's getting along.

"'And when they get done, the preacher said he needs to see you, too.'" "That just cracked me up. And since then, I've just realized you've got to laugh at yourself. Really, to keep from getting tense, just realize that all we're doing is providing entertainment. That's all it is. If it gets dull, everyone will start watching something else. Why have a heart attack over it?"

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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Expectant father completes transition to NASCAR racing with Rookie-of-the-Year honors in mind

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (January 28, 2008) - With the start of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season clearly on the horizon, three-time IndyCar Series Champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. is poised to achieve a new level of success in his already storied career as a race car driver.

As driver of the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge for Penske Racing, Hornish Jr. is ready to make his mark in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and is focused on earning Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 2008.

This season, Hornish Jr. completes the full-time transition to the world of stock cars and begins his rookie campaign alongside other former open-wheel racing stars Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier as well as former Formula One driver Jacques Villenueve. The group comprises the 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year class along with Regan Smith.

"Our goal as a team is to win the Rookie-of-the-Year title for 2008, plain and simple," said Hornish Jr. "I realize that there is a lot to learn but I feel that we have the elements in place to run well and finish the season in the top-20 in the point standings."

In order to achieve those goals, Hornish Jr. is focused on getting as much seat time as possible heading into the season-opening Daytona 500, to be run on Sunday, February 17. The team has tested several times during the off-season and feels that the recent NASCAR test session at Daytona International Speedway was a success.

With two tests in Las Vegas and California in the coming week, Hornish Jr. and crew chief Chris Carrier plan to advance the team's learning curve in its speedway program.

Hornish Jr. has two NASCAR Cup Series starts, which came at the end of last season at Phoenix and Homestead. In 11 NASCAR Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series starts, Hornish Jr. has a best finish of 15th at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2007.

As a member of what has been touted to be one of the most accomplished rookie classes in NASCAR history, Hornish sees the pursuit of the rookie title as the next logical step in his already proven racing career.

"I see the transition to stock car racing as the next step for me," commented Hornish Jr. "I have already accomplished a lot in the IndyCar Series and with Penske Racing. I feel the need to challenge myself further as a driver. Truly successful drivers succeed in more than one series. Capturing Rookie-of-the-Year honors would be the first step toward achieving that type of success."

As he embarks on the next chapter in his racing career, Hornish Jr. and wife Crystal are "expecting" changes on the home front as well. With their first child due in early February, the Hornishes are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a baby girl.

"We're very excited to welcome our daughter," said Hornish Jr. "We had to get everything for the nursery done over the off-season since she is due to arrive on February 10, right in the middle of Speedweeks. It's definitely going to be an exciting start to the season for us. We can't wait."

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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Pete Pistone
Managing Editor
RacingOne

After a 2007 season that showed flashes of promise and success, Penske Racing takes an expanded squad into the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship chase.

Former Indy 500 winner and IRL champion Sam Hornish, Jr. joins Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman to give team owner Roger Penske a three-car assault at winning the 2008 title.

Busch comes into the new year with a great deal of confidence from his 2007 performance, which saw the former series champion climb back into the role of contender.

Busch and crew chief Pat Tryson started to gel as the season progressed and the year ended with a berth in the Chase and a seventh-place finish in the final standings.

"With wins, a pole and a seventh-place finish in the points, we definitely covered all the basics to say that 2007 was a successful year for our Miller Lite Dodge Team," said Busch. "When you look back on the year and take into consideration that we accomplished all that we did with three different crew chiefs, you certainly have to label it a super transitional season for our team."

"Roy McCauley and Troy Raker definitely deserve so much credit for their contributions during the year, especially considering the adverse and unusual circumstances they were working under," said Busch, who completed his seventh season as a fulltime competitor on the top circuit in stock car racing in 2007. "When we were able to add Pat Tryson as our team leader back in June, it gave us the solid and consistent leadership that our team needed to overcome the obstacles and make the big drive to get into the Chase."

Newman also enjoyed a better season in 2007 than the one previous when he and the ALLTEL Dodge team struggled.

Last season, Newman scored seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes en route to a 13th-place finish in the championship point standings.

A late season surge, in which Newman amassed four top-five finishes in the final seven races of the season, helped him secure the 13th spot and has given the team an added bit of confidence.

"We definitely have momentum on our side," Newman said. "Any kind of momentum you had, you can take and build on that, and I think we have been building on that with the work around the race shop and different tests during the off-season."

Veteran crew chief Roy McCauley joins Newman's squad this season and the pair believe they have the ingredients in place for even more success.

"We didn't get to achieve the things we wanted to last year," Newman said. "I feel like we have some unfinished business, but by all means, Michael left on great terms - he had a great opportunity which was a life-long dream of his.
"Now, Roy is here, and I think we have a good team and a good program going into 2008."

Hornish, Jr. follows in the footsteps of recent open wheel drivers making the transition to NASCAR.

"Our goal as a team is to win the Rookie of the Year title for 2008, plain and simple," said Hornish Jr. "I realize that there is a lot to learn but I feel that we have the elements in place to run well and finish the season in the top-20 in the point standings."

Hornish, Jr. will have the added benefit of a guaranteed spot in the first five races of the season, thanks to a points switch between his upstart No. 77 Mobil 1 ride and Busch's No. 2 entry.

Hornish believes a good start to the year will help him achieve his goal of making a successful transition to stock car racing.

"I see the transition to stock car racing as the next step for me," said Hornish Jr. "I have already accomplished a lot in the IndyCar Series and with Penske Racing. I feel the need to challenge myself further as a driver. Truly successful drivers succeed in more than one series. Capturing Rookie-of-the-Year honors would be the first step toward achieving that type of success."

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Penske hopes his team can build on its Daytona 500 performance

DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

FONTANA, Calif. - Roger Penske had tried to win 23 Daytona 500s before Ryan Newman got the job done for his car owner Sunday.

What would Penske, one of the leading figures in motorsports, have done if Newman hadn’t won?

“I would have come back next year and tried again,” Penske said after Newman gave him his first victory in a restrictor-plate race in NASCAR’s top series.

Penske, who marked his 71st birthday on Wednesday, got an early present from Newman, with a big assist from teammate Kurt Busch. Busch used his No. 2 Dodge to push Newman’s No. 12 to the lead on the final lap, leading to a 1-2 finish for the team.

Add an impressive 15th-place finish for NASCAR rookie Sam Hornish Jr. in his first Daytona 500 appearance and it’s hard to imagine a better start to the season for Penske’s team.

Now, his three drivers move to California Speedway – a track that Penske built before selling it to International Speedway Corp. – looking to sustain that momentum.

“We started this season with all three drivers, all three crew chiefs, the engineering folks together and said, ‘Look, we’ve got to make this one effort,’ ” said Penske, the man known in racing circles as “The Captain.”

“Kurt and Ryan do different things Monday through Friday,” Penske said.

“But I can tell you now at the race track, the three drivers get together after every practice, and it’s made a huge difference in communication. If you can’t win yourself, you want your teammate to win. I’ve always said we win as a team and we lose as a team.”

That, however, has not always been the case with Penske’s stock-car team.

When Newman and Rusty Wallace were teammates, they did not always keep those lines of communication open.

“We struggled getting the cooperation between our two drivers a couple of years back,” said Don Miller, who retired as co-owner of Penske’s stock car operations after last season.

“It was difficult because even though you are in the same building and you’ve got two guys who really want to win, if they don’t want to work together it makes everybody’s life a little bit more difficult.

“But over the past couple of years that Ryan and Kurt have been running together, they have built a really strong confidence situation as far as (one saying), ‘Hey, if I’m in a position to help you, you know I’m going to help you.’

"And people that paid attention probably saw that quite a few times last year.”

Penske has won the Indianapolis 500 14 times and has 2 championships in IndyCar racing. He moved his open-wheel operations from Pennsylvania to Mooresville last year and consolidated his racing empire there.

“We had Penske Racing North and Penske Racing South,” he said. “That always bothered me. I wanted to have one Penske Racing. Getting together with Don, we decided we had this opportunity to get this big shop and we could put all the disciplines under one roof.

“We’ve had a lot of cross-pollination. We moved crew members from the different disciplines. I think it’s made a huge difference. We got one location, one set of people that manage it. We get the benefit, you know, of the experience that we have. To me, I think it was the right move.”

Other IndyCar teams compare themselves with the standard set by Penske’s team, and Penske would love to match that in NASCAR, where he hasn’t won a championship. But he has now won a Daytona 500.

"We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could win, I can tell you that,” he said.

“Every year we’ve been close. I think this year we were confident. A lot of things had come together. We’ve got a long way to go before we can sit at the table with Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Jack Roush and those guys, but we’re coming close.”

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Daytona win adds to strong base of Penske relationship

By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
February 22, 2008
09:15 PM EST

FONTANA, Calif. -- Sometimes drivers can exist on the same team but not be teammates.

In the case of Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, last week's Daytona 500 proved to both that they can trust each other to be there when needed.

The newest winner of the Daytona 500, Newman spent this week in the spotlight, appearing on television shows from coast to coast. But he refused to take all the credit for his victory.

"To have a teammate like Kurt Busch push me to that win as a teammate, I'm forever grateful for having him as a teammate and the things that we've done together," Newman said.

That wasn't always the case at Penske Racing, as Newman and veteran Rusty Wallace had a frosty relationship. But when Roger Penske hired Busch away from Jack Roush's outfit, things warmed up. And that warm relationship between the two drivers was never more evident than the push Busch gave Newman on the final lap to get past Tony Stewart.

"He's been a great teammate from Day 1," Newman said. "In 2006, I thought we did a good job as teammates. I realized in 2007 we did a good job, but we didn't do nearly the job we could have done. Obviously 2008 is a better start than 2007.

"Down the backstretch, when I saw Kurt push me and then when Tony pulled down, that was the ultimate eye-opener for me. Obviously, I've been in that position before and you never know until you cross the finish line."

To his credit, Busch feels the same way about Newman. They had worked well together in previous restrictor-plate races -- and when Busch saw how things were shaping up at the end of the 500, he knew the outside lane was the right choice.

"The way everything shook out on that last lap, the outside groove had everybody stacked up and the inside lane, there was distance between Tony and Kyle and whoever was behind Kyle wasn't right up on his rear bumper," Busch said. "That's how those guys couldn't get hooked up. The momentum was on the outside lane."

Busch said Penske's decision to take total control of the operation was one key to the team's improved chemistry.

"Since I came to Penske Racing, it's been a great relationship that I knew needed to develop over time," he said. "I couldn't just come in and say who was at fault, why Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace didn't get along. But with Roger Penske changing the whole program around when I came in -- he bought everybody's shares out and now Roger owns 100 percent of Penske Racing's NASCAR program. So now it's Roger making the calls."

While Newman was considered to be aloof, Busch was labeled a hothead. But Newman hasn't experienced that first-hand.

"I wouldn't say that he's had that reputation with me," Newman said. "Obviously, his reputation with other drivers and the media is different, but I respect Kurt as a teammate and as a person. But we've always had a great relationship on and off the racetrack. I take him for what he's worth to me and let everyone else deal with him the way they want to deal with him."

Busch agrees. And the team finally added the one jewel missing from Penske's racing crown.

"Ryan Newman and I are on the same page," Busch said. "That relationship really came forward at Daytona.

"And Roger, you know he really wants to win Daytona but he doesn't beat it into the ground that you have to go and win Daytona. But in the back of my mind, on the last lap, it was great to push Newman to victory because my shot at winning wasn't quite there and his was."

So will a Daytona 500 win change things? Busch says no, because that trust has always been there.

"I don't think the Daytona race will be that big life-changing moment," he said. "We've worked on it the last three years together and he's seen the trust that we have in one other. I've seen it in him. This is just three years' worth of work finally paying off."

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On Friday, May 23 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Penske Racing is opening its doors to all NASCAR, Indy car and American Le Mans Series fans for a special celebration surrounding race weeks at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Many exciting events are being planned for Penske Racing fans, including a special autograph session with NASCAR stars Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr. and Ryan Newman. In addition, attendees will be able to see a variety of racing machines that have propelled Penske Racing drivers into victory lane as well as the trophies they earned.


The nearly 425,000-square foot Penske Racing facility is located at 200 Penske Way, Mooresville, NC 28115. This one-of-a-kind race shop houses all of Penske Racing's winning motorsports efforts, from NASCAR Cup and Nationwide Series Dodge Chargers to the LMP2 Porsche RS Spyders of the American Le Mans Series to the legendary IndyCar Series Dallara/Honda racing machines. With more than a million pounds of Italian floor tile, expansive fan viewing areas and special Kodak graphics chronicling Penske Racing's history, the Penske Racing facility is unmatched in the United States and is considered one of the top race shops in the world.


"The Penske Racing Fan Fest is a great way to not only give something back to our loyal fans, but give them a peek into our shops and show them what it takes to run championship-caliber teams," said Jonathan Gibson, Vice President, Marketing, Penske Racing. "We're going to have a lot of fun with our NASCAR stars out in force and we also have some surprises in store for our special guests."


Some highlights the fans will experience include:

7 to 11 a.m. - A live broadcast of the popular Sirius satellite radio's NASCAR channel show "The Morning Drive" hosted by Mike Bagley and David Poole. Special guests on the program will include Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr. and Ryan Newman.
8 a.m. - Distribution of autograph tickets to the first 200 people in line at the Penske Racing gift shop free of charge.
9:30 to 11 a.m. - All three NASCAR Cup Series drivers will be signing autographs for the 200 ticket holders.
10% discount on all exclusive merchandise available in Penske Racing's nearly 5,000 square-foot gift shop.
Gourmet refreshments for sale.
Raffle baskets containing unique autographed merchandise with proceeds being donated to the drivers charities.
A variety of activities, including racing simulators, remote-controlled car races and more.


Penske Racing is one of the most successful teams in the history of professional sports. Competing in a variety of disciplines, cars owned and prepared by Penske Racing have produced 298 major race wins, 353 poles and 21 National Championships.

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MIKE HARRIS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, Jun. 04, 2008.

Getting sprayed with victory champagne is an occupational hazard for Roger Penske.

Over the nearly 40 years that "The Captain" has fielded cars in just about every major professional racing series, the wins have sometimes come in bunches and sometimes been far apart. The result, however, is that Penske's teams have accumulated 300 victories.

The latest came Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, where Ryan Briscoe earned his first IndyCar victory and proved once again that Penske knows driving talent when he sees it.

This is the same Ryan Briscoe who washed out after a season with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005, a year that ended with a huge crash at Chicagoland Speedway that broke both his shoulder blades and put the Australian youngster into rehabilitation for several months.

A year ago, Penske hired Briscoe to race in the Indianapolis 500 for his son Jay's satellite team, and the driver finished fifth. Briscoe also did well enough driving for Penske's Porsche sports car team in the American Le Mans Series last season that he was the choice to fill the IndyCar seat when three-time IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. moved to NASCAR.

"We saw him as a good driver," Penske said. "Chip had him earlier and he got himself into trouble, maybe without the experience and (because of) the bad accident. We had him come back, had a good physical with him and he passed everything we needed."

The Milwaukee win was the first for Penske IndyCar team since Hornish won last June in Texas. But that doesn't mean the silver-haired entrepreneur has forgotten how to get to Victory Lane.

Briscoe and co-driver Sascha Maassen won three times in ALMS in 2007; Ryan Newman gave Penske his first Daytona 500 in February; and Romain Dumas, Timo Bernard and Emmanuel Collard combined to win the ALMS Sebring 12-Hour sports car race in March.

"You know, I think really it shows the amount of work that has been done by so many people on the team, so many good drivers, so many good pit crews, all the way back," Penske said. "I think about winning the first Trans-Am (race) and the first (of 14) at Indianapolis. It's pretty exciting."

Times haven't always been good in racing for the billionaire head of the 40,000-employee Penske Corporation.

After winning the Indy 500 in 1994 with Al Unser Jr., Penske's three-car team failed to qualify for the big race in 1995 — perhaps the biggest failure in his racing career.

"That one still hurts," Penske admitted during a recent conversation. "That's the biggest race for us, and not to make it was very hard on everybody on our team."

That was just the beginning of several years of struggle for his open-wheel team, which was then racing in the CART series. The low point was 1999, when rookie Gonzalo Rodriguez was killed during practice at Laguna Seca raceway and budding star Greg Moore, who had signed to race for Penske in 2000, died in a crash at the season-finale in Fontana, Calif.

There have been more disappointments in NASCAR, where his team has accumulated 58 wins but has yet to win a championship.

Still, Penske has seen far more success than most team owners would ever dream about.

"Driving for Roger, or just working for him, is a privilege," said longtime driver and now team consultant Rick Mears. "He treats everybody the same and anybody who works for him knows he will give you the tools to win. And, as a driver, you know that you have a shot at winning just about every time you get on the track in a Team Penske car."

It's true that Penske's employees are loyal, both on his race team and in his vast corporation. Many have stayed with the company for decades.

"We have tried to pick the right people and we have a homogenous group of guys working together," Penske said. "To me, if Penske Racing wins a race, everybody wins in our company.

"One fact is that we attract sponsors that commit to us more than one year at a time, so we can make commitments to our team members and go out and really attract young people who maybe have a career ... in racing. We can help them build up through he team."

Penske pointed out some of the people holding to jobs on his race teams began their careers polishing wheels or driving the team trucks.

"The people within the company, they are loyal and we take care of them and we will do anything for them to support them in time of adversity," he noted.

And Penske and his employees are all likely to be celebrating more wins in the future.

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By Bob Pockrass
Associate Editor
Scenedaily
Thursday, June 05, 2008

Penske Racing could be in jeopardy of losing sponsor Alltel, which has agreed to a merger with Verizon.

"When Nextel became the title sponsor, we notified all teams that existing competing sponsorships could stay in the series indefinitely so long as there was no change in branding," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Thursday in a statement. "This is the case with the Alltel brand – it can stay on the car indefinitely but if it transitions to Verizon or any competing company then it can no longer run a different sponsor on any car in the [Cup Series]."

AT&T, which bought Cingular in December 2006, took NASCAR to federal court in order to change its sponsorship of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing car from Cingular to AT&T. In September 2007, a settlement was reached that allowed AT&T to use its trademarks on the No. 31 car through the 2008 season before having to leave as the team’s sponsor.

According to court documents from that lawsuit, NASCAR said that between January and May 2005, Nextel, concerned over rumors that Verizon might acquire Alltel, asked for NASCAR to formally reaffirm the interpretation of the grandfather clause. NASCAR sent a letter to Penske Racing on April 4, 2005. saying, “[S]hould the company’s name change, we will not allow any paint scheme or branding on the car/team promoting this new name or a third party.”

Following up on that letter, an amendment to the Nextel-NASCAR agreement dated June 16, 2006, prohibits NASCAR from allowing Cingular or Alltel to activate its sponsorship under the brand of a prohibited competitor of Sprint (which had merged with Nextel). Verizon is one of those prohibited competitors.

In announcing the merger, Verizon did not make it clear if it expected to do away with the Alltel name and brand.

Alltel is signed with Penske Racing beyond the 2008 season, but its driver, Ryan Newman, has his contract up for renewal. Alltel has been Newman’s primary sponsor since 2000, including full time on the Cup circuit since 2002.

“It’s too early to speculate on the matter," said Jonathan Gibson, Penske Racing Vice President for marketing and communications. "Right now we’re focused on getting the Alltel Dodge into the Chase and back into victory lane. Alltel is a long-term valued partner with Penske Racing, and we look forward to continuing this strong relationship.”

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