He is 1st racing owner competing in three series to house all of his teams under one gigantic roof.

Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

MOORESEVILLE, N.C. -- Nestled among 110 lush acres just off the aptly named Penske Way in this town that calls itself "Race City USA," located about 35 miles north of Charlotte, is the massive headquarters of one of the most legendary teams in auto racing.

By the end of this year, Roger Penske, whose extensive racing credentials as a team owner include 14 Indianapolis 500 victories and 57 NASCAR Nextel Cup series victories, will have his Nextel Cup, Indy Racing League IndyCar and American LeMans series teams -- that's 260 employees -- under one roof at Penske Racing South.

This will make Penske, the racing mogul, the first owner competing in three series to have all his teams contained in one facility.

This is one massive roof, to be sure, housing state-of-the-art everything, including race shops for Cup drivers Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, who are preparing for this weekend's race at Michigan International Speedway, and Penske's Porsche entries in the American LeMans series.

There are paint booths with sophisticated equipment that suck away the excess paint so there is no extra weight added to the car. There is an area where detailed models are made for testing, another area where tools and parts are made in-house, offices, meeting rooms, a fully equipped gym and a pristine cafeteria.

Also on the grounds are two lighted baseball fields that are leased to the city for $1 and used by local children, and a one-mile nature trail.

Penske, whose Penske Corporation is based in Bloomfield Hills, bought the 430,000-square-foot facility in 2004 for $7 million. It is the former home of the Matsushita Compressor Corp. of America, and after an extensive renovation, is now a gleaming, immaculate facility that has a public viewing area of the race shop for fans in addition to a 5,000-square-foot gift shop, and it is part playground for some of the top engineering minds and talent in racing.

"Is it the best facility in the sport right now?" said Don Miller, president of Penske Racing, who did not take long to consider his answer. "Yes, I think so."

That is high praise considering the biggest teams -- and smallest, too -- in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing also have their shops in Mooresville. Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) are among the bigger race shops, with DEI's over-the-top decorated shop having earned the nickname, The Garagemahal.

There is something extravagant, yet toned-down elegant about Penske Racing South. The open-glassed entrance with its Italian floor tile and black leather chairs looks more like an entry to a five-star hotel than to an enormous building that functions to support three racing teams.

Busch and Newman have offices there, and a separate autograph room where they sit and sign whatever fan requests they have to accommodate.

There is a courtyard that can host functions for 120-1,000 people, and the conference room can be used by Penske sponsors at any time. The administrative offices are neat, tidy and efficient, and there are no doors -- Penske prefers open communication in the work environment.

Every hair in place

True to Penske form, everything is in place, everything is immaculate, corners are tucked and every hair is in place. In other words, it is difficult to find the dust in this place.

Way beyond the aesthetics of Penske Racing South is its actual purpose. Penske Technology Group, which houses a much-used wind tunnel and seven-post rig, both of which can be leased by other race teams, and the Penske engine shop are not located on this property, but everything else is self-contained.

Taking it into account, the wind tunnel, engine shop and 400,000-plus-square-foot shop, examining everything that goes on behind the scenes long before a car and its driver hit the race track, it is eye-opening. Suddenly, there is a more vivid realization why it costs nearly $20 million to run a single-car team in the 36-race Nextel Cup series.

Miller has been with Penske since 1971. These are the glory days.

But they have experienced together the Spartan times, and that makes the Penske Racing South facility feel more immense.

"I can remember going to the races, and we had an open trailer," Miller said, laughing at the memory. "Then we graduated to a truck we called, 'The Hilton.' It was an old moving van. We put ramps in and put the cars inside it, and it had a tool box, a few spare tires and wheels. It was the most ungainly vehicle

"Five or six years ago, to think we would be in a facility like this, that was a reach at best. Roger said a long time ago, the ideal situation if you're going to be in motor sports, if you own a racing team with several different facets, it would be ideal to put them in one location. It makes sense because I just think there's an opportunity for us as a team to exchange ideas and have a blend of technology that you would never be able to duplicate anywhere else."

Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance, Inc., is charged with the responsibility of consolidating all of Penske's racing under this one roof.

It has been a process, to be sure. In March 2005, the Nextel Cup team moved in. By the end of last year, the American LeMans series team checked in, as well. By Thanksgiving, the plan is for the IndyCar team, which had been Reading, Pa., for three decades, to be housed here, as well.

Building blocks

"We're going to approach it one day at a time as far as the efficiencies and the consolidation and that type of thing. I don't think we want to change too many things at once," Cindric said. "You change somebody's surroundings, then you change their neighbors. You don't worry about the neighbors until you get your house built, and I think the first thing is to build the house for these different teams to live in and then determine as a neighborhood how you work together and how the different entities can work in an efficient way.

"You're not trying to build utopia overnight. You're trying to get the building blocks in place where you can continue each year to build and develop your people rather than having the expectations too high and it be more of a distraction than an efficient thing."

Clearly, there are financial benefits to having all three teams under one roof. Instead of three shops, there is one. Instead of three sets of equipment, there is one set, and so on.

It might seem odd to think the series can share information, but that is part of the master plan.

"People say, 'Well you have nothing in common with an IndyCar,' " Miller said, referring to the Cup cars. "Well, I disagree. The technology varies, but the actual application of your capabilities is very similar."

Visual environment

Inside the main race shop, there is a 330-foot walk above the floor to give fans a vast overview of the goings on. They can watch as the crews work on the 20 or so Cup cars that line the floor. To the left of that area, enormous Penske race haulers -- as many as six can fit at any given time -- are parked. On the walls around the facility are more than 1,000 linear feet of Kodak photographs depicting the Penske racing timeline.

"It's very visual here," said Bud Denker, executive director of Penske Performance and senior vice president of Penske Corporation.

But fans can't see everything. There are plenty of secrets in racing, after all.

Just beyond the view of the fans is another row of Cup cars, and beyond that, behind the closed doors is where it all happens.

There is a shop where only three-dimensional models are produced. These are used in the wind tunnel for testing. There is an area where Penske shocks are made in-house. There is a center that resembles a well-stocked consumer auto-parts store where every part needed for every car is clearly marked and shelved in an organized manner.

"We know where everything goes, what the cost is per car, there's everything in here from our oil to our Gatorade, every single piece that makes our cars is carried in the parts department," Denker said.

Another room is devoted for building Cup cars for the two restrictor-plate tracks, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. That's four races total. Already, several of the team members are working on the cars for the Daytona 500 next February. Penske Racing makes its own chassis on-site because it feels it's safer that way.

In an area that has not been fully renovated is a makeshift pit box for the Cup cars. Because the pit box is under shelter, the crews for Newman and Busch practice every day. After all, every second counts in racing. That also is why Penske Racing South has two full-time trainers on staff, and 3-4 times a week, the crew members are required to get in a workout.

Plenty of room to grow

For Cup crew chiefs Matt Borland, a Haslett, Mich., native, and Roy McCauley, who works with Busch, working at Penske Racing South is the crème de la crème.

On the walls where the crew members meet, there are quotes selected by the crew.

"It's certainly the nicest race shop I've ever worked in," McCauley said. "Probably what I'm most enthusiastic about, while renovated and redone to accommodate the NASCAR program, it was done in a fashion where there's room for growth. You want to term growth for a race team, there's plenty of room to do so and make the company that much better.

"What I appreciate about (Penske), not only does he demand the performance, but he gives you to the tools to achieve it."

The tools include the impressive wind tunnel, in which 40-50 percent scale carbon-fiber models -- which range in cost from $150,000-$500,000 -- are used, and a seven-post Vehicle Dynamics Rig is located not far from Penske Racing South at Penske Technology Group.

The wind tunnel, which features a 16-ton rolling road and uses smoke or helium for flow visualization that produces data examined in the control room just outside the tunnel, is considered the most advanced moving ground-plane wind tunnel commercially available in the world. It was a $12 million investment for Penske.

About 20 percent of NASCAR Cup teams lease the Penske wind tunnel and vehicle dynamics rig.

"It's very specialized, the work that goes on here," said John Moloney, general manger of Penske Technology Group. "We have 15 -- we call them the Country Club members -- teams that come to Penske Technology Group. A vast majority of Chase contenders were customers of ours last year and probably will be in the same situation this year. They design and bring in their own models and technicians."

Penske employees remain at the facility, which means a level of trust had to be established among the teams who choose to lease the tunnel.

"Not only did we have to get this place built, we had to get it operational and establish a reputation for doing a good job," Moloney said. "We had to earn the other customer's trust and confidence. You can write confidentiality agreements and sign them in blood, but it really comes down to, do they trust (us)? It's a serious situation."

The seven-post rig simulates whatever track is coming up on the Nextel Cup or IndyCar series. The track dimensions are programmed into the computer. There are four wheel actuators that are placed under the tires, and there are three air loaders that simulate aerodynamic downforce that attach to the frame or chassis of the car.

Nothing left to chance

Racing has become such a sophisticated sport, even minute pieces of data that can be collected long before the car reaches the track is necessary and needed.

"A big, key thing that's happened over the last few years now has been when you drop off the truck on Friday morning (at the race track), you can't be really flying by the seat of your pants anymore," Moloney said. "You have to have that car pretty well dialed in and you need to be moving up the list in a hurry, because you have so limited track time.

"It comes back to the people. You need people who can efficiently sort through this and plot a course of action. You'll find that the teams at the top of the list have got good people who are able to sort through this data and are able to make decisions quickly and efficiently that result on the race track."

Ultimately, it call comes back to Penske, founder and chairman of Penske Corporation, a diversified transportation services corporation. He was ranked the 382nd wealthiest individual in the world by Forbes this year. Penske's oft-quoted mantra, "effort equals results," is what drives him, and it is particularly evident in his racing and in the facility he has created to remain in the upper echelons of a sport in which he once competed as a driver.

"Everything we need is here," Newman said. "We used to drive up and down the street because we were taking cars from one shop to the other. To be able to do what we're doing now it's nice to know Roger is and was a racer and understands the things that go on.

"Whether he's here or not, he knows what's going on."

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January 26

NASCAR Nextel Cup team owner Roger Penske says he is looking to build a test track on the 105-acre campus that includes his Mooresville shop.

"Our goal here is to take the roughly 70 acres out back, and we build a test track," he said this week, adding that he would be interested in building a track with a large skid pad and road course.

"I think this is an opportunity for us to extend our commercial relationship within the sport," Penske added.

Roy McCauley, crew chief for Penske driver Kurt Busch, said the impact of such a track would be difficult to overestimate.

"Logistically, it's a no-brainer," he said

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Clear!Blue Communications For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release


ROGER PENSKE (Chairman Penske Corporation)

OPENING REMARKS

“Motorsports is a big business today, and I think you have to maximize all of your resources. We did that when we were in the speedway business. We certainly had the chance to partner with Bruton and obviously Speedway Motorsports. Today I think it’s about technology transfer. We hope with the amalgamation of all of our teams here at this shop in Mooresville (N.C.) we’ll be able to see the technology transferred from NASCAR to Busch and Indy car. When you look at a NASCAR car and you put a decal on it for the headlights and a couple of other things that make it a car, but underneath that body there’s a lot of work today. I think the real key to all racing teams’ successes when we moved into North Carolina we saw Hendrick, Roush, Ganassi and many other people who have been so successful. The Wood Brothers, Leonard and those folks have been my friends forever. We wanted to come here also and take advantage of a great work force and have the opportunity to go racing. We really have a great team of drivers. When I think back Ryan (Newman), that new point system would have been pretty good for us a couple of years ago. Rusty would say the same thing if he were here tonight.
“I look at the 2007 season and we’re going to compete in 90 races with 159 entries, obviously expanded schedules with our IndyCar Series and American LeMans Series. Sam (Hornish) will be competing in a broader program. He’ll be competing in some Busch Races. He had an opportunity to find out what it was all about last year. We cut it short and sweet, but that’s how it starts. I’m sure Kurt knows what that’s like. Helio (Castroneves) is going to compete at Sebring, and we’re going to be busier than ever. I think it’s important when we think about the ability to build a shop like this and bring great people in it’s because of our great sponsor teams. Longevity is certainly a key for us as we go forward. We’ve got to make commitment to our drivers and other people on our team, and we can’t do that is you don’t even have a sponsor at the end of the year and you’re looking at January and February going to the first race.”

COMMENT ON COT

“I’ve said it to a number of people. I think what it’s going to do is it’s going to take some cost out. Obviously there’s a cost of developing. We were able to test that car for three or four days at a short track, take the car to Daytona and run 191 mph). When NASCAR gets the rules just right, we’re going to see a safer car and one that we can take to multiple types of circuits. You walk around and see the cars we have, hopefully we can reduce that by 50 percent. The good news is we’re supporting it (COT) and I like the conversation about the car. We’re in the game, and we think it will run a lot of people closer together.”

DO YOU SEE A FORMULA ONE START IN YOUR FUTURE?

“I don’t think you’ll see Penske Racing, in this decade, in Formula One. You never know though, but I doubt it very much.”

COMMENT ON NEW POINTS SYSTEM

“Taking the 400 point cap off doesn’t make a lot of difference, but the fact they’re going to have 12 competing will make it better and also for our sponsors. When you’re not in it, it puts a dampener on some of the things you might be doing with your sponsor. On the other hand, it gave us a chance to try some things. Mike Nelson had a chance to crew chief a couple of the races. We use it as a proving ground if you’re not in it, but I think the change is very good and I take my hat off to Brian (France) for making a few course corrections and not overhauling the system.”

COMMENT ON BUILDING A TEST TRACK

“Our goal here is to take the roughly 70 acres out back and we build a test track. We’re in an exploratory stage today. I’d like to see an oval with a big skid pad, also a road course would be intermingled within the oval side. I think the cost we have to go to tests and the fact we can use this for customer entertainment, for our sponsors, maybe police academies. It’s like when we built the wind tunnel people said no one would use it. I can tell you it’s being used every day. I think this is an opportunity for us to extend our commercial relationship within the sport. We really haven’t said how big it is, but it’ll be bigger than a half mile. Let’s put it that way. Maybe we could build a Bristol here, but I don’t have enough room for the stands. I’m not going into the track business. Don’t get the wrong idea. This will be a test facility.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

OPENING REMARKS

“It was a pleasure to drive the car that fast (at Daytona), to be able to do homework with NASCAR on the car of tomorrow, it’s a pleasure to assist them and to work for such a great organization as Penske Racing. With our new Dodge Avenger and Charger, we’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of us getting the car up to speed. We continue to gain speed in each of our test sessions. With Mike (Nelson, No. 12 crew chief) and Roy (No. 2 crew chief McCauley) working and burning the midnight oil, it gives Ryan and I confidence to know when we show up at the race track the cars will be closer. Everybody continues to pull in the same direction, it’s a great motivation. The speed we’re carrying showed at Daytona. I’m impressed. I can’t wait for Las Vegas next week. We’ll get to see all the teams and how the stop watches click off there. Then we head back to Daytona for Speedweeks. We’ve got some important things ahead of us. We look forward to the challenge.”

WILL RACING THE COT SO EARLY BE AN ADVANTAGE?

“I think so. They’re going to hand out points at the end of the race and they’re going to hand out a trophy. Going to victory lane is key for everybody at Miller Lite and Penske, so when you keep a position attitude you can’t help but work harder after each race. I ran three tests in a row with the car of tomorrow in the off season and then jumped back in the regular car and I felt like I was too far to the left. We went to one composite seat at Penske Racing. If Ryan, Sam or Helio want to drive, they’re in. What we do is change foam, and me being the skinny guy, I get the most movement with the foam. I can move myself back to the left a little bit and get that nice cushioning on the right side of the car.”

COMMENT ON POINT SYSTEM

“My take is a positive one on how the sport has changed itself when we did introduce The Chase for the Cup format. It creates a playoff atmosphere to invite more teams in. It helps with the percentages. In the NFL you have eight teams that go to the playoffs, but you have 30 that actually put their helmets on and go compete. At NASCAR we have 43 teams that compete for a win, for a title. With 12 spots open you have a better percentage for more competitive teams. To have a win means something. To have multiple wins, that should separate you and give you an advantage going into the playoffs. It’s almost like you’re the No. 1 seed and you’re playing the No. 6 seed. I like the difference in it, and I think it will only add to the aggressiveness on the track.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN LAST YEAR?

“Sometimes you add all the ingredients into the same box and you can come out and dominate like five freshmen in NCAA basketball. The success could go straight through the roof. You’re going to have your good times and you’re going to have your bad. For us we started strong. We ran well at Daytona and had a win at Bristol early on. That was somewhat the adrenalin rush of switching to Penske Racing. It’s a better program. I’m completely satisfied with my change. What we learned from last year, we developed our setups and got them up to speed. There’s no telling where we were at the beginning of the season, but where we ended up and not making The Chase, advanced us to 2007 -- especially with a fresh outlook on the car of tomorrow. We’ve come a long way in one year, and those are the victories we took away from last year, obviously developing a crew chief. When you can get over that chemistry, you have the comfort zone to go out and know what each other is thinking all the time.”

WHY ARE YOU SO HAPPY ABOUT THE COT?

“It gives you an opportunity to look at a new car and what can it do to help us get to victory lane. The car is not going to do it on its own. We have to develop it. We have to test it, and other teams have to do it as well. If we’ve got two cars here, we’ve got to put that much more emphasis on it because we’re competing against teams that have four cars or five cars. We won’t take the COT to Vegas. When the season starts at Daytona during Speedweeks we’ll probably drop down to Lakeland, Fla., and do a test with our COT. We’ve got a stiff agenda, and we are sticking with it. Each time we go to a new track we’re faster.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

OPENING REMARKS

“We put a lot of time in testing this off season, just trying to work out some kinks we had last year. The car of tomorrow has been good from a testing standpoint. The COT has been a good experience from a testing spointpoint. I think we’ve got seven or eight tests in it. We’ve had some good tests in it. I think for the first time ever the 2 and 12 took the same car to Phoenix one week to Daytona the next week. It’s probably been about 20 years since this has happened. It’s been good – the reaction of the car, it’s a little bit different from the aerodynamic perspective than the car of yesterday. Everything is good. We had good intermediate testing in the off season. I look forward to the entire situation. We’ve made some improvements.”

COMMENT ON NEW CREW CHIEF MIKE NELSON

“We’ve worked together for the last six plus years. Whenever we made a decision about the race car it was all three of us, me, Matt Borland and Michael, in the same room talking about the setup, talking about air pressures and whatever else. I’ve got a great relationship with Michael. I’ve never had to deal with it myself, probably the easiest transition a guy could have in my position to go to a new crew chief. I extremely look forward to it. He’s done a great job assembling people and making the racecars go faster. That checklist will be very short by the end of the year.”eam

COMMENT ON IMPROVEMENT

“I thought we did a good job working as a team, but in the off season we got a new outlook on the situation. Michael and Roy McCauley are working great together. The engineers work great together. I thought we were doing things good, but now we’re doing thing great I feel. Both on the racetrack and off I think we’ll look stronger and be stronger.”

COMMENT ON DAYTONA TESTING

“We had the same cars as we did last year. We worked on ‘em. Fortunately, I made it through most of the crashes last yeas, so we were able to massage on the cars we had.instead of building new cars. Sometimes that just creates another situation. Still a big thing at Daytona is what’s underneath the hood, and our Penske/Jasper horsepower should be good.”

COMMENT ON OFF SEASON

“I’m a little relaxed. I’d still like the off season to be about a month longer, but that’s just because we’re building a house and have a lot of things going on. We want to be 100 percent prepared for the season. The Vegas test will be a big eye-opener for everybody.”

WILL YOU MISS MATT BORLAND?

“I’ll miss him as a friend do bout. We’ll have Michael there, and Michael isn’t replacing Matt Borland. Michael Nelson is Michael Nelson. We’re going to go out and do our best like we always do. Roger Penske has a saying that effort equals results, and we’re putting a lot of effort in.”

HAVE YOU REMEMBERED HOW TO DRIVE?

“I remember how to drive. The tough part about a season like 2006 is getting the confidence back on the team. Last year was fun for about three weekends. Hopefully 38 weekends will be a lot of fun this year. I guess part of fixing the problem is understanding it and where it’s coming from. Everything goes in a cycle. We’ve got to put the work in and make an effort.”

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