INDIANAPOLIS -- It was 1951 when Jay Penske scored two tickets to the Indianapolis 500.
He was an executive for a metal fabrication company in Cleveland that was sponsoring a few laps in the race, so he brought his 14-year-old son to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Roger Penske, already a car lover, was instantly hooked. He had listened to previous Indianapolis 500s on the radio, but he was now seeing it in person for the first time.
"We drove here from Cleveland and got here late and were supposed to go to someone's home for lunch," Penske recalled. "Everybody was gone but there was a car there. I got my picture taken with a Cromwell helmet on."
That day, Penske said, he wanted to drive. And he would come to the track every year after for the next four decades.
"I think the speed here, the sensation of the track, and if you love cars like I did in those days, it was a place you wanted to be part of," Penske said.
From that first trip to the speedway to present day, Penske has missed just six Indianapolis 500s. There was 1995, a year after Al Unser Jr. won the race for Team Penske, when his cars failed to qualify. Then he took a five-year hiatus when IndyCar split from CART and Penske remained with the series that was not welcome at the Indy 500.
There have been precious few low points for the billionaire team owner whose influence stretches across both IndyCar and NASCAR. As Penske, 79, celebrates his 50th year in racing, during the 100th running of the Indy 500, the mark he's left on the motorsports community is unrivaled.
"He's been there such a long time, he prepares things to such a significantly high level of professionalism," 1996 winner Buddy Lazier said. "Everybody then has to bring themselves up to that level. As long as I've been involved in the sport, Roger Penske is huge."
He wanted to be a race car driver, and he briefly dabbled in auto racing and was quite good. He was trying to buy a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia, but General Motors didn't want to give a franchise to a race car driver. Using a loan from his father to buy his first dealership, Penske had to step away from racing to focus on earning back the money needed to repay his dad.
"I had to make a pretty good business decision at that point: Do I continue racing or do I go into business?" Penske said. "I think I made the right decision, because I was able to have the experience as a driver, understood what it meant to have reliable and great cars, and was able to bring that into our team a few years later. From that point, we never looked back."
Four years after his retirement in 1965, Penske was back at the Indy 500 with his own race team. Mark Donohue drove the No. 66 and gave Penske the first of his record 16 Indy 500 victories in 1972.
Penske also has fielded Indy 500 winning entries for Rick Mears (4), Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr., Gil de Ferran, Helio Castroneves (3), Sam Hornish Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya, the winner of last year's race.
"Driving for Roger is like going to Disneyland," Bobby Unser said. "You say, 'Wow, look at this. I've got everything now.' You have it all, the best. Roger gives you the best cars, parts, equipment and team to make you a winner. And he will work day and night to make things perfect. That motivates everyone around him."
The teams are run the way Penske runs his businesses: efficiently, with an eye for detail and a respect for everyone involved. He demands excellence and professionalism, and he makes everyone around him rise to that level.
His top rival in open-wheel racing is Chip Ganassi, who knows he's chasing Team Penske every weekend. He wouldn't have it any other way.
"Racing would not be where it is today without Roger Penske," Ganassi said. "He brings out the best in all of us owners because we know that we need to bring our A-game to beat him. When we do, you know you have accomplished something."
Castroneves on Sunday will be one of four Penske drivers trying to win for the boss in the 100th running of the race. The team won with Mears in the 75th running of Indy.
Sports on 05/27/2016