With 16 Indianapolis 500 victories, nearly 180 wins in the Indycar series as well as successful spells in Nascar and Formula One, it’s easy to understand why Roger Penske has gone on to become such a respected figure in the world of American Motor Sport, and in today’s update we will be taking a look at a team where for one man perfection is just not quite good enough.

Growing up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Penske’s first passion came not in the world of motor-sport but rather in the world of business. His father had been a prominent corporate executive for a metal fabrication company during the 1950s, and from a young age encouraged the younger Penske to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career as an entrepreneur. After graduating from Lehigh University with a business degree in 1959, Penske started up his first company purchasing old race cars, repairing at his family home in Cleveland before selling them on to customers for a considerable profit. With a vast array of old racing equipment at his disposal Penske soon began to dip his feet in the world of motor-sport, using his own machines to compete in Stock Car racing across the Northern States. In spite of early success however, conflicts between Penske’s racing and business interests began to come to the forefront; In 1965 he was forced to turn down a Rookie Test at Indianapolis, allowing a youngster called Mario Andretti to take his place, and at the end of the season the 28 year old decided to retire to focus instead on his first Chevrolet dealership.

Just one year after his retirement as a driver Penske made his foray as a team owner in 1966, participating in the Daytona 24 hour endurance event competing in his first Indy 500 event in 1969 with former Le Mans driver Mark Donohue piloting the car to a seventh place finish. Penske and Donohue would go on to the develop a prominent and successful working relationship, with the New Jersey native competing for the captain in multiple disciplines including Trans-Am, Nascar, Indycar and finally into Formula One. Tragically however Donohue was involved in an accident in practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix that would claim his life, an accident not only lost Penske a close friend but also proved to be the catalyst for the ceasing of his Formula One aspirations.

By the 1980’s Penske had focused his attentions strictly to Indycar and Nascar, but whilst it would take until 2012 for Penske to claim a drivers championship in the South his Indycar team had established itself as one of the most formidable outfits in the sport, developing a reputation for meticulous attention to detail and perfection that still exists within the company to this day. Added to this attention to detail was Penske’s ability to seek out talented youngsters for his outfit from an early stage, with the likes of Rick Mears, Tom Sneva, Danny Sullivan and Helio Castroneves all being plucked from relative obscurity before being honed into Indy 500 legends. In 1994 the team enjoyed one of it’s most successful seasons, with it’s driving trio of Al Unser Jr, Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy occupying the top three slots in the championship, winning 12 of the 16 races during the season including that season’s Indy 500 in one of the most dominant displays ever seen at the Brickyard (one we will look at in more detail at a later date).

After a six year hiatus from the speedway as a result of the open wheel split, Penske returned to the Indy 500 in 2001 with the Brazilian duo of Helio Castroneves and Gil De Ferran behind the wheel. Despite starting the race in the middle of the field Penske used his advanced race-craft and pit strategy to gain an edge over his less experienced IRL rivals, with Castroneves leading home his veteran team-mate to a one-two finish in overcast conditions. The duo would continue their success at the Brickyard in the next two seasons, with Castroneves holding off Paul Tracy for a controversial win in 2002 before De Ferran claimed a long overdue win in what proved to be his final season before retirement. By the end of the decade further success would follow for Penske, with Sam Hornish Jr, claiming his sole 500 win in 2006 before Castroneves picked up a third win for the team in 2009.

Following a number of comparatively lean years at the Brickyard, the team returned to form in 2015 when Juan Pablo Montoya lead home team-mate Will Power to a one-two finish following a race dominated by the Captain’s four machines. It was the sixteenth win for Penske at the Speedway, and showed that even at the age of 79 there was no slowing the captain’s passion for success. Indycar has always had memorable and successful owners, but none come close to achieving anything near the success of Penske throughout the past 50 years, and come the 2016 500 it will be hard to look past the captain’s machines achieving a 17th 500 success.

For today’s video we have a 12 minute feature produced by Team Penske in celebration of their 50th year in business. Tom Brokaw provides the narration: