WHAT HAVING PENSKE IN CHARGE MEANS FOR INDYCAR
Two years ago, in the course of an interview before practice for the Indianapolis 500, Autosport asked Roger Penske somewhat facetiously if he had any plans for retirement. His reply confirmed what most of us had always suspected.
“They’ll have to carry me out of here in a box,” he said with a little smile. “[Retirement] is not something I even think about.”
Which is why, at the age of 82, he’s sealed the greatest deal of his life. Financially it may not be the biggest, but for a man steeped in Indycar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway history like Roger Searle Penske, this was the sweetest purchase imaginable. And it took just six weeks.
The Speedway’s long-time steward was the late Mari Hulman George – daughter of the wise, determined and ambitious Tony Hulman Jr, whose Hulman & Co brand bought the Speedway in 1945, but who died in 1977. Ever since becoming chairperson of IMS and Hulman & Co in 1988, Mari had seemed immovable on the matter of the track’s future: it would remain in the family forever.
But Mari’s death in
