NASCAR Cup Series

Roger Penske on track for first NASCAR title

Published Nov. 2, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Rick Hendrick. Joe Gibbs. Richard Childress.

They are the most successful team owners in NASCAR, collectively winning 18 Sprint Cup championships between them. One of them will win another title this year.

They are three of the most influential power brokers in the sport, building the best teams, attracting the most talented drivers, the smartest and most experienced crewmen and the biggest sponsors.

You can add Jack Roush to that list as well. Though in a slump, he has won two Sprint Cup titles and is one of the winningest car owners in the sport.

Those four elite team owners also have something else in common. They each have won championships in the Nationwide Series as well, giving them titles in each of NASCAR’s top series. Hendrick, Childress and Roush also have won Truck series championships.

There is one name noticeably absent from that list.

Roger Penske.

One of the most successful team owners in all of racing, Penske also is a motorsports giant. He has dominated IndyCar racing at times, winning the Indy 500 15 times and collecting 11 championships in Champ Car and the IndyCar Series.

In NASCAR, he has won 63 Cup races, including the Daytona 500 for the first time in 2008.

He has competed with some of the sport’s greatest drivers — Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman and currently Kurt Busch.

He has had some hugely successful seasons, winning 10 races with Wallace in 1993, eight in ’94 and eight with Newman in 2003.

But there is one thing missing from Penske’s sterling career: a NASCAR championship.

In 38 seasons — 20 full time — Penske has never won a NASCAR championship. Not in Cup and not in the Nationwide Series. The closest he has come is second- and third-place points finishes by Wallace in 1993 and ’94.

But Penske is on the verge of breaking that drought. Brad Keselowski is putting the finishes touches on the 2010 Nationwide Series title, and could clinch it this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

Though not the pinnacle of NASCAR success, it will be a significant achievement for Penske and possibly a step toward truly joining NASCAR’s elite team owners.

Penske has only dabbled in the Nationwide Series over the years, only running the full schedule in the past two seasons. That he can win a Nationwide title in only his second full season in the series is a significant accomplishment, proving that his NASCAR organization can indeed win a championship.

Penske has succeeded in perhaps the most important thing that it takes to win at NASCAR’s top levels — attracting and developing young, talented drivers.

Second-year driver Justin Allgaier won his first Nationwide race this year and Keselowski has dominated the series, winning six races and running away with the points race.

Penske lured Keselowski from JR Motorsports, signing him to drive for both his Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams.

Though he has struggled in his first full Sprint Cup season, Keselowski appears to have a bright future.

Winning the Nationwide Series title is a huge highlight on his resume.

Penske’s next big challenge is reaching the same level of success in the Cup series.

Since Wallace’s heyday in the early ’90s, Penske’s teams have struggled to be true contenders in the Sprint Cup Series. They have won races, but never been a serious threat to win the series title.

Newman appeared to be the answer when Penske moved him to Cup as a rookie in 2002. In just his second season, he took the series by storm, winning eight races and beating Jimmie Johnson for rookie of the year. He looked like the next Jeff Gordon, an honor now owned by Johnson.

But Newman’s surge with Penske quickly faded. He won just three more races over the next five seasons before leaving to join Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Penske appeared to have pulled off a coup in 2006 when he lured Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, from Roush Fenway Racing. Busch was brought in to replace the retiring Wallace and was expected to quickly deliver a championship to Penske Racing.

It hasn’t happened. Though Busch has won eight races with Penske and made the Chase three times, he has struggled as much as he has succeeded.

He has missed the Chase twice in his five years with the team and has never won more than two races in a season with Penske.

Except for Newman’s magical season in 2003, Penske has struggled to keep up with NASCAR’s elite teams in the past 10 years. His best points finish since 1998 was fourth last year with Busch.

Penske’s biggest problem has been producing more than one competitive team on a consistent basis. When Newman arrived, Wallace began to struggle and the two became bitter rivals.

Newman and Busch each won a race in the same season only once, their biggest highlight coming in a 1-2 finish in the 2008 Daytona 500.

Whether it is a lack of engineering, the right crew chiefs, depth, technology or some other reason, Penske has been unable to build a multicar team capable of consistently challenging NASCAR’s elite teams.

Sam Hornish Jr.’s struggles have been a mystery and perhaps the biggest black mark against the Penske organization. Hornish won three straight IndyCar titles for Penske, but has been a huge disappointment in NASCAR, finishing 35th and 28th in points in his first two seasons and currently running 28th again.

Penske currently has one competitive team — Busch’s No. 2 — and two teams that have struggled, despite having talented drivers.

Until Penske can produce more than one winning team and get Busch into serious championship contention, he won’t join the elite teams owned by Hendrick, Gibbs, Childress and Roush.

Winning his first Nationwide Series title, though, might be a step in the right direction.
 

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