[h=2]In RACER Magazine: Built to Win[/h] Tuesday, 31 January 2017


Mark Glendenning / Images by Sam Cobb, LAT

Team Penske is IndyCar's high watermark for resources, organization and success. But what does that look like for those at the sharp end?

"The guy who puts in the most work gets the most results. The guy who is sitting back will get passed while he's waiting."
The roots of "The Penske Way" run deep: Roger Penske was still a hotshot sports car driver and Alcoa aluminum salesman when he defined his philosophy in Gilbert Rogin's masterful Sports Illustrated profile in 1964.


Many of the tenets that Penske laid out in that magazine piece more than a half century ago will sound familiar to anyone who's traced his exploits in racing since – the attention to detail, the meticulous preparation, the emphasis on image and presentation. (The story notes with some wonder that the 26-year-old Penske owns "25 suits and sports jackets.") Tying them all together is a blend of unyielding perfectionism and a fixation on winning.
In the decades since, Team Penske's won a lot. In the world of Indy car racing, it's long-established as the standard to which all other teams aspire, and the first obstacle that they must overcome to achieve success of their own. It's the kind of team that gets irritated about its 10-win 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season because its drivers finished 1-2-3-8, instead of 1-2-3-4. And in all likelihood, it will be just as strong in 2017.
"This team does such a good job in every respect now," says its 2014 IndyCar champ, Will Power. "I think it'll be really tough for any team to beat Penske next year."


But putting aside vague abstractions about resources and team culture, what does that "good job in every respect" actually look like for those on the ground? In a team with a large population of "lifers," former Andretti Autosport team manager Kyle Moyer became one of the relatively few to move from the outside into a senior role when he took on the role of Penske's competition director in 2015.


"The goal is the same – you're trying to win races – but it is a different culture in how you're able to go about it," he says. "Penske is on the cutting edge because it's had those [development programs] established for so long that it's able to stay a year or two ahead.
“Everybody has down years, but you look over the long-term and think, ‘How do they stay on top all of the time?’ And I think the answer is that from the top, starting with Roger, they’re always looking for the next thing to make them faster.”

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