DETROIT (AP) — For Roger Penske, this weekend offers something of a rarity — a chance to accomplish something he’s never done before.
Penske has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Brickyard, in stark contrast to his 16 Indy 500 victories.
“We’ve been close — been second a number of times — but never was able to get across the stripe at Indy with NASCAR,” Penske said. “We did it in Nationwide. Winning the Indy 500 there this year and also the Daytona, this would be a real Triple Crown for us.”
With the Brickyard 400 coming up Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Penske was in downtown Detroit on Thursday night for a ceremony as one of the inductees to the Automotive Hall of Fame. Also inducted were former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, Tata Sons founder Ratan Tata, and Elwood Haynes, co-founder of the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company.
It’s been another eventful year for Penske, the winning owner at the Indy 500 with driver Juan Pablo Montoya and the Daytona 500 with Joey Logano. Montoya leads the IndyCar standings by 42 points.
Maybe this will be the weekend Penske breaks through with a Cup victory at the Brickyard.
“Rusty Wallace had a couple times that he was close. The competition is so tough there,” Penske said. “Now with the new rules package coming up this weekend, we’re not sure what’s going to happen. Is it going to be horsepower? Is it going to be handling? Is it going to be aerodynamics?”
NASCAR will try a package with higher drag this weekend in an effort to improve passing opportunities at Indianapolis, and the package at Michigan next month will be similar. A track-specific package used in the July 11 race at Kentucky went over well, and a similar package will be used at Darlington.