![]() "It's all about returning to what feels normal, what makes you feel like your life is back where you want it to be. "These are all steps in the right direction, steps toward opening up not just this place, but America," says the man who has won a record 18 Indy 500s as a team owner and will have four Team Penske cars in the field on Sunday (as the big boss, he won't be in the pits, but upstairs in race control). Under Penske's applied pressure, a compromise was reached. Weeks ago, it still looked as if there might be no fans for May. That number was reached because Penske and his team met with local and state health and government officials, again and again. Even limited to 40% capacity by local pandemic ordinances, the sellout crowd of 135,000 will be the largest gathering of human beings on Earth since the planet was closed in March 2020. Now, Penske will get to experience his first Indy 500 as the man in charge - in May - with fans. He was robbed of his first May Indy 500 last year by COVID-19, as the race was postponed to August and run without a single fan in the stands. This Sunday will be the 105th and Penske's first "real" 500 as the boss. That was the 35th running of the Indy 500. In fact, it was exactly 70 years ago this Sunday when he sat in the stands with his father and watched Lee Wallard's roadster roll into the winner's circle. That kid-turned-man is Roger Penske, the business titan and racing junkie who now owns and operates this place and this race that he has loved since that May Sunday 70 years ago. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this is a big place." "I thought I knew every inch of this place. "I have been coming here since I was 14," says the 84-year-old, who as he talks starts to sound 14 again. and the bathrooms where the men and women who build and dial in those cars go between practice laps and wrench turns. and in the offices and garage stalls where those cars are built and dialed-in. and every level of the 13-story pagoda that towers above it. Your products should be riding along at a much slower pace, on the wrist and counting the steps of the distinguished, starched-shirted gentleman who can be spotted endlessly walking the grandstands that surround that straightaway. And I don't mean slapping a sticker on any of the 33 race cars that will be roaring down the frontstretch at 230 mph. INDIANAPOLIS - Dear smart watch and pedometer manufacturers: I don't want to tell you how to run your business, but you're missing out on a sponsorship opportunity during Sunday's Indianapolis 500. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserįinally, Roger Penske gets first 'real' Indianapolis 500 as the man in charge
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