DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Somehow, it just seems right that team owner Roger Penske won the 50th Daytona 500. The Captain, as he is known by almost everyone in racing, has always had a way of winning the big one—in Indy cars. This time, Penske finally got THE big one in stock car racing, adding it to 14 Indianapolis 500 victories. It was Ryan Newman who gave Penske the Daytona trophy he has coveted for so long, pushed to the win by teammate Kurt Busch as the two drove past hard-luck Tony Stewart on the final lap. “I know we did something special for The Captain, ” Busch said. “Roger never put extra pressure on us to win (Daytona). He does put an extra bonus in our contract if we do win it. “
NASCAR has not been as kind to the suave, silver-haired entrepreneur. Although the stock-car team, which Penske took full time in 1991, had 82 poles and 57 victories in 927 races heading into Sunday’s race at Daytona International Speedway, there were no victories at Daytona. Rusty Wallace, his biggest star over the years, won 10 races and finished second in the points in 1993, the closest Penske has come to a Cup title. Penske has been close to winning Daytona before. Bobby Allison was the runner-up in a Penske car in 1975 and Newman finished third in 2006. But this victory came as a surprise. Nobody gave Penske’s Dodges, which hadn’t shown any speed, much of a chance. There’s been nothing different about the Penske’s team’s approach in NASCAR this season. Attention to detail has always been the watchword of Penske Racing, right from the days when old-timers in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage laughed at the crewcut kids in the spotless uniforms who kept the floors clean enough to eat off of. Penske arrived in Indy in 1969, stopping the laughter in 1972 when Mark Donohue—like Newman an engineering graduate—gave Penske his first Indy win.
In an interview a year ago, after his team fell short at Daytona, the now 70-year-old Penske said, “My commitment is the same. I wouldn’t go racing if I didn’t want to be competitive and win overall. I’ve been to enough races, I’ve won a lot of races, a lot of poles and championships. I’m fully committed to this. ” That commitment paid off big on Sunday.
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