After a half century of winning races, selling cars and leasing trucks, what’s next for Team Penske and the Penske Corp.?
With the corporation feeling comfortable in its niche, and with a sprawling empire and racing business giving company executives everything they can handle, don’t expect any significant expansion in the near term, said Walt Czarnecki, Penske Corp. executive vice president.
“In the near to midterm, we’re going to stay focused on the businesses in which we [already] find ourselves, and become more and more confined to those businesses,” Czarnecki said, noting that includes the highway transportation, retail automobile, heavy duty truck and performance industries. “We’re already clearly a global player in Western Europe, Australia and the U.S. So I don’t think you’re going to see us getting involved in the next retail website or IT technology; we’re going to stay close to our knitting. …
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Team Penske has reached into Australia with V8 Supercars.
Photo by: DJR / Team Penske
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“From the race-team side, we’re pretty well-structured right now,” said Czarnecki, who has been with the corporation for more than 40 years. “We have a lot to do with NASCAR, IndyCar and V8 Supercar, so I see us remaining focused on those three series.”
Team Penske competes in NASCAR, IndyCar and V8 Supercar across two continents, while parent company Penske Corp. does automotive business on four continents, with the newest move being this month’s announcement that Penske Automotive Group had bought half of Japan’s Nicole Group, a luxury dealership group with operations in Tokyo and Kanagawa, Japan. Penske Corp. has found traction in Australia, where Team Penske competes in V8 Supercars and the corporation now generates $1 billion in annual revenue.
Across all three types of racing, Team Penske has long-term sponsorships in place, including a deal with Shell-Pennzoil through 2018 and one with MillerCoors through 2017, with an option through 2018.
Jonathan Gibson, vice president of marketing and communications for Team Penske, said the stability from sponsorships, mixed with the selective way Team Penske picks its personnel, has the organization feeling bullish on the future.
“I feel like we’re positioned very well for the long-term future when you think about our drivers, crew chiefs, executives,” Gibson said. “We feel really good about the future we have.”
On the racing front, adding a third car in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, returning to sports car racing, in which Roger Penske has a storied history, and joining the upstart Red Bull Global Rallycross series are among the most strongly rumored areas for Team Penske to expand to in the coming years.
In NASCAR, Team Penske is grooming Ryan Blaney, son of longtime driver Dave Blaney, through an alliance with Wood Brothers Racing, for which Blaney currently competes. The plan is to move Blaney up to Team Penske eventually, Gibson said.
As far as sports car racing, Scott Atherton, president and chief operating officer of IMSA, said that while there is no active pursuit of Team Penske to join the series, which was formerly the American Le Mans Series that Team Penske won three consecutive years from 2006-08, “I think there is mutual interest.”
Atherton said IMSA is developing a global prototype that would allow teams to compete across multiple series around the world, which is a requirement of Team Penske’s to return to sports car racing, so the stars are seemingly starting to align.
“I think there is a moon, sun and star alignment occurring that would suggest that the raw materials would be in place to put Team Penske back into top-tier, WeatherTech, championship sports car racing with an overall win relationship with some manufacturer in the not distant future,” Atherton said. “Now, there’s no speculation that can be added to that.”
For his part, Red Bull Global Rallycross CEO Colin Dyne has a close relationship with Team Penske President Tim Cindric, whose son Austin competes in Global Rallycross. Dyne said he has spoken with Cindric about Team Penske entering the series.
“I think they like what they see — they definitely like what they see,” Dyne said. “I think it’ll come down to: If the right manufacturer approached Team Penske to go into Global Rallycross, I think Team Penske would come into the series.”
