Roger Penske wins Bathurst 1000 for first time in career

By Oct 13, 2019, 5:45 PM EDT
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Roger Penske’s checklist is nearly complete. The most successful team owner in auto racing history checked another one off the list with a victory in Sunday’s famed Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia.

The 82-year-old team owner’s two-driver entry of Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat won the Bathurst 1000 on the same day Penske’s No. 6 Acura Team Penske entry won the WeatherTech SportsCar championship in the DPi category in the Motul Petit Le Mans.

Although the Bathurst 1000 was run on Sunday, because of the International Date Line, it started with two hours remaining in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans at Michelin Speedway at Road Atlanta. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 1999 CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron are the championship drivers for Acura Team Penske.

This year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Simon Pagenaud, was the team’s third driver this weekend at Michelin Speedway.

Penske attended the Bathurst 1000 with his DJR Team Penske operation and saw McLaughlin and Premat win the famed endurance race in a single-lap dash. This came after Andre Haimgartner crashed his Nissan with three laps to go to bring out the eighth and final caution period.

The 26-year-old McLaughlin, who also won the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship, drove his Ford Mustang to a 0.68-second victory over Shane van Gisbergen’s Holden Commodore.

“It’s one off our bucket list now,” Penske said. “What a champion.

“He’s got the momentum within the team, and he’s lifted the whole place up. I’ve said it a lot this week, he reminds me of Rick Mears, who won the Indy 500 four times. He could always lift the team.”

Penske’s checklist is quite impressive. His cars have won the Indianapolis 500 a record 18 times, including Pagenaud’s win on May 26. Team Penske also has a record 16 IndyCar “National Championships,” won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Championship with Brad Keselowski and the 2018 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Championship with Joey Logano. Penske drivers also have two Daytona 500 wins with Ryan Newman in 2008 and Logano in 2015.

Penske’s cars and drivers have won more than 500 races counting all series the team has competed in since its inception in 1966. Those include such series as Formula One, Can-Am and Trans-Am in addition to IndyCar, NASCAR, ALMS, IMSA and Virgin Australia SuperCars.

It was McLaughlin’s first Bathurst 1000 win.

“I can’t believe I won the bloody Bathurst 1000,” McLaughlin said. “We had such a good car all week. We put so much pressure on all week.”

It’s already been an incredible year for Penske.

Pagenaud won the 103rd Indianapolis 500 on May 26. Josef Newgarden won the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series championship with four wins and seven podiums (top three finishes) and two poles in a remarkably consistent season. His Acura Team Penske IMSA team won the DPi championship with Montoya and Cameron and all three of his NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series drivers including Keselowski, Logano and Ryan Blaney remain in contention for the 2019 NASCAR Cup title.

It was also the first Bathurst 1000 victory in 25 years for team co-owner Dick Johnson of Australia.

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”