Q&A with Indy 500 Pace Car Driver Roger Penske

Roger Penske (L)

MODERATOR: Good morning. I'm Jim Brumfield with Chevy Racing Communications. I would like to thank everybody for being here this morning for our media opportunity and a photo opportunity with our Pace Car driver, Roger Penske.

Like the Indy 500, Mr. Penske, too, is celebrating a milestone this year. This is his 50th year as a team owner in motorsports. And his list of accomplishments, I could be here all morning, but I think the most pertinent one for this day is that his teams have won this race a record 16 times including a year ago with Juan Pablo Montoya.

To pace this year's Indy 500, Mr. Penske will be driving a 2017 Camaro SS, 50th Anniversary Edition. It's the ninth time the a Camaro has paced the field, 27th time for Chevrolet since 1948. Mr. Penske, welcome.

ROGER PENSKE: Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you for driving the car tomorrow.

PENSKE: Well, obviously it was a real honor and thrill when I received the communication, would I be interested in driving it. I guess I could have given that answer before they even sent me anything. But, you know, Camaro goes back when I think about racing, our first car was a Corvette that we raced at Daytona in '66 but the real success we had in our team was in '67 and '68 when we raced the Camaros in the Trans Am and won that series. So it's a special car for us. And when I think about the Z28s and how this brand has been able to elevate itself, you know, within the motor business, certainly from a consumer standpoint. And from a performance perspective, it's just amazing. Driving the car around the track — it's a vehicle that came off the assembly line. It's not a special car that was made just strictly for the pacing of the race.

So it's a real honor. To me it just shows today what GM and Chevrolet have been able to do to build cars for the highway. We just don't realize that. A lot of that has come from what they learned in the competitive market from the standpoint of racing and what they're doing.

MODERATOR: We've got the car out side. We'll have photos in a moment. We have time for questions. Judy Dominic is here with a microphone. Please state your name and affiliation, if you will.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Q: Roger, you had a pretty good career as a race driver yourself. Have you ever driven an IndyCar? And did you ever have a desire to race here in an IndyCar yourself?

PENSKE: Well, I had a desire to race, I guess, when I was offered the chance to take my test back in the mid '60s. But I had a job and my boss wouldn't let me off for a couple of weeks in those days. And ironically, if you know the whole story, you know, in February '65, I became a Chevrolet dealer. And part of the deal with Chevrolet was that I wouldn't race. Because they didn't want to have a dealer being a racer. So I think Jim Rathman was in the same boat. He was in Florida, had retired.

So I really haven't been in a race car — I guess I was in the SS, the best race car I've had that I drove here the last couple of days, so I have not.

But I think my direction was the right direction. Of course, Andretti took his test, you've seen it and probably read about it. He's been very successful as a driver. Both of us on that decision, I think, went in the right direction.

Q: Roger, how did you do in your test, refresher course? I know it came back to you very quickly, obviously. This year I mean just the magnitude of the race on Sunday, your 50th anniversary in motorsports as a team owner, it couldn't get any better, could it?

PENSKE: The first thing I did was pass the physical. At my age that was probably the biggest thing. I was worried, am I going to pass this physical when I went in there. But flying colors. Even the doctor — I could read the letters easier than he could, so I knew I was in pretty good shape. I had to get Helio to tell me what I see here — no, I'm just kidding you.

No, on a serious note, it's interesting to think about going around here at 100 or 110 miles an hour in a production car and think that the drivers are competing and qualifying at 130 miles an hour faster than that is amazing. As you come down the straightaway, it's narrow. It's not a big track like day Daytona or Michigan or places like that. It's a narrow track and it's flat. When you don't drive fast — if you drive fast in Michigan, you get a ticket. But in Indianapolis, you can go as fast as you want. It was a lot of fun and Johnny Rutherford took me around and gave me the parameters of what I have to do on Race Day.

What I will do is we'll pace the race. I'll come in the pits as they take the green flag and I'll stop at the garage opening, jump out. Johnny will jump in and I'll go down to the pit box and hopefully work with Helio to get his fourth win. So we've got a little work to do.

Q: Roger, looking at tomorrow's race, the drivers think it's going to be pretty hairy and pretty wild. As a team owner, you've got four cars in this race. Is this something where you're going to consider diverging your pit strategies among your four teams to try to better your chances?

PENSKE: Well, I think that racing today, it's just like a 24-hour race, it seems like it's a sprint race the whole way. I think that track position is going to be so important all day long. You just can't be in the back and expect to win. So we're going to run hard. Each of our four cars has a great strategist with them. So I think that once the green flag drops, you know, we're running individual cars to try to win the race.

Now, we communicate, we have an intercom system between the four cars. So if one is coming in or we need to support the other one on a pit stop or getting an idea so we don't come in on top of each other, we'll be doing that.

But otherwise it's going to be flat out. I think that it's going to be hard to pass. It's hard to tell until you're really in the race who's got the speed and who doesn't. I think that, you know, it's going to be the consistency of the cars that make the difference because — how hot is it going to be? It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow than it's been any day since we've been running. I think yesterday was a good day. See, the cars are going to race the fast cars, 217, -18, -19, 220 maybe out front in a draft, they can run 221, 222, if you get a big lap if you get a big draft. But it's going to be pretty much packed there and not easy to pass. You're going to have to be able to get your car to run low. You're not going to be able to pass if you're just running in the middle of the track. So our guys have been working on getting that car to be down where they can run under the white line. So we'll see what happens.

Q: Hi. Number one, congratulations on 50 years. It's amazing.

PENSKE: Thank you.

Q: You've been such an asset to racing. Now the question: What does a 100th race mean to you personally?

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]PENSKE: Well, you know, to me, people race all over the world and when you think about what's the greatest race, there's no question that the Indianapolis 500 is the greatest race. And to think about a spectacle that has had a hundred years of history and the history of this race, there's a story every single year, some good, some not good. But it is the Hulman family has taken this event to where it is today and ironically, you know, this year in 2016 we have the 100th race. And just to show you the momentum and the interest, think about they've sold out this stadium with over 350,000 people attending, it's amazing. And for me personally, having come here in 1951, a number of years ago and each decade to see the change in the track, the equipment, the number of people, just what I saw yesterday in the last practice in the pit stops, we haven't seen that many people since probably the '90s.

So the 100th will certainly be the pinnacle of this event. And I think the momentum, which is great, will carry through to the future because lots of young people — what I like the most is the fathers that are bringing their kids here and I signed a bunch of autographs and always ask, "How old are you?" And they say, "Well, I'm 12 or 13." I say, "Guess what? I came here when I was 14. Now I've got a chance to be in the race."

So for me, it's a long history. It's been a circuitous route for me to get here. But my success here is not my own, it's because of everybody else who's been involved in the team. As we go into the race tomorrow, we'll have over 600 years of experience around those four cars. So if we can compete, we want a fair, clean race. Someone will be the winner, I hope it's us. But I would say this: That to say you competed here, one of the teams to beat on the 100th, goes down in history for our company.

MODERATOR: We've got time for a couple more.

Q: Roger, can you give us a little more detail on the pace laps? Is the SS a manual? What speeds are you running?

PENSKE: No, it's an automatic. Obviously you can shift into lower gear if you want to, but we're running in drive. We'll start out at about 45 miles an hour and then the last lap will be over 100, probably 105 to 110. I'll go down the back straightaway maybe 130 just to pull away from the field and then come in the pits, turn the lights off, and they'll be on their way.

So you build the speed up. It's four laps, so you build the speed up. We'll be behind the parade cars for the first lap and then we'll start picking up the speed after that. And I'll have a headset on and they'll give me the pickup speed to a certain amount. But I'm thinking it's 65, 75, 85, 90, and then 100 will be kind of the speeds we'll do before we take the green.

Q: Roger, how surprised/impressed have you been with Simon's development in the No. 22 team this year? How much better prepared are they coming to this year's Indy 500 compared to last year?

PENSKE: Obviously he's a hot hand right now and he's shown how good he is. That's the reason we hired him a year ago. I think he wasn't as happy with his performance in 2015. This is a different race. This race is wide open. It's a long-distance race. It's four different corners, lots of strategy. Certainly executing in the pits, you saw how good he was last year and bumped into a back marker when he was trying to make a pass there. So I think he's going to have a great chance. He's certainly excited.

John Menard coming on board is probably one of the great things of the month for us because John has spent a lot of time and a lot of money here over the years. This is great to see his car in the Winner Circle at the Angie's road race here a couple of weeks ago. I think he's on his way to a championship. We've just got to continue to stay focused.

Q: Roger, have any of your four drivers given you any advice on the Pace Car or, indeed either of the two visiting V8 Supercar drivers?

PENSKE: I get a lot of advice from those guys, as you would expect. (Laughter)

I would say the V8 guys have been pretty excited about being here and see the place and the event. No, I told them that I'm just going to try to do my best, keep it off the wall for four laps. They have to do it for 200 laps. But no, they're — they shouldn't be worried about me. I'll try to do my best. They need to worry about the race.

MODERATOR: Roger, thank you. Continued success to you. The car is right outside the doors here. We have a chance for a photo op. Thank you.