New Holland Auto Group to be sold to Penske and Castroneves

Castroneves going into car business with Penskes

A legend of IndyCar racing and a current IndyCar driver are part of a group that will be buying New Holland Auto Group in Lancaster, PA.

Roger Penske, Helio Castroneves and Geoff Penske have formed a new limited-liability company to buy New Holland Auto Group, according to Geoff Class, president of the New Holland dealership.

Class said settlement for the transaction, which includes the real estate, is scheduled for Jan 19. He declined to give the sale price.

New Holland Auto Group consists of Scion and Toyota at 524 W. Main St. and Dodge, Chrysler, Ford, Jeep and Ram at 508 W. Main St. In addition to the two showrooms, New Holland Auto Group has a 50,000-square-foot service facility.

New Holland Auto Group sells about 4,200 vehicles a year and has around 220 employees.

Class said he didn’t expect there to be any major changes in the operations of the dealership under the new owners, with the name and employee count remaining the same.

Geoff Penske is the owner of Geoff Penske Buick GMC in Shillington and will take over operations of New Holland Auto Group. He did not return a message left for comment.

“Geoff Penske is I think the best suited person for this dealership. I have complete confidence in him taking over," Class said.

Geoff Penske is the nephew of Roger Penske, a former IndyCar racer who is owner of Team Penske, an auto racing team whose drivers include Castroneves.

Roger Penske is also chairman and CEO of Penske Automotive Group, a publicly-traded company that operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships.

The 67-year-old Class, who owns the business with Fred Beans, said he is selling the business now because he wants to retire.

New Holland Auto Group recently completed a $3.5 million expansion and renovation that redid two showrooms and added space for new vehicles. Chad Umber/LancasterOnline