CUP: Is This A Title Year – Finally

Sprint Cup

CUP: Is This A Title Year – Finally – For Penske?

Motorsports magnate Roger Penske has dominated across the spectrum of auto racing but is still seeking first Sprint Cup title…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 26, 2012 Concord, NC

Team owner Roger Penske (Pictured) will field two full-time Sprint Cup teams in 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)

Roger Penske, one of the best-known names in all of international motorsports, has been on the high ground in virtually every aspect of sport and business that he has addressed.

There’s a big exception, however. The man they call the Captain is still looking for his first Sprint Cup championship.

It’s an odd resume hole in one of the most accomplished careers in the history of modern motorsports.

And it could be disappearing soon.

Penske Racing figures to be in the mix for a run at the title this season with the continued progress of lead driver Brad Keselowski, who won three races and finished fifth in points last season. And the team also has high hopes for new driver AJ Allmendinger, the replacement for Kurt Busch.

“I’ve always said I’ve wanted to sit up on that stage at the end of the year,” Penske said Thursday. “It’s a goal. We’ve been close a couple of times with Rusty (former driver Rusty Wallace).

“This past year I felt real good until we got wrecked (Keselowski) at Martinsville. We have work to do. We have tremendous competition out there when you look at Hendrick and Roush and Gibbs and Childress. These guys are pros. We have to fight them.

“I think the progress we made in 2011 – hopefully, we can carry that over to 2012 and maybe get there at the end.”

Penske said he has the ideal pairing in Keselowski and Allmendinger, two drivers who should be approaching the “money” years of their careers.

“We have two great young drivers with great sponsors,” he said. “We had a great test at Daytona and at Nashville last week. The thing AJ has said from the beginning is that he has a lot of respect for Brad. These guys are coming up in their careers. And they’re better as a team than they are separately.”

Penske talked extensively for the first time about his breakup with Kurt Busch, who had yet another controversial season in 2011 and moved on to Phoenix Racing for this year.

“He’s one of the very best drivers,” Penske said of Busch. “I think he felt that we weren’t delivering everything he wanted. There had been some issues – obviously, the unfortunate situation that took place at Homestead (Busch’s ugly encounter with an ESPN reporter).

“I think at the end of the day we just looked each other in the eye and said, ‘Why don’t we go our separate ways?’ It was done amicably. There were no lawyers. We shook hands and said I’ll go my way and you go yours. In fact, I sent him a letter the other day and said I’m looking forward to shaking his hand when I see him in Daytona.

“He’s a friend of mine. He did a great job for us. I’m not looking back. I’m looking forward.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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