Team Penske Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Roger Penske's First Indy 500 Victory

This Friday, will not only be the traditional Carb Day in preparation for Sunday’s 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it will also mark yet another legendary milestone for Team Penske.

Friday commemorates the 50th anniversary of Team Penske’s first win in the Indianapolis 500, with Mark Donohue behind the wheel. It would be the first of 18 wins in the Greatest Spectacle In Racing for team owner Roger Penske.

“It's really cool to see it go through from that point in time,” Team Penske president Tim Cindric said. “I've been part of I guess eight of Roger's 18 victories. I think the most exciting one is always the next one for him, so looking forward to getting more for him.”

How many more times does Penske want to win at Indy? He kind of gave a hint about that to Cindric when they won their first Indy 500 together in 2001, which coincidentally was Helio Castroneves’ first of four wins in the Memorial Day classic.

“I'll never forget in victory lane, the first time we won (the 500) together back in 2001, I said (to Penske), ‘Wow, this is 11 for you, but it's a big deal for me," Cindric said.

But for Penske, he was just getting warmed up, Cindric said, noting what his boss said immediately afterward, “And (Roger) says, I want 20” wins (in the 500).

“I said, ‘Okay, so he put it right in perspective right then, that it just wasn't enough.’”

This past weekend also marked a homecoming of sorts for several individuals associated with Donohue or the 1972 winning team who returned to Indianapolis, including Mark Donohue’s sons, David and Michael, as well as three other key members of that team: master mechanic Karl Kainhofer, Don Cox and Woody Woodward.

“The interesting thing is my dad helped build an engine that Roger qualified with in Donahue's car back in '72,” Cindric said of his father, Carl.

Sadly, Donohue’s win at Indy was his third and final Indy car victory driving for Penske (he also won a NASCAR race driving for Penske in 1973), as he died from injuries suffered in a crash during practice for the 1975 Formula One Austrian Grand Prix.

Penske’s most recent wins in the 500 came in 2018 with Will Power and then went back-to-back in 2019 with Simon Pagenaud. And even though he no longer races for Team Penske after nearly a 20-year run, last year’s Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves, won his