MARTINSVILLE, Va.— When it comes to milestones, 6,000 starts in motorsports is remarkable—even for a team owner affectionately known as The Captain.
Throughout 18 different series across the world and a stable that has featured 109 different drivers, Roger Penske has amassed a prolific number of starts and finishes over the course of 58 years of racing.
At Martinsville Speedway, with NASCAR champions Joey Logano Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, Team Penske will meet the 6,000-mark start in the Cook Out 400 on Sunday.
“That’s a lot,” said Logano after qualifying sixth on Saturday. The senior Cup driver is third on the Penske list with 466 starts. “Isn’t it crazy to think that? I don’t know exactly how Roger feels about it. Part of me thinks that he would say, ‘Yeah, they’re just starts.’ But on the other hand, you got to look at it and say, ‘Wow, to be able to be around that long is an accomplishment, right?
“To be able to be around long enough to have 6,000 starts in different forms of Motorsports. That’s a lot of work.’ I’m pretty sure Roger cares a lot more about wins than he does this stat, but it’s still an impressive one.”
Over nearly six decades, Team Penske has amassed 44 national titles, 626 wins and 687 poles.
Brad Keselowski tops Penske’s list of racers with 587 starts between the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series. Keselowski was also the first of The Captain’s competitors to deliver a NASCAR title with the 2010 Xfinity Series championship. Keselowski backed up his first accomplishment with the Cup Series title two years later.
Over 12 seasons, Keselowski scored 34 of Penske’s139 Cup wins. He also had a hand in recruiting Logano, who added the 2018 and 2022 Cup titles to the Captain’s collection along with 32 wins, including the 2015 Daytona 500.
While Blaney was a bit of late bloomer, the 30-year-old third-generation racer won the Cup championship last fall after joining the organization in 2012.
“It’s unbelievable,” Blaney said of the achievement. “It shows you how dedicated he’s been for decades and decades and not just NASCAR. IndyCar, SportsCar, a little bit of F1. It just shows what a titan of motorsports in general that he is. It’s awesome to race for a person like that—add to his team’s history, continue to grow those starts and wins and championships for someone like that.
“That’s all we can do for him. Try to be successful on the racetrack because he’s given us so much.”
Blaney scored Penske’s 10th Martinsville win in the fall to advance to the NASCAR Cup Championship 4. The organization’s first win at the half-mile paper clip-shaped oval came in 1993 with Rusty Wallace. After Penske’s limited run in NASCAR in the 1970s, Wallace returned to the organization and sowed the seeds for the powerhouse it has become. Wallace is responsible for the second-most starts (497) and leads all Penske Cup drivers with 37 wins.
Helio Castroneves ranks fourth on the driver start list and has participated in IndyCar, American Le Mans, Grand Am and IMSA for Penske. Castroneves earned three of Penske’s 19 Indianapolis 500s. Penske still competes in IMSA, Cup, World Endurance Championship and IndyCar—where he’s six titles in the last 18 years.
Austin Cindric, the most recent addition to the Penske NASCAR fold, won the 2020 Xfinity Series title and the 2022 Daytona 500 in his rookie Cup season.
Blaney qualified ninth on Saturday. He would love to add another grandfather clock to the Captain’s collection.
“I’m happy that people are noticing it,” Blaney said. “6,000 starts is a big deal. It just shows his dedication to the sport of racing, of motor racing, and how much he loves it. He loves it just as much now as he did on day one, I’m sure. We see it every single week. I hear it in his voice when he calls me through the week.
“It’s amazing how locked in he is. He wants to win just as badly as he ever has. We are busting our tails to try to make that happen for him.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
