The list of accomplishments and accolades that Team Penske has amassed over its five decades of competition are significant. No team has won more Verizon IndyCar Series races, championships or Indianapolis 500 crowns. The organization boasts NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series championships, a Daytona 500 victory and even one win in Formula 1 competition.
In 2014, Team Penske was able to add another accolade to its resume.
When Will Power crossed the finish line in the ninth position at Auto Club Speedway in August to secure his first Verizon IndyCar Series title – the 13th for Team Penske – he gave the state of North Carolina the first open-wheel championship by a team based within its borders, adding another trophy to Mooresville, N.C., a city aptly named “Race City, USA.” In honor of that feat, Power and Team Penske were given a key to the city and a proclamation Nov. 17 from the Mooresville City Council.
“I know that I speak for everyone when I say that we are proud to represent this area when we are competing,” said Power. “It’s really become a great home for us. When you think of this area the first thing that comes to your mind is NASCAR. That will never change but we hope that it’s also known that there is a bloody good Verizon IndyCar Series team here, too.”
North Carolina, specifically the Charlotte/Lake Norman region, is NASCAR country. Most of the premier teams in stock car racing call this area home. The mirror image of that in INDYCAR is Indianapolis. Few teams competing in the Verizon IndyCar Series reside outside of the Hoosier state. Team Penske has never been based in Indiana. For years the team was headquartered in Redding, Pa. However, upon completion of its 400,000-square-foot facility in Mooresville, the organization moved all of its racing operations under one roof in 2007.
The move was made to promote and foster cross-pollination among the teams, using its significant engineering resources. In that span, Team Penske has re-emerged as a leading organization in American motorsports, narrowly missing out on winning a unique “triple crown” in 2014 by winning the Verizon IndyCar Series title and the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship before finishing fourth in the NSCS standings after setting an organizational record with 11 series wins.