ROGER PENSKE

It was a challenging “Fast Friday” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with serious wind disrupting practice for the Indy 500.

Ross Chastain surged into the lead as he closed in on the checkered flag Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway to steal his second career Cup Series win.

It was quite the weekend in motorsports, which is typically the bit player on the massive stick-and-ball sporting landscape so eager for its own time in the spotlight.

Roger Penske met Josef Newgarden in victory lane with six crisp hundred dollar bills to gift the race winner. Newgarden used the nonexistent high line to pass Scott McLaughlin in the final turn Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and steal the IndyCar race his teammate had dominated. It was the 600th overall victory for Roger Penske across all of his platforms.

IndyCar’s long relationship with Texas Motor Speedway is at a crossroads headed into the 35th race at the track that has always embraced the open-wheel series.

Scott McLaughlin got his first IndyCar Series victory in the season-opening race through the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Austin Cindric followed up his Daytona 500 victory by earning his first career pole in the NASCAR Cup series Saturday at Auto Club Speedway during a tumultuous debut for the new practice and qualifying format at intermediate tracks. Cindric posted the fastest average lap speed in his Team Penske Ford at 174.647 mph, holding off Erik Jones (174.157 mph) and capping an eventful morning for NASCAR’s first practice and qualifying session on a 2-mile oval with its Next Gen cars. “There’s so much learning going on, and obviously it’s all happening really fast,” said the 23-year-old Cindric, who earned his first career Cup victory at Daytona.

Helio Castroneves considers the IndyCar opener in St. Petersburg among his favorite races.

Roger Penske picked up a third Daytona 500 win last weekend on his 85th birthday.

This was the first career Cup victory for the 23-year-old Cindric, who was promoted from the Xfinity Series.

Austin Cindric drove his brand new NASCAR ride to victory in the Daytona 500 on team owner Roger Penske’s 85th birthday.

Al Unser, one of only four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 a record four times, died Thursday following years of health issues.

Brad Keselowski is in the final two races of his NASCAR career with Team Penske and would love nothing more than to close his 12-year run with another Cup championship.

Ryan Blaney has wanted a leadership role at Team Penske.

The IndyCar Series speeds into its season finale at Sunday riding a myriad of gains that have America's top open-wheel series feeling confident about its future.

The IndyCar Series is feeling rather bullish as it heads into its final two races of the season.

Alex Palou earned the first pole of his IndyCar career and put himself in position to reclaim the championship lead headed into Sunday’s race at Portland International Raceway.

IndyCar will return to Iowa Speedway for a July doubleheader next season.

Josef Newgarden is the toast of Nashville.

Helio Castroneves might skip trying to scale the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge the way he climbs fences when he wins at other race tracks.

There was a special gathering in Indianapolis this week: Helio Castroneves, A.

Roush Fenway Racing is adding NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski as a new partner.

Matt DiBenedetto could be out of NASCAR Cup Series options for 2022 after losing his ride with Wood Brothers Racing.

Austin Cindric will replace Brad Keselowski in Team Penske’s flagship No. 2 Ford next season.

Josef Newgarden snapped his streak of late race misfortunes to win for the first time this season, earning the first IndyCar victory of the year for Team Penske on the same weekend the storied organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first win.

Justin Marks is a former race car driver who just bought a seat at the table with NASCAR's biggest powerbrokers.

Jeff Gordon will leave the Fox Sports booth for a daily role at Hendrick Motorsports as vice chairman.

Rinus VeeKay has been injured in a cycling accident and his status for IndyCar’s race at Road America this weekend is uncertain.

Helio Castroneves is trying to get back into the IndyCar Series fulltime.

The Indianapolis 500 has welcomed back 135,000 fans, the most at any sports event in the world since the pandemic began 18 months ago.

Helio Castroneves has joined the exclusive club of four-time Indianapolis 500 winners.

Scott Dixon was again atop the leaderboard for the final practice before the Indianapolis 500.

The Indianapolis 500 will open its gates to 135,000 spectators on Sunday for the largest sports event since the start of the pandemic.

NBC Sports is in the final year of its contract with IndyCar.

Will Power saved Roger Penske from embarrassment at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by locking his car into the Indianapolis 500 field.

Team Penske had an uncharacteristically slow first day of Indianapolis 500 qualifying and Will Power will have to avoid being bumped from the 33-car field when the lineup is finalized.

The three cars from Rahal Letterman Lanigan were idled or the first 30 minutes of Friday practice for the Indianapolis 500.

IndyCar has signed a contract extension with NTT at its title sponsor.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has died.

Tony Kanaan will make his IndyCar season debut this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where the series will race a doubleheader.

Brad Keselowski did it exactly right this time and finally got that last-lap victory, winning in overtime Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Colton Herta has rebounded from a first-lap crash in the IndyCar season opener to win the pole on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg.

Roger Penske doesn’t want a repeat of the Daytona 500, when teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski took each other out racing for the win on the final lap.

The infield's raucous "Snake Pit" will be closed and all the traditional concerts will not be held, including on Carb Day and Legends Day.

The infield's raucous "Snake Pit" will be closed and all the traditional concerts will not be held, including on Carb Day and Legends Day.

The Indianapolis 500 plans to host 135,000 spectators next month, which would make it the largest sporting event in the world since the pandemic.

FILE - Roger Penske looks over the track from the grandstand at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, in this Thursday, July 2, 2020, file photo. There will be fans at this year's Indianapolis 500, Penske said Monday, March 22, 2021, but how many remains a moving target based on pandemic restrictions. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer, File)A fully vaccinated Roger Penske is hard at work at Indianapolis Motor Speedway preparing for a full season of racing that will include spectators at his showcase event. There will be fans at this year's Indianapolis 500, Penske said Monday, but how many remains a moving target based on COVID-19 restrictions. Penske noted Monday that the positivity rate for COVID-19 for Marion County, where Indianapolis Motor Speedway is located, was 3.1%.

(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A truce has yet to be called in the Team Penske camp amid friction following the last lap Daytona 500 crash between teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. To me, the biggest heartbreak of this whole thing is that there are 400 people at Team Penske asking where their Daytona 500 bonus is and it’s up in a ball of flames up in turn three.”Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin bristled at Logano's deflection. The Daytona crash belied Roger Penske's edict that his drivers are permitted to race one another hard so long as they don't wreck. That’s a great problem to have.”It remains to be seen how Keselowski chooses to work with Logano going forward. Logano, also a Cup champion and the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, doesn't have the same job security concerns.

FILE - In this May 12, 2015, file photo, driver Simona de Silvestro, of Switzerland, watches during practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. Beth Paretta and Simona de Silvestro will be teaming up to put another woman on the Indianapolis 500 starting grid this May. She wants to send the first female driver to victory lane at the Indianapolis 500 with the support of a predominantly female cast. “It’s that idea if you find something that you love and you work hard at, maybe the result isn’t a race team but there’s somewhere you can fit. Now she's back with a five-time 500 starter, Simona de Silvestro, and some assistance from Team Penske, the most successful team in Indy history.

(AP Photo/Ralph Freso, File)AVONDALE, Ariz. – Denny Hamlin is 0-for-3 in championship chances, his shot at an elusive first NASCAR crown ending just short each time. Hamlin on Sunday will try to close his own career-defining season with the Cup title in NASCAR's season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Chase Elliott last week drove Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports back into the championship race for the first time since 2016. The 24-year-old is statistically enjoying his best Cup season and advanced to the final four after three previous failures. The last two times I’ve raced for championships I’ve had no regrets.”Hamlin turns 40 exactly 10 days after Sunday's title race and has matured greatly the last several seasons.

Newgarden won the season finale, using a spectacular two-car pass for the lead in a valiant effort to win a second consecutive title. Dixon has won two of the last three championships, a run interrupted last year when Newgarden won his second title. Newgarden tied Dixon with his series-best fourth win of the season but Newgarden was in too large of a hole to catch his rival. It came to a close in front of a sold-out 20,000 spectators, the largest crowd of the season for IndyCar. There was nothing Newgarden could do, even on a day he did everything he had to, to deny Dixon a sixth championship.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – IndyCar opened the second week of March giddy to finally start its season. The entire industry left St. Pete in March unsure how IndyCar could survive. Yet here IndyCar is, back on the St. Pete streets preparing to crown a champion in Sunday's season finale. Now this cruel 2020 season closes right back at St. Pete, the only street course to survive the schedule disruptions and where it all fell apart in March. Askew missed two races but returned for St. Pete, his final race in another unpopular firing by Arrow McLaren.

FILE - In this Friday, July 17, 2020, file photo, Scott Dixon gets ready for qualifying for an IndyCar Series auto race at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Scott Dixon has controlled IndyCar’s title race since the start of this disrupted start-and-stop season. The American has whittled 85 points off of Dixon's lead and turned Sunday's season finale into a championship-deciding event. “It was like 20,000 scenarios -- 1% of the scenarios means we can win the championship,” Newgarden said. “Had I not spun, I think it would have been a different scenario going into the last race,” Dixon said.

McLaughlin's pandemic-postponed IndyCar debut at last comes Sunday in the season finale at St. Petersburg, Florida. “I obviously never thought I’d get a chance this year due to the nature of the beast with COVID,” McLaughlin said Thursday before boarding yet another flight, this one headed to his first IndyCar race. It’s something that I’m just going to go in like a sponge, soak everything up, see what comes out of it. I’m pretty confident that I’m going to like the series, I’m going to like the cars, I’m going to like everything.”McLaughlin has accomplished all he can racing touring cars in Australia, where he's won 56 races, including last year's Bathurst 1000, and all those titles. He drives for Roger Penske in Supercars and in 2019 the boss asked McLaughlin if he was interested in driving an Indy car.

Without that charter, Marks had almost no chance to get his team on track in 2021. As NASCAR plans for the 2022 cost-cutting introduction of the “NextGen” new car, the demand for charters has soared. Denny Hamlin has also entered team ownership and explored several charter opportunities before he and Michael Jordan last month bought out Germain Racing. Hamlin, as Spire had done two years ago, studied the economics of NASCAR’s planned new car and determined team ownership will be more affordable in 2022. The NextGen car was supposed to debut next season but has been delayed a year by the pandemic.

Then a caution with two laps remaining at Charlotte Motor Speedway cluttered Elliott's clear path to the win and gave Keselowski an opening. Now Keselowski returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway for a Wednesday night race and a shot at consecutive victories. That was the situation we were put in.Both Keselowski and Busch could empathize with Elliott's heartbreak at Charlotte. Keselowski spoke with Elliott as the two switched spots in front of a laptop during the post-race Zoom media availability. But Elliott's team has been the most consistent late in races and Wednesday brings another chance for the driver to finally get his first win of the season.

His Hendrick Motorsports team bounced back with a competitive Chevrolet in the 600 that Elliott drove to the front late in the race. Theres no other choice.KESELOWSKI SHOWS HIS WORTHA Daytona 500 victory is the only crown jewel race Keselowski is missing on his resume. "I hope to continue to compete at a very high level and be able to win races for a long time. Weve got a race win at a major on a team thats really just starting to click together. I hope it does because this is my 30th win at the Cup level with Team Penske.

Keselowski extended Jimmie Johnson's losing streak to 102 races by holding off the seven-time NASCAR champion in overtime early Monday to win the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the NASCAR schedule. It was the first win for Keselowski this season, his first Coca-Cola 600 victory and the first win at this event for Ford since 2002. I wanted to win the 600 my whole life and wanted to win in front of everybody, Keselowski said. But almost two hours after the race, NASCAR disqualified Johnson because his Chevrolet failed post-race inspection. I was a lap-and-a-half away from winning the 600, Elliott said.

The most celebrated day in motorsports has been whittled down to the third course, 600 miles around Charlotte Motor Speedway in NASCAR's longest race of the year. What began as the World 600 in 1959 became the nightcap to a spectacular day of automobile racing treasured annually by fans. It means NASCAR is alone in the spotlight Sunday night, just as NASCAR has been for the last week. Were right there and James is doing an awesome job.BUSCH VS. ELLIOTTChase Elliott flipped Busch the bird after Busch wrecked Elliott racing for the win Wednesday night. Busch went on to finish second in a 1-2 with Hamlin for Joe Gibbs Racing; Elliott was 38th.

FILE - This May 26, 2019, file photo shows Simon Pagenaud, of France, celebrating after winning the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in Indianapolis. The Indy 500 has been rescheduled for Aug. 23, 2020, and won't be run on Memorial Day weekend as scheduled for the first time since its return in 1946. On Sunday, he'd chase a second straight Indianapolis 500 victory. Instead, he is spending the Memorial Day weekend quietly at home, far away from deafening engines and roaring crowds. Fans just might park around Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend and celebrate their annual traditions anyway.

"I'm comfortable sitting here today and declaring the automotive recovery is underway," AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said Monday during CNBC's "Squawk Box." AutoNation, the nation's largest new-vehicle retailer, reported a net loss of $232.3 million for the first quarter earlier in the day. Other publicly traded dealer groups such as Penske Automotive, Group 1 Automotive and Asbury Automotive all reported significant declines in earnings but managed to remain in the black. Penske Automotive Chairman and CEO Roger Penske, in a statement on April 25, said he was "optimistic about the remainder of the year." Penske Automotive furloughed approximately 15,000 people, or 57% of its worldwide workforce, and initiated pay cuts for executives.

For the fourth time in its 110-year history, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be changing owners. Hulman & Company is selling the race track other assets to Penske Entertainment Corp., owned by businessman Roger Penske. The deal includes the racing circuit, NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions. George said he approached Penske at the final race of the season to discuss "stewardship." Some of the improvements Penske mentioned are making the environment more fan-friendly, possibly adding 24-hour races or a Formula 1 race to help the Speedway.

Washington President Trump said he will go to the World Series in Washington on Sunday, assuming the Houston Astros survive that long. The Washington Nationals lead the Astros 2-0 in the seven-game series after taking the first two games on the road in Houston. President Trump speaks about attending the World Series as he departs the Oval Office on Thursday, October 24, 2019, in Washington. APThe hometown Nationals are appearing in the franchise's first World Series after dispensing with the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The president welcomed the Astros to the White House in 2018 to celebrate their World Series victory in 2017 when they defeated the New York Yankees to capture their first franchise title.

Mercedes-Benz's struggling city car brand is betting a move to China will keep it alive. When it was first brought to the U.S. in 2008 by dealership mogul Roger Penske, the smart car promised tiny, fuel-efficient transportation for young urban Americans. It was tiny: the only model sold in the U.S. had just two seats and very little trunk space. In 2019, Daimler partnered with Chinese automaker Geely to produce electric Smart cars at a factory in China. It will also give Daimler a chance to sell the Smart cars in China, the world's largest car market.