Roger Penske will pace the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in Indiana next month driving a 2017 Camaro SS 50th Anniversary Edition. It’s the ninth time Camaro has served as the pace car and the 27th time for Chevrolet, dating back to 1948.
The pace car announcement came days before Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: PAG) announced today record first quarter 2016 results. For the three months ended March 31, 2016, income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders increased 4.2% to $79.3 million, and related earnings per share increased 7.1% to $0.90 when compared to the same period last year.
At Indy, four identically prepared Camaro pace cars will support the race, all with “exclusive” Abalone White exteriors with “100th Running of the Indianapolis 500” graphics on the doors and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wing-and-wheel logo on the quarter panels. They also incorporate the exterior cues and graphics that are unique to the Camaro 50th Anniversary package that goes on sale this summer.
With 455 horsepower, the Camaro SS pace cars require no performance modifications to head the racing field.
For 2016 edition at the Brickyard, Chevrolet drivers will be looking to build on last year’s results when the top four finishers were buy klonopin online Chevy-powered, led by the race-winning Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya. It was his second Indy 500 victory and the 16th for Team Penske.
The record books show that no other racing team has recorded more wins at the Brickyard than Team Penske. The winning run began with driver Mark Donohue’s victory in 1972. Penske and Donohue linked six years earlier, when Penske stop driving to become a team owner (he finished in the Top Ten at two FI races and in NASCAR won at Riverside. They were competitive – to put it mildly – in SCCA’s Trans-Am Series, with Donohue driving an early Camaro Z/28 racecar, winning three of 12 races in 1967 and 10 of 13 in 1968.
The Indy 500 Years
Penske showed up at the Indy 500 for the first time in 1969, while still campaigning a Camaro in Trans-Am. Donohue was his driver for both series. Other famous racers followed – Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Rick Mears all drove for Penske. Mears won four Indianapolis 500 races when Team Penske was an Indy powerhouse in the 1980s. That legacy could strengthen gain this year when Roger Penske seeks his 17th Indy 500 title as a team owner.
