What do you possibly get the man who owns the world?
In the case of Team Penske, undisputed captain of the motorsports world at large, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano simply wanted to deliver Roger Penske more.
More success | More wins | More championships
And in a season that has already been so successful for Mr. Penske, they delivered to give him something he has never had — a 1-2 Cup Series championship finish.
That’s in addition to his 20th Indianapolis 500 victory, in back-to-back fashion with Josef Newgarden. There were championships in both WEC and IMSA as the Porsche factory team in addition to the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Penske won 21 races with 14 different drivers across four sanctioning bodies in three disciplines. This was also his third straight Cup championship between Logano and Blaney.
“Well, I guess you’d have to say it’s probably, if not the best, one of the best,” Penske said, ranking his seasons in racing “I think that obviously not to win the IndyCar championship, which of course it’s where we all start and build our first racing team, was disappointing.
“But it’s one of those things that you have to give Chip Ganassi (Racing) credit. He continues to put up great numbers with his guys too.”
Blaney, earlier in the week, expressed a strong desire to deliver for Penske, not out of selfish satisfaction, but because he wanted to give back to the man that’s given him so much.
“I’ve always thought internally to myself, I sit around, ‘how do you make Roger proud’ and that has been my only goal in my racing for the last 12 years,” Blaney said. “It’s how do I make Roger proud because he’s given me my life really.
“Bluntly, at the end of the day, it’s win races and win championships, bring him things that he hasn’t done before. It’s a very small list of things that he hasn’t done in motorsports. We have a chance to do it for him.”
And even in coming up short in his selfish goal to win the championship, he did deliver something novel and new for Penske.
Logano feels less like he wants to deliver that for Penske and more like he must. It’s a mandate and the terms of his employment, 13 years running.
“We’re expected to win, and the culture is that, exactly, that we’re going to win and we’re going to do it in a professional way,” Logano said. “It doesn’t have to be said anymore.”
They call it Penske Perfect and everyone knows what that means.
“That’s our brand,” Logano said. “That’s what we are. So to be sitting here again celebrating together … It’s so cool to see everyone celebrating together. It gets more special every time because it’s the people that you work with for a long period of time. You grind it out every day together.
“And after working there for, whatever it’s been, 13 years or so now, you get a lot of relationships built up over that amount of time. So winning together means more than ever to me, which makes this championship one of the most special ones.”
So now, the obvious question is what else is there to give the man who owns the world?
Penske says it’s reciprocal.
“What I need to do is continue to push them because we’re not interested in sitting here and not having more success,” Penske said. “And I think that’s been a great thing for us, not only here in NASCAR racing but in all the other series because it rubs off.
“We talk about the 24 Hours of Daytona, that rubbed off on these guys. They’re always asking me how are we doing. And I think when you think about it, the number of people that we have that we touch every race in our company, and we have 74,000 people that tomorrow are going to be just climbing the walls with happiness because of the success.
“That’s what I’m in it for. It’s not another race. It is but it isn’t. It’s about being able to show our people and our partners what kind of company we are. So this certainly helps.”