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Roger Penske

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (February 20, 1937- )
    Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio
    Formula One and NASCAR driver (1958-65)
    Founded Team Penske (1965)
    Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1995) and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1998)
    Founded Penske Corporation (1969)
    Owns over 150 auto dealerships in the US, 100 overseas
    Bought Hertz’s truck rental division (1985)
    Net worth estimated at $1.95 billion (2015)

Why he might be annoying:

    His nickname is ‘the Captain.’
    Despite Team Penske’s later success in the Indy 500, he never competed there as a driver.
    He and three other businessmen -- Peter Karmanos or CompuServ, Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans and Jim Nicholson of PVS Chemicals -- arranged a secret $240,000 loan to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to persuade Kilpatrick to leave office (2008).
    His sons Jay and Mark were arrested for breaking and entering at the Newport Yacht Club (2012).
    His race team was put on probation by NASCAR for allegedly colluding with Front Row Motorsports to help driver Joey Logano qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup (2013).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He began restoring and selling cars as a teenager.
    He is the most successful team owner in Indianapolis 500 history, with 16 victories (through 2015).
    Helio Castroneves’s explanation for Penske’s success: ‘He has the talent to find people and put them in the right place and at the right time.’
    He lost a kidney during a bout with bladder cancer (2005).
    He is so committed to customer satisfaction that he once loaded fuel injectors onto his private Gulfstream jet and personally delivered them to Stuttgart, Germany, in order to make a deadline.
    He donated millions of dollars to Detroit to replenish the vehicle fleets of its police and fire departments.
    Through Penske Corporation, he has donated trucks to various international disaster relief efforts.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 14 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 47 Votes: 55.32% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 97 Votes: 57.73% Annoying