Roger Penske and his white whale that is Le Mans

Call me Roger. 

No, this isn’t the start of an epic tale of a man and his white whale (if you recognize the nod to Moby Dick). This is more a look at a man and his mostly white-clad race car taking on, again, the chase to a prestigious trophy win and honors. 

Roger Penske is a name recognized worldwide — a name even his drivers have said may be the most recognized private-owner team. And there’s reason for it. Search “Roger Penske wins” or look at the long list of his ‘Team’s’ accomplishments on the well-known Team Penske site, and it’s a bit to scroll through. The critical mass of those wins and championships are mostly relegated to his NASCAR and IndyCar efforts in the US. The former driver-turned-team owner, though, has always had a special place for sports car racing.

Several decades later, he’s back to where it all began and earning the most significant career wins for a driver or team owner. Just this year alone the Porsche Penske Motorsport effort, part of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship series and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring — two notoriously brutal races in their own ways, challenging drivers for 36 hours in Florida in the “winter” months. The Rolex win earned Penske’s driver Nick Tandy his “Mr. 24” title. A win at Sebring — Tandy is now one of a handful of individuals to have earned the Endurance Crown (wins at the Rolex 24, Sebring, and Le Mans). 

Today, as it stands, Porsche Penske’s IMSA team is leading 1-2 in the championship points for the season and the #7 (#4 at Le Mans) car, and its drivers, remain on a hot streak towards a never-before accomplished feat. The closest ever to reach it was Ken Miles, and you know how that ends if you’re an avid motorsport enthusiast who enjoys movies. If you’re not as familiar, that film was Ford vs. Ferrari. But there’s something else that’s been even elusive for Mr. Penske despite all his wins over six and a half decades of racing — Le Mans.

For a man historically known to be “chasing” down a win like Le Mans, he’s not actually competed in it an endless amount of times. Granted there’s a couple of things to keep in mind here, 1) Penske and his team are based in the US, which requires a lot more logistics, funding and the like to bring a team over to France to compete. And 2) regulations to compete in the ACO-sanctioned event make things even more complex since you can’t just bring you car over as-is. It’s not that American-based teams and manufacturers cannot participate, as clearly they have. But there’s a lot more to the endeavor than just saying “I’m going racing at Le Mans.”

Penske’s first Le Mans was just 62 years ago as a driver behind the wheel of a Ferrari 330 that ended prematurely due to mechanical issues. He’d return again in 1971, this time as a team owner with Ferrari again, a 512M, but that effort also ended in retirement with drivers Mark Donohue and David Hobbs. 

According to Penske, there were definitely opportunities available to the team in the time between the mid-’60s and early-’70s to their most recent showing. Discussions to return again were not infrequent. But the stars never completely aligned. 

But that changed in 2023 as he helmed a new team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, with a Le Mans Hypercar prototype car, creating teams on both sides of the Atlantic for the IMSA and World Endurance Championship (WEC) series. Penske even volunteered to take on the beginning of the incredibly involved development and work with the manufacturers entering the series to pass off the benefits of working with this new, complex hybrid system. 

And once again, he would stand on top of the pit box for the 24 hours, like he’s known to do, watching now, multiple-entries for his team attempt that final win, as it was part of the goal getting into the programin the first place. He would come close — 2023 landing 4th with his #75 entry (7th, 9th for the other two cars); 2024 earning hyperpole with the #6 car, but finishing 4th (#6) and 6th (#5).

This year, 2025, is set up to be similar, with Penske running three entries — the team’s two WEC cars piloted by a team of well-accoladed Porsche factory drivers: Julien Andlauer and Michael Christensen in the #5, and Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in the #6, joined by Penske’s IMSA entry drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell (respectively), along with the dynamic, nearly unstoppable duo of Tandy and Felipe Nasr in the #4 joined by another Porsche wonder and defending Formula E champion, Pascal Wehrlein. All have been part of the development of the Porsche 963 car, sans Andlauer and Wehrlein. And the ones who were involved know how to work the car and worked to develop it to where it is now. It could be why a duo like Tandy and Nasr have been able to accomplish what they have this year already in the IMSA series. It could be why this is an even more favorable year for the Porsche outfit to get an overall win, and maybe, just maybe Penske finally see the top step of the podium at Le Mans with his own eyes, finally, at the young age of 88.

As Tandy put it to Motorsport.com in Detroit just before he and Nasr hit the track for the race and immediately jetted off to France to prepare for this weekend:

“If the stars align, the stars align.”