PENSKE RACING REPORT - AUGUST 25, 2008

Ryan Newman Leads Penske Racing Effort at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Penske Racing drivers Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. finished sixth, 15th and 37th respectively in Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Newman and the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team started in 11th place and was a strong competitor throughout the night, running as high as second in the 500-lap event at the .533-mile concrete oval. With his solid sixth-place finish, Newman gained two spots and moved into 15th place in the 2008 NASCAR Cup Series driver point standings, 181 points behind the 12th-place cutoff for the 2008 "Chase for the NASCAR Cup."

"It was a good run for the Alltel Dodge," Newman said after the race. "We got up to second place at one point in the race, got a little bit loose and fell back, but we held our own. I'm proud of my guys and how they battled here all night. It was a solid top-10 for our team and that's a good day here at Bristol."

No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge driver Busch started 19th and stayed tough all night long to come home with a 15th-place finish. Busch remains 19th in the Cup Series point standings, with 2,442 total driver points after 24 races have been completed. He is 1,167 points out of first, 479 behind 10th place and 413 behind 12th.

With newly-appointed crew chief Travis Geisler at the helm of the No. 77 Mobil 1 team, Hornish finished 37th after starting the night in the 35th spot. Hornish ran well until he was collected in a multi-car accident on lap 216. The Mobil 1 crew worked hard and was able to return Hornish to the 500-lap race, ensuring the No. 77 team remained in the top-35 in the 2008 NASCAR Cup Series owner’s point standings.

Helio Castroneves Wins in Sonoma, Ryan Briscoe Second After Dramatic Week

SONOMA, Calif. – Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda, earned his first win the 2008 IndyCar Series season in Sunday’s PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County, completing a dramatic week for Team Penske.

After the team lost both primary race cars, equipment and more in a transporter fire that occurred early Wednesday morning as the team was en route to Infineon Raceway, Castroneves, teammate Ryan Briscoe and the entire Team Penske crew rolled up their sleeves, determined not to let the fire deter them. The team worked together to rebuild and place two backup machines at the front of the starting grid - with Castroneves on the pole and Briscoe second.

Then, once the green flag flew on Sunday afternoon, the team’s hard work really paid off - both Castroneves and Briscoe led the race but in the end, it was Castroneves who captured the checkered flag 5.29 seconds ahead of his teammate for his first win since the 2007 St. Petersburg race.

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Penske Porsches Finish Third and Sixth in Class at Mosport

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada – While the DHL Penske Porsche RS Spyder team in the American Le Mans Series’ (ALMS) LMP2 class retained their points leads going into this week’s Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, no one was really satisfied with the results of Sunday’s two hour, 45 minute Grand Prix of Mosport presented by Mobil 1. The No. 6 Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen (Germany)/Patrick Long (USA) car finished third in class – their fourth podium finish – and the points-leading No. 7 Bernhard(Germany)/Dumas(France) car ended up sixth in class after running out of fuel on the last lap.

John Erickson, general manager of Penske Racing, was pleased that the No. 6

Long/Maassen RS Spyder finished on the podium, helping both team and manufacturers points, but was disappointed that the right strategy for the Bernhard/Dumas car did not work out. “We knew it would be close on fuel at the end, so we came in with two minutes to go for a quick splash, and thought we could make it to the end,” he said. “We didn’t put in more fuel because we didn’t want to lose additional track position, but the overall leading Audi passed the start-finish line just after the two-hour, 45-minute time limit, so the whole field had to do another lap. Romain made to within 100 yards of the finish with the extra lap, but he ran out of gas.”