Motor racing-Penske finally gets Daytona glory

By Simon Evans

DAYTONA, Fla., Feb 17 (Reuters) - Roger Penske has tasted success in many forms of motor racing but one triumph that had always eluded him was the Daytona 500.

Finally, on the occasion of the 50th running of "America's Greatest Race", Penske saw one of his drivers, Ryan Newman, celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday.

"It was special for me. Obviously we've tried for many years. We've had great drivers. We've been very close many years. But we never executed at the end and I think this was a team effort. Ryan drove a masterful race," said Penske after victory in front of 190,000 fans.

Penske Racing has 14 victories in the Indianapolis 500 race, has enjoyed success in American Champ Car, Le Mans racing, Formula One and endurance races such as the Daytona 24 hours. "This goes to the top of the charts for victories for Penske Racing," he said.

With the major money and media attention shifting towards NASCAR, Penske has sought to compete with some of the well established team owners such as Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress and Joe Gibbs.

"These are world-class teams that have won this race many times but we wouldn't be here if we didn't think we could win, I can tell you that," said Penske.

"Every year we've been here, we've been close. I think this year we were confident. A lot of things had come together. To me, we got a long way to go before we can sit at the table with those guys, but we're coming close," he added.

Newman's victory was particularly sweet for Penske given he was pushed on his way by team mate Kurt Busch who finished second.