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NASCAR America: Legendary owners Jack Roush, Roger Penske inducted into NASCAR Hall

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Jack Roush had a hand in developing the careers of many drivers and his impact on the sports has led him to the Hall of Fame Class of 2019.

On Wednesday, legendary owners Roger Penske and Jack Roush were selected as members of the 2019 NASCAR Hall of Fame.

At the start of their careers, both of the owners were on the outside looking in with Penske coming from the ranks of the open wheel cars and Roush from sports cars.

When Penske was watching races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a young man, he was dreaming of making his mark in the sport of auto racing. In a variety of disciplines encompassing stock cars, open-wheel cars and sports cars, Team Penske has now earned 489 major race wins (and counting), 556 poles, and 32 championships.

In NASCAR, Penske has been responsible for 108 wins. His first of these came with Mark Donohue behind the wheel at Riverside International Raceway in 1973; his most recent was earned just three races ago by Joey Logano at Talladega Superspeedway.

Penske is “one of those guys that just commands respect,” said Rusty Wallace in press release issued moments after Penske’s induction. “Not just because of all of his success, but because he really cares about people. Everyone wants to please Roger because he does so much to help everyone else and he just has that desire to win. Winning is contagious around Roger.”

“On the backs of giants, I’ve been carried to success and recognition that otherwise I could not have been – that would have been beyond my grasp individually,” Roush said soon after the announcement that he would join former driver Mark Martin in the Hall of Fame.

Roush came along a little later than Penske after a successful career in sport cars racing. He fielded an entry for the relatively unknown Martin in 1988. The pair would earn their first victory one year later when Martin took the checkers at Rockingham Speedway. Since then, Roush has added 136 more Cup wins – including a pair for his current driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. last year.

“It means everything in the world to me,” Martin said. “I am so happy with this class and so happy for Jack. If you look at his numbers – his numbers are great – but if you look at what he’s really done as far as contributing to NASCAR, he brought up all his drivers. He gave me a second chance when no one else would. Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, you name it – Carl Edwards. All these guys were on the outside looking in when Jack Roush gave them the opportunity.“

Roush’s legacy includes developing talent and being one of the first owners truly successful with a multi-car organization. Martin made 57 Cup starts before he joined forces with Roush, but it was not until they were paired that he excelled. In 2005, the organization placed five drivers in the playoffs, which was one of the catalysts for NASCAR’s current rule limiting organizations to four teams.