Part 16-My 2008 Magnificent Colossal Indy 500 Photo Blog Thing: Team Penske

Team Penske has performed admirably and as expected so far this month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Helio “TwinkleToes” Castroneves is doing what he does…driving flawlessly and getting good results. Helio is a company man.


The other Team Penske hot-shoe, Ryan Briscoe, has proficiently executed his duties at IMS, but has had some problems in earlier events this season. He has destroyed countless thousands of dollars worth of formerly shiny and fast Indy racers, but these heinous incidents were not all Ryan’s fault. He had some help along the way, probably, but I still think Ryan Briscoe needs to watch his back.


The Penske organization is not known for having a lot of patience. Roger is probably giving some serious thought to firing Ryan Briscoe if he doesn’t improve immediately.

The Penske Driver’s Rulebook may or may not state the following. It is pretty dry stuff because it is a lot of legal and human resources mumbo-jumbo, but, unfortunately, oftentimes one needs to educate one’s self about these matters.

The purpose of these rules is to establish a uniform procedure that ensures timely, consistent, and appropriate issuance of corrective action relating to the following unsafe behaviors:

-Unsafe behaviors resulting in preventable accidents
-Observed unsafe acts that are likely to result in preventable accidents

Preventable accident-a work related accident that could have been avoided if the Penske employee had taken reasonable and prudent action.

Observed unsafe acts-a work related action, witnessed by a Penske employee’s supervisor, which is likely to result in a preventable accident.

a Penske supervisor

An unsafe act involving the operation of a company motor vehicle (Honda/Dallara/Firestone) resulting in death, injury, or property damage exceeding $5000, or an unsafe act during operation of a company motor vehicle (Honda/Dallara/Firestone) resulting in the required tow-away of the company vehicle (Honda/Dallara/Firestone) and/or any other vehicle (Honda/Dallara/Firestone) involved due to loss of control will be considered a Level 2 Vehicle Accident Violation.

Corrective actions for Level 2 Vehicle Accident Violation: Immediate unpaid suspension followed by termination pending review by the regional human resources manager. At a minimum, the corrective action will be a 5-day unpaid suspension, final written warning, and appropriate documented remedial training prior to returning to regular duty.

Due to the serious nature of unsafe behaviors, all non-union Penske employees are subject to corrective action in accordance with the guidelines described in this procedure. Employees covered by a bargaining agreement must adhere to the specific labor agreement.

It would probably be in Ryan Briscoe’s best interest if he would join a labor union. That way, Ryan would be assured of fair treatment and he couldn’t be fired at Roger Penske’s or Rick Mears’ whim.

Ryan needs to protect what he has, and the only way to do that is to organize.

Sign a card.

Stand up.

Man up.

Fight.

Vote Union, Ryan!