"That's 5 times the crowd of the Super Bowl" - When Roger Penske hailed the Indy 500's unequaled record

The Indianapolis 500 or the Indy 500 is regarded as the 'Greatest Spectacle of Racing' and Roger Penske is onboard the hype train of the elusive event. At last year's Indy 500 weekend, the 87-year-old shared how the Grand Prix has a massive turnout, more than even the NFL's star-studded Super Bowl.

Since stepping into the world of racing, Penske's teams have dominated the world of motorsports. While Team Penske has a presence in multiple spheres like NASCAR, or the World Endurance Championship, its major fame comes from IndyCar.

The motorsport tycoon bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the home of IndyCar and the series itself, in 2019 and aimed to build back the craze surrounding the Indy 500. He took over major changes, which helped the race return to its sold-out tradition.

Last year, Roger Penske hailed how 300,000 people often turn up to witness the spectacle. To put the picture into perspective, he compared the Indy 500 with the Super Bowl and noted how the racing event was five times bigger than the NFL's finale (via NBC Sports):

"We have a metric that says 500 hours after the previous race, you can have your ticket for next year if you come back and make that decision that we will honor that, and you’ll have your same seat. And, typically, we get in that 500-hour period, somewhere between 130,000 and 140,000 people come back and want to buy their tickets now for next year.

I can’t give you a number, but I will tell you this – we’re going to have over 300,000 people here on Race Day and that’s five times the crowd of the Super Bowl."

Moreover, Team Penske emerged victorious the same weekend when Penske praised the Grand Prix at the hands of Josef Newgarden.

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Roger Penske shares his thoughts on Team Penske's impressive record at the Indy 500

Roger Penske at the Rolex 24 at Daytona - Source: Getty

Josef Newgarden's victory was Team Penske's 20th win around the fabled circuit. The double champion won the race for the second consecutive time and was awarded the 'Baby Borg' trophy last month for his achievement alongside team owner Roger Penske.

Penske reflected on the massive record that Team Penske holds (via Racer):

"I certainly hope it’s a record that can’t be broken. And we’re not done yet, hopefully. We’ve got three great drivers and we’re not talking in terms of trying to win No. 21 at some point, we’re talking about trying to win the next one. But the competition has never been tougher. We had good cars in that [2020-22] period and won a lot of races, and Will won a championship, but we missed on our setups at Indy.

I thought, ‘Oh, now we’ve bought the Speedway, it’s a bad omen because we can’t seem to go quick there anymore.' But yeah, we’ve turned that around, and locked out the front row last year."

This year's Indy 500 is slated to take place on May 25, where Josef Newgarden can become the first person ever to complete a three-peat at winning the fabled event.