When Roger Penske reopened the doors to his NASCAR racing organization in 1991, Mazak served as one of the team’s first technical sponsors. Today, Team Penske dominates INDYCAR, NASCAR and sports car racing, and its engineers depend more than ever on Mazak’s exceptional Multi-Tasking solutions to create parts for its championship racecars. On April 7, 2018, the company played an even more prominent role on the track as the primary sponsor for the No. 12 Ford Mustang at the My Bariatric Solutions 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Driven by Austin Cindric, the No. 12 Mazak car started in the 16th position and had a thrilling race. Cindric advanced four positions by the end of the first stage, and following his first pit stop, started the second stage in ninth. He rose as high as fifth place before getting pinned to the outside lane and falling to 15th mere laps before the end of stage two. Despite returning in the 23rd position after taking a pit stop, Cindric clawed his way back to 17th before the end of the second stage, and thanks to the number of cars that needed a pit stop at the stage’s end, he restarted at lap 200 in the seventh position. Cindric crossed the finish line in ninth.
“It is cool to have Mazak on the car,” said Cindric, shortly after his top-10 finish, his second in the No. 12 car for Team Penske this year. “They have a lot of people out here this weekend and I am glad they were able to tough it out in the cold.”
Of course, Mazak’s role as a technical sponsor means that despite having its logo on the hood, the company still had more to do with the inside of the car. As explained by Penske racer Brad Keselowski at the Performance Racing Industry 2017 trade show, Mazak machines' DONE IN ONE® capabilities mean that Penske can get custom-built parts designed, produced and shipped fast enough to outrace the competition on the track.
Visit www.mazakusa.com/racing to learn more about the legacy of Team Penske and Mazak’s partnership through the years, and be sure to watch out for Mazak’s future appearances on the racetrack by following Team Penske.