Team owner Roger Penske was content to allow Ryan Briscoe space to celebrate his maiden IndyCar victory at Milwaukee on Sunday, despite it also being his organisation's 300th major success.
The reason? Quiet satisfaction at seeing a hitherto bit-part player coming of age, possibly instilling the sort of confidence that could open the floodgates to further triumphs. Penske hired Briscoe to drive one of his Porsche RS Spyders in last year's American Le Mans Series, despite knowing that the Australian had won little - or had the opportunity to do so - since clinching the inaugural F3 Euroseries crown in 2003, and was genuinely happy for his charge.
Not only happy that Briscoe had scored his first IndyCar Series victory, and Team Penske's first since last June at Texas Motor Speedway, but also genuinely happy for a race car driver who had limited success since debuting in the IndyCar Series in 2005. Three DNFs in the first six races of the current season – including a pit-lane incident with Danica Patrick a week ago - didn't inspire confidence in others, but Penske still believed.
“I think he's really got the monkey off his back," Penske commented, once the tickertape celebrations had waned, "We knew how good a race driver he was when he ran for us in the Porsche programme last year, and I think, from the standpoint of his confidence, there's no question that this is exactly what he needed to break the ice.
"To win that first race in any series is so important, because there's just inches between winning or losing. I think we are going to see a real new race driver come above now as we go forward.”
Ironically, Briscoe beat the man alongside whom he made his IRL breakthrough in 2005, Scott Dixon, to the line in Milwaukee, and Penske admitted that he had been a fan of the Australian even then.
“We saw him as a good driver," the Captain noted, "Chip had him earlier on and he got himself into trouble, maybe, without the experience, and then had the bad accident [at Chicagoland].
