Team Penske Brings Star Power to Manufacturing Summit

Champion NASCAR Series driver Brad Keselowski made a surprise appearance during the recent “Machining & Technology Summit” at TEAM PENSKE headquarters in Mooresville, NC. The event was hosted by sponsors BIG KAISER, MAZAK and Tungaloy.

Before the race shop tour, Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion, talked to the group about the business of racing and importance of technical partnerships. “Manufacturing is becoming more and more critical for us. We rely on these partnerships to make a difference to the performance on the race track. We are able to make our parts lighter and stronger, and make them faster and more efficiently,” he said.

Technical partners support TEAM PENSKE in the NASCAR Series by providing machines, tooling and expertise to increase productivity and machining precision while reducing time and material waste. About 75 manufacturing professionals – and NASCAR enthusiasts – signed up to learn about new technology for metal cutting and get behind the scenes at this world-class manufacturing facility. The tour included an exciting pit stop demonstration as well as machining demonstrations showing how the team applies technology to build approximately 100 stock cars for each race season.

“Manufacturing and motor sports go together,” explained Jonathan Gibson, VP Marketing & Communications at Team Penske. “These technical partners add a competitive advantage. They are thought leaders, and they make our engineering and manufacturing better when we can tap into those assets.”

BIG KAISER is proud to have a role in improving the team’s capabilities and performance. “We’ve been able to improve several challenging processes by applying our knowledge of tool holding, precision boring and tool presetting,” said Jack Burley, VP Engineering at BIG KAISER. “The tools achieve accuracies otherwise not possible, and the tool pre-setter dramatically reduced set up times.”