The phalanx looked like The Magnficent Seven — or a scene from Reservoir Dogs if your tastes run to more modern movie images. In any event, the group striding down the paddock and headed for the gates had seen, conquored and was headed for the next conquest at full tilt.

In the middle was the man himself, Roger Penske, and his first lieutenant Tim Cendric. Penske’s Porsche Spyder had just swept the American Le Mans Series race at Miller Motorsports Park with surprising ease against the mighty Audi R10 TDI armada. But that was history. In the gunsights at this moment for the Penske Racing brain trust was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a short corporate jet ride away.

In the back of their minds, perhaps, was the fact Kurt Busch had been competing for the victory in a Penske Racing Dodge at Charlotte in the Nextel All-Star race this same night when he crashed in a duel with his younger brother. That race is considered the golden fleece of bragging rights in NASCAR country, where Penske now has his truly magnificent racing factory. Despite the crash — and perhaps because of it — the gauntlet has been cast, foreshadowing victories for the Penske Dodges later this year after what has been a dry spell for both Busch and Ryan Newman.

Next up, the Indy 500, where the Penske team has 14 poles, thanks to Helio Castroneves’ qualifying efforts this year. Looking for a record 15th victory, Penske has a car in each of the first three rows, including the satellite entry for Ryan Briscoe, the talented young Aussie reclaimed from the brink after his horrifying crash in Chicago while driving for Chip Ganassi.

It was Briscoe who co-drove to victory in the Porsche at the daunting 23-turn Miller track, his first major win since the fiery crash from which he was lucky to escape with faculties intact.

In fact, the Penske team seems to specialize in recovery projects. Busch became an outcast among fans, his Roush team and his sponsors just one year after winning the first Nextel Cup. At Penske, where he wasn’t predicted to last past his first two years, he has become a focused professional versus the guy who could get himself arrested in Phoenix.

One might even consider Penske’s Sam Hornish a bit of a castoff. The Ohioan couldn’t find his behind with either hand at Indy despite winning IRL championships until he signed on with the Captain. This year, he’ll be gunning for two in a row at the Brickyard.

So what’s the secret behind the success of Penske? The man himself, of course. He is America’s resident racing genius if you compare results as well as breadth of participation. Oh sure, there’s the usual knock that he hasn’t won a NASCAR title or a Daytona 500 for those who like to split hairs. Besides, the future looks bright as always at Penske, including an assault on the Le Mans 24-hour as the Porsche factory team in the near future, possibly next year.

What’s most amazing about the Penske team is the fact he runs it like the rest of his privately held, multi-billion dollar empire. He relies on chief lieutenants like Cendric. That sounds easy enough, until one considers the breadth of his empire of businesses where the same system is in place. Ultimately, only Penske himself knows what’s going on in all of his operations at any given time, although is son Greg is right in his draft. Of course, RP’s also legendary for getting involved in the details of those operations, right down to minute design choices for buildings.

So what about a few quotes from the man himself on his success or how it gets it done? Penske always plays his cards so close to his vest that even his lieutenants can only glean what goes on in his head other than the fact he expects dedication, fresh ideas, loyalty, hard work and success. Those without such qualities, in addition to talent, need not apply.

Penske is first and foremost a super salesman, which he pursues like everything else, relentlessly. He once offered to give a lift home to the team’s shops in Redding, Pa. on his corporate jet to Teddy Mayer, one of his racing crew chiefs, after a race. It took three days for Mayer to get back to Redding because Penske made so many sales stops along the way.

As far as racing goes, one key is to start with a large amount of money and factory alliances so that the fundamentals never fail due to a lack of budget. Another key is Penske’s own confidence and ability as a field general. When he shows up at the race track, it’s like Caesar riding to the point of a pitch battle with red cape flying. It gives everyone a lift to have him on your pit wall — or in the case of Busch spotting for you high atop a NASCAR grandstand.

Ultimately, Penske has an incredible depth of understanding of what it takes to win motor races, which is always a complicated and highly fluid circumstance whether its the dead of winter or a hot day in Indiana. Then there’s that self-motivation, the one key ingredient for any successful racer at any level of the sport.

Having won at Miller, Penske couldn’t wait to get to the next one. As his great driver Mark Donohue once said, the needle always goes back to zero.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com.