Pennzoil Honors 4-Time Indianapolis 500 Winners With “The Club” On NBC

Longtime Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar sponsor Pennzoil has celebrated some of the greatest moments in Indy 500 history as the primary sponsor of the winning car.

Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC, Pennzoil will honor the four four-time Indianapolis 500 winner with a special documentary film called “The Club.”

When Helio Castroneves became the fourth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 for a fourth time on May 30, 2021, he joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears in the most exclusive club in racing.

“The Club” is the only time that all four four-time Indy 500 winners have been together as a group since Castroneves’ emotional victory last year.

“The Club” was filmed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and downtown Indianapolis on July 20, 2021. Al Unser, the second driver to score four wins in the Indianapolis 500, died on December 9, 2021, after fighting a 17-year battle with a rare form of liver cancer.

“We’ll never have all of our four-time winners together again and it makes what happened there that much more powerful,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles, one of three co-executive producers of the documentary along with Alison Melangton and Rich Feinberg, told me in an exclusive interview last week.

For Boles, it was a labor of love to honor the four winningest drivers in the history of the world’s most famous race.

“Looking back now at it, it’s even more powerful,” Boles admitted. “To think about how close we were, honestly, to saying, ‘Hey, let’s wait until next year when everybody will be here in May on a certain day.’ We were worried about how difficult it is to get everybody’s attention in May, especially Helio because he has to think about trying to win a fifth and all of the other commitments that people have.

“We didn’t think about it from an age standpoint and the possibility of losing one of the four, although a couple of them are getting up there in years.

“Looking at it, it’s pretty amazing. When you look back and realize how sick Al Unser was, even coming in for those two days, it’s even more emotional to think through. Al was really on for the 36 hours he was here and was struggling obviously.

“It’s pretty powerful. To get those four drivers together in a room and talk about winning the Indy 500 once, let alone four times. Then to have the three of them – AJ, Al, and Rick – welcome Helio to that exclusive club, it was one of the craziest and best days of my life.

“I was more nervous that morning sitting there with them then I have ever been in my life, I think.”

At the time of the filming, Foyt was 86. He’s now 87. Unser turned 82 the day before the Indy 500. Mears was the youngster of the group at 69. He turned 70 on December 3.

Foyt won his four Indianapolis 500s in 1961, ’64, ’67 and became the first four-time winner in 1977. Unser’s four Indy 500 wins came in 1970, ’71, ’78 and ’87. Mears won the Indianapolis 500 in just his second attempt in 1979 and went on to win in ’84, ’88 and ’91.

For 30 years, “The Club” featured these three men.

Then along came an exuberant driver from Brazil named Helio Castroneves. He is the only driver in Indy 500 history to win in his first two attempts in 2001 and 2002. He became a three-time winner in 2009 and appeared destined to join “The Club.”

Castroneves came close in 2014 when he finished second to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the second-closest finish in Indy 500 history at 0.0600-of-a-second. He battled Takuma Sato of Japan over the closing laps in 2017, only to finish 0.201-of-a-second behind the driver from Tokyo.

Until this year, that was Castroneves’ final full-time season in IndyCar. At that time, Team Penske moved him over to its Acura IMSA Sports Car program with the popular driver getting a chance to run the two races in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When Castroneves arrived at last year’s Indy 500, it was the first time he was competing for a different team than Team Penske. He was in the No. 06 Honda for Meyer-Shank Racing, a team that had never won an IndyCar race.

On Race Day 2021, even Boles had overlooked the possibility that there would be a new member of “The Club” by the end of the race.

By the end of the race, Castroneves had shocked the world and earned entry into “The Club.”

Foyt issued his congratulations to Castroneves in a statement delivered by his public relations director, Anne Fornoro. Mears traded texts with Castroneves during the celebration.

Unser, however, had left the track at the conclusion of the race to fly back to his Albuquerque, New Mexico home.

“We probably should have thought about this several years ago and had a contingency plan if Helio won a fourth, how we are going to get everybody together,” Boles admitted. “We just never did. I think even last year with Helio with a new team and not running the full season that it ever really hit us that he would win.

“If Helio was going to win a fourth Indianapolis 500, it was going to be a longshot, most people figured. When he won the race, we were all so excited in watching him celebrate, we didn’t even think about it. At one point in time, it hit me that, oh my gosh, we need to get all of the four-time winners together for a victory photo.”

A determined Boles tried to stop the Unser entourage before the flight left Indianapolis. He called David Shaw, a former IMS employee who now works for Indianapolis Weir-Cook International Airport.

“I asked, ‘Where’s Al?’ and he said, ‘We just got him on the airplane, and he is on his way back to Albuquerque,’” Boles recalled. “The victory celebration had been going on for a while.

“Then, Chris Owens, our photographer, and Rich Feinberg, who does our videos, thought the same thing, that we needed all of the four-time winners together. It hit a lot of us at exactly the same time that we had this moment we needed to capture, and we let it slip through our hands.”

It became obvious to all involved however, that the four, four-time winning drivers needed to gather together soon in order to properly honor and promote the accomplishment.

Boles, Owens, and Feinberg began to meet and search for the next step. Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Roger Penske made it a priority to get all four drivers together.

“There was a bit of urgency to it, but we also knew it would be challenging,” Boles recalled. “Honestly, I thought the biggest challenge would be getting AJ’s schedule to work. Ultimately, AJ said whatever works, I’ll make it work. Rick was the same. Susan Unser worked through Al’s and that was the same. The biggest challenge was Helio, because Helio was so busy being the new Indy 500 winner and the newest four-time Indy 500 winner.

“Fortunately, we got a date that worked for everybody, and that moment happened.”

All four were able to return to Indianapolis in July for two days of activity. The first day was a dinner on July 19 with Foyt, Unser, and Mears as the only guests on the eighth floor of The Pagoda command tower at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“We set up a table and let them sit around and talk to each other and tell stories and get comfortable with the idea of what we were doing the next day,” Boles explained. “Helio flew in that night, not knowing the other three drivers had been together thinking about what they wanted to say to Helio.

“The next morning, we all woke up and met at the Biltmore in Indianapolis. Rich and Chris chose it because it’s an old building with a lot of brick and feels like history. It’s this massive room where they could set up one table, five chairs and an empty room with the exception of a film crew.

“It became this magical moment to put all of these drivers together and let them tell stories.”

The next day, the cameras were rolling, and Boles was in charge of interviewing all four drivers together. Over 10 hours of video content was recorded, and it was boiled down to the 45-minute show that will air on NBC Saturday before the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course.

“For the team, it was definitely hard for them with all of it and then piece it together in a logical way that makes sense,” Boles said. “I had in my mind the questions I wanted to ask that day. Then you would ask a question and one of the drivers would be interacting with another and there was something you wanted to follow-up on. There were some great story pieces.

“Over time, there will be more content related to this day that we will share with the fans.

“The end product we have right now does what we really wanted it to do, which is set the stage for why winning the Indianapolis 500 four times is so special and why it meant so much for the three previous four-time winners and for Helio to become part of ‘The Club’ I’m really happy with what the team has come up with for the overall show.

The day concluded with all four members of “The Club” posing at the famed “Yard of Bricks” on the frontstretch of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Borg-Warner Trophy.

When the documentary was completed, Boles and IMS pitched it to its broadcast partner, NBC. Originally, Boles thought it could be shown on the Peacock streaming service. NBC executives liked it so much, they decided it belonged on the network.

“When we were capturing this, we didn’t know exactly form a business standpoint how we wanted to use it, so when we first started putting the budget together with it,” Boles explained. “I called Roger Penske and said, ‘Hey, we need to get these folks together.’ He said, ‘Absolutely, we need to get them together. This is something that will live on long past all of us.’ Having them together in one room, he was all-in and wanted it to be proper. Don’t do this on your iPhone. Use our production team and make it really strong.

“As we captured the content, Rich and the production team wanted to try and put something together. They put a powerful trailer together that talked about why this was a monumental moment. NBC was a great partner, let’s go to them first. If they can use it on Peacock or somewhere else, that is probably the natural place for it to go.

“When they saw the trailer and heard the story, they decided to put it on NBC and let everybody celebrate it, especially as we lead into the kickoff of racing in May at the Speedway as we lead into the GMR Grand Prix.”

Pennzoil had experienced success with all four of the four-time winners. The longtime Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar partner had been primary sponsor for Unser, Mears and Castroneves at the Indy 500 over the years and had an associate sponsorship with Foyt.

“It’s a big marketing opportunity for Shell/Pennzoil,” Boles said. “You think about how much success Pennzoil has had in this sport and their connection to Rick Mears and Al Unser and Helio Castroneves, they have a direct connection to those three drivers.

“That brand has been involved more than any other brand, except for Penske, in the four-time winners and the success they have had. For them, there is just as much an historic opportunity to say we were a part of this and want to continue the success of these four drivers.”

With Pennzoil presenting “The Club” on NBC, it is another tremendous promotional tool for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as it begins the “Month of May” culminating with the 106^th Indianapolis 500 on May 29.

“It’s a huge promotional tool for the month of May, especially as you start thinking about Helio’s “Drive for Five” and that is a big storyline for us,” Boles said. “There are several great storylines for the 500 this year, but there can’t be one any bigger than for the first time in 30 years we have a driver trying to win a fifth Indianapolis 500. Other than Helio, we don’t have anyone trying to win a fourth. We have a couple of guys that have a chance to win a third, some guys trying to win a second and a bunch of drivers trying to win a first.

“The storyline behind Helio’s ‘Drive for Five’ especially given that he won the fourth in a partial season, now he is running a full season for the team he won with last year, Helio instantaneously becomes a threat to win this year’s Indianapolis 500. That’s a pretty powerful tool.

“To know what it means to be a four-time winner and tell that to our fans makes the idea of a five-time winner that much more special. It’s really important to set the stage of what happened for the first time in 110 years last year – a fourth four-time winner – and also sets the stage for what could be a first five-time winner.

“As a promoter, there is part of me that is torn. It would be really cool to have a five-time winner. It’s also really cool that our four, four-time winners are our most famous four faces in the sport. If Helio wins a fifth, does that diminish what AJ, Rick and Al did? I don’t think so, but there is part of me that is torn if I want a five-time winner or not.”

Boles completed his “Labor of Love” just in time to get all four members of “The Club” together while they were alive.

Although he was ailing at the time the documentary was filmed, Boles admitted it’s tough to realize that from now on when “The Club” meets, Unser will not be at the meeting.

“It’s sad when you are losing your heroes and it’s especially sad when you lose one like Al,” Boles admitted. “He was one of those personalities that was always so even keeled all the time.

“Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt, you either loved Mario or you hated Mario. You loved AJ of you hated AJ. You either loved Bobby Unser or you hated Bobby Unser.

“Rick and Al always moved through their career where they had a lot of fans, but not any detractors. Our collective fanbase, when you lose Al Unser, it’s a difficult moment.

“The end of the show is a powerful, silent moment of a photo of Al with four fingers in the air and it’s a fitting way to say thank you to him. It’s a touching, sad moment, but it puts an exclamation point on it that says, ‘Man, I’m glad we made this happen.’

“If it didn’t happen in July, it wasn’t going to happen.”