While many fans can get an invitation to meet an owner or driver, or even get a tour of a NASCAR race shop it’s virtually impossible to sit inside a team meeting.
Don Miller’s co-written autobiography with Jim Donnelly takes the reader inside Penske Racing (and what was Penske Racing South) like no other book I’ve read.
It’s like he personally opens the garage door and invites you in.
One of Don’s friends and former vice president of Penske’s Dan Luginbuhl told Auto123.com “friendship aside, I respected Don. Like the people I know (in racing) he was at the top of the list.”
While insiders know Mr. Miller, who retired from Penske Racing as a former co-owner and president, it’s possible that many fans don’t know just how important Don was to the formation and running the team which had, among others Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch as Sprint Cup drivers.
"Don Miller has been very instrumental in my career. There are few men like him in this sport. Don is capable to doing every aspect of this sport - building a racecar, managing people, souvenir sales. Don can do it all, and he has done it all. I'm honored to call Don a friend," Newman told Auto.123.
Dan Luginbuhl added “he was very good at forming partnerships and forged what became Penske South (the predecessor of the consolidated Penske Racing).”
I’ve personally known Mr. Miller for many years and can tell you he was my “go to” man to solve some NASCAR puzzles for me.
He is at times serious, then humorous; add in a great bs detector and you only get a part of the man who started building hot-rods as a teenager, ending up one of the most important officers on a top NASCAR Cup team.
Like a good soldier he literally sacrificed the use of a leg for Penske Racing. At Talladega, in 1974, when filling in for a catch-can man for Gary Bettenhausen he was injured when Grant Adcox slid in the pits slamming Miller between the two cars. For years he also needed continuing back surgery.
It was almost a fatal accident. It is still causing him much pain.
But I’m getting ahead of myself again. This book is not just for NASCAR fans. Miller has painstakingly assembled photos of his early hot rods, which he lovingly assembled. And still he is an authority on American iron working in a garage, which he has dubbed his “half-way” house when not enjoying the company of his family.
The book takes you through his development in business and reveals he knew Rusty Wallace as far back as the days when the retired Cup champion was a boy delivering newspapers
Along the way Miller tosses in a bit of personal philosophy and describes the dynamics of Rusty and Roger and how the addition of Ryan Newman changed the dynamics of the team.
This is some good end-of-summer reading for the hot rod fan or the NASCAR fan if you want to know what really goes on.
“Miller’s Time,” a 304-page hardcover priced at $29.95, is available through Coastal 181, www.coastal181.com or toll free at 877-907-8181.
Miller, who received NASCAR’s first Humanitarian of the Year Award for his work with youngsters at risk, has pledged to donate all proceeds from the book’s sale to organizations that support the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Don Miller’s co-written autobiography with Jim Donnelly takes the reader inside Penske Racing (and what was Penske Racing South) like no other book I’ve read.
It’s like he personally opens the garage door and invites you in.
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One of Don’s friends and former vice president of Penske’s Dan Luginbuhl told Auto123.com “friendship aside, I respected Don. Like the people I know (in racing) he was at the top of the list.”
While insiders know Mr. Miller, who retired from Penske Racing as a former co-owner and president, it’s possible that many fans don’t know just how important Don was to the formation and running the team which had, among others Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch as Sprint Cup drivers.
"Don Miller has been very instrumental in my career. There are few men like him in this sport. Don is capable to doing every aspect of this sport - building a racecar, managing people, souvenir sales. Don can do it all, and he has done it all. I'm honored to call Don a friend," Newman told Auto.123.
Dan Luginbuhl added “he was very good at forming partnerships and forged what became Penske South (the predecessor of the consolidated Penske Racing).”
I’ve personally known Mr. Miller for many years and can tell you he was my “go to” man to solve some NASCAR puzzles for me.
He is at times serious, then humorous; add in a great bs detector and you only get a part of the man who started building hot-rods as a teenager, ending up one of the most important officers on a top NASCAR Cup team.
Like a good soldier he literally sacrificed the use of a leg for Penske Racing. At Talladega, in 1974, when filling in for a catch-can man for Gary Bettenhausen he was injured when Grant Adcox slid in the pits slamming Miller between the two cars. For years he also needed continuing back surgery.
It was almost a fatal accident. It is still causing him much pain.
But I’m getting ahead of myself again. This book is not just for NASCAR fans. Miller has painstakingly assembled photos of his early hot rods, which he lovingly assembled. And still he is an authority on American iron working in a garage, which he has dubbed his “half-way” house when not enjoying the company of his family.
The book takes you through his development in business and reveals he knew Rusty Wallace as far back as the days when the retired Cup champion was a boy delivering newspapers
Along the way Miller tosses in a bit of personal philosophy and describes the dynamics of Rusty and Roger and how the addition of Ryan Newman changed the dynamics of the team.
This is some good end-of-summer reading for the hot rod fan or the NASCAR fan if you want to know what really goes on.
“Miller’s Time,” a 304-page hardcover priced at $29.95, is available through Coastal 181, www.coastal181.com or toll free at 877-907-8181.
Miller, who received NASCAR’s first Humanitarian of the Year Award for his work with youngsters at risk, has pledged to donate all proceeds from the book’s sale to organizations that support the prevention of child abuse and neglect.