page_title: Team Penske (NASCAR)
section_title: Car No. 12 history
hierarchical_section_title: Team Penske (NASCAR) / Cup Series / Car No. 12 history
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR driver en:Ryan Newman at en:Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2007
context_page_description: The NASCAR operation of the racing team Team Penske is a unit based in Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. The team fields Ford Mustangs in the NASCAR Cup Series and the Xfinity Series and has won a total of three drivers' championships and over 170 races combined over both series.
  The team has also used the following names:
  Penske Racing South: formerly used to differentiate the NASCAR operation from its open wheel and sports car racing operation that was based in Reading, Pennsylvania; the name ceased to be used when the entire operation moved to North Carolina.
  Penske-Kranefuss Racing: used from 1998 until 2001 when Michael Kranefuss, who had previously fielded a car with Carl Haas as a partner, merged his team with Penske's and brought Jeremy Mayfield, his driver, into the Penske fold in car #12. The partnership ended after 2001, but Penske continues to run car #12 to this day.
  Penske-Jasper Racing: used in 2004 and 2005. Roger Penske had been supplying Jasper Motorsports with engines for several years and bought a share of the team so he could run its #77 for Brendan Gaughan as part of the Penske team.
context_section_description: Kranefuss-Haas Racing (1994-1997)
  The current 12 car started out in 1994 at Michigan as the No. 07 Ford driven by Robby Gordon and owned by German-American businessman and former Ford executive Michael Kranefuss along with Newman/Haas Racing co-principal Carl Haas. The car started and finished 38th after Gordon crashed on lap 70. After another start with Geoff Brabham at the Brickyard 400, the team— known as Kranefuss-Haas Racing— went full-time in 1995 with John Andretti driving the Kmart/Little Caesars-sponsored No. 37 Ford. Andretti won the pole at the Mountain Dew Southern 500 and finished 18th in the points. The team struggled in 1996 and Kranefuss decided to replace Andretti with Jeremy Mayfield in what amounted to a driver swap between Kranefuss-Haas and Cale Yarborough's team as Andretti replaced Mayfield in Yarborough's No. 98. The team picked up co-sponsorship from Royal Crown Cola for the following season and improved to be 13th in the points in 1997, but it was obvious the team wouldn't succeed if it only fielded one team. At the end of the season Kranefuss and Haas dissolved the partnership and the Kmart sponsorship moved over to Travis Carter's team, which became Haas-Carter Motorsports and the Little Caesars sponsorship left the team.
  Jeremy Mayfield (1998-2001)
  In 1998, Kranefuss and Penske Racing announced a merger, with Mayfield coming aboard to drive the No. 12 Mobil 1-sponsored Ford Taurus as a teammate to Rusty Wallace. The move turned out to be a success, and Mayfield became the next big star. He won the pole at Texas, and at one point in the season, found himself in the points lead. Mayfield won his first race at the 1998 Pocono 500 in June and his breakout year ended with a seventh-place finish in the points. He struggled in 1999 with no wins and an 11th-place finish in the standings. In 2000, he won at California and Pocono. Midway through the season, Kranefuss sold his share of the team to Penske. Mayfield then suffered a concussion while practicing for the Brickyard 400. He missed two races recuperating from his injury and finished 24th in points. In 2001, Mayfield posted seven top ten finishes, but was fired following the race at Kansas. Rusty Wallace's younger brother Mike Wallace took over, and came close to winning at Phoenix before settling for second place to Jeff Burton.
  Ryan Newman (2002-2008)
  Ryan Newman and his Alltel team took over the No. 12 car in 2002, although Mobil 1 stayed on as primary sponsor for several races per season. In his rookie year, Newman waged a spirited battle with Jimmie Johnson for NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors. Newman won The Winston, and the fall event at New Hampshire, as well as six poles. Although he did not win as many races as Johnson (one versus Johnson's three) and finished behind him in the points (sixth place, seven points behind fifth-place Johnson), he finished ahead of Johnson to win the Rookie of the Year honors. After the switch to Dodge in 2003, Newman won eight races and eleven poles, and finished sixth in points.
  	
  In 2004, Newman won twice, earned nine pole positions, qualified for the inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup, and finished seventh in points. Newman finished 2005 with eight pole positions, but only one win. He qualified for the Chase for the Cup for a second year in a row and ended up sixth in the final standings. He failed to win a race and missed the Chase in both 2006 and 2007. However, he found himself back in the winners circle early in 2008, taking victory in the 50th running of the 2008 Daytona 500 (the No. 2 of Kurt Busch finished second) to open the season, claiming Penske's first Daytona 500 win. Following the Daytona 500, the team struggled and Newman announced during the summer that he would leave to drive the No. 39 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing.
  David Stremme (2009)
  The No. 12 car lost its sponsor in 2009 as Cellco Partners, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, closed the deal to purchase Alltel in January 2009, thus voiding the terms of the grandfather clause that allowed the No. 12 car to run with a sponso
caption: The No. 12 car in 2007.
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