Vince Kremer

Born: May 15, 1956
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 220 lbs.
Residence: Avon, Indiana
Wife: Judi
Children: Andrew (19), Kyle (15)

As Team Manager, Vince Kremer’s job is to know everything about running the day-to-day operations of professional race team. With more than 20 years of racing experience, he’s well suited for the role. He has worked as a mechanic, served as crew chief, driven a transporter, gone over the wall on a pit crew, displayed show cars and organized hospitality events. Today he has one championship and several Indy 500 rings as a testament to his success.

Kremer got started in racing in the mid-80s in his hometown of St. Louis, Mo., when he was hired by Penske Racing to work show car events. After 18 months in the show car division, he accepted an offer to leave St. Louis for Redding, Pa., to handle hospitality for owner Roger Penske. For the next year, Kremer handled all of the logistics of Penske’s personal motor home – driving the vehicle, coordinating set-up arrangements with the track, and planning the meals for hospitality events.

Kremer was just getting started in his diverse career. Over the next several years, he took on different roles within the Penske organization, including transporter driver, mechanic and pit crew member. He worked in Research & Development for test teams and in the garage and pits for Emerson Fittipaldi’s team. His Penske career includes championships, multiple Indy 500 wins, and a 1-2-3 finish for the team’s drivers in the 1994 championship standings. He took a break from racing for nine months in 1997, when family matters required him to be home. During that time, he stayed hands-on in auto mechanics working at Penske Auto Centers.

Soon he found that he missed racing. So, Kremer took his 10-plus years’ experience to Bettenhausen Motorsports (now HVM Racing), where he was named crew chief for then-rookie Hélio Castroneves for the 1998 season. Four years later, he won his first race with his new organization when pit strategy propelled Mario Dominguez from last position to the checkered flag at Surfers Paradise. The following year, Kremer was promoted to Team Manager.

Kremer has played a role in all of HVM’s wins and called races won by Dominguez, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Nelson Philippe. Today as Team Manager, he does “whatever needs to be done” to keep the team on track and competitive – personnel, travel logistics, purchasing, budgeting, IRL compliance and even filling in on pit crew when needed. The competitiveness of the sport and the cohesiveness of the team are what keep him going – and aiming for more success in 2009.