INDIANAPOLIS -- Tim Cindric grew up in Indiana, dreaming about playing in the state basketball tournament.

He also was introduced early to the Indianapolis 500 by his father, Carl, a longtime racing engine builder, and longed to win that other Hoosier institution.

	Cindric, right, helped Penske and de Ferran to an Indy 500 win this year.

Well, the president of Penske Racing has achieved success in at least one of the two Indiana events.

Thanks to drivers Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves, as well as his own organizational skills, Cindric is the owner of three Indy 500 winner's rings in as many years.

"I grew up probably 10 miles from here," he said Monday during a picture-taking session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track where de Ferran had given owner Roger Penske a third straight 500 victory less than 24 hours earlier.

"My father tried for years as an engine guy to win this race, and it never worked out for him," Cindric said. "I watched him struggle for years and years, so I appreciate the effort and the fact that this doesn't come around every day."

Cindric never made it to the basketball title, although he did go on after high school to have a successful career at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. He was a four-year letterman and an all-conference player at the school named for Tony Hulman, late owner of the speedway.

Cindric also came out of Rose-Hulman in 1990 with a degree in mechanical engineering that helped him catch on in racing as a design engineer and later as team manager for Bobby Rahal. While Cindric was learning his trade, the elite Penske team was falling on hard times.

In 1995, Penske failed to qualify a car for the 500 and, from midway through the 1997 season until the fifth race of the 2000 season, the all-time winningest team in American open-wheel racing didn't win a single event.

Carl Cindric had once built engines for Penske, and the team owner had closely followed the budding career of the younger Cindric. When it came time in October 1999 to make major changes in the team to get it headed back in the right direction, Penske called on the son of his old friend to lead the way.

It was a big challenge for Cindric, who was just 33 at the time.

"There was a philosophical change at that point because, before, it was a team that had always been built its own engines, run its own chassis and had (the same) people for quite a while," Cindric said. "It had evolved back into a one-car team and now we were creating a two-car team and working with new manufacturers. There was a lot going on. You really had to prioritize.

"This team wasn't used to working with the outside world, as far as the manufacturers. It was more on an island by itself. ... You had a real good core of people, and everybody just needed to put their egos aside and work together."

The turnaround was almost immediate.

"Tim's a highly motivated guy," Penske said. "The team has really come together under Tim's leadership. He brought discipline and experience and is really cool under fire."

On race days, Cindric is on the radio with Castroneves, while Penske works with de Ferran.

"He keeps Helio from getting too excited and Tim almost always makes the right call in the pits," Penske said.

Cindric has the same kind of admiration for his boss.

"Roger is probably the most demanding person you'll ever meet, but he's also one that appreciates loyalty and hard work," Cindric said. "He's certainly the catalyst for the organization because he's right there with you any time you need him."

Whoever is calling the shots, though, Team Penske has certainly snapped out of its late-'90s doldrums.

De Ferran got things restarted with a victory at Nazareth, Pa., early in the 2000 season, finally giving the team its long-awaited 100th open-wheel victory. The driver went on to win CART championships that year and in 2001.

Penske, who had been part of the CART boycott of Indianapolis after the rival Indy Racing League began competition in 1996, finally came back to the speedway in 2001.

With Cindric making a key decision on tires late in the race, Castroneves gave Penske his record 11th Indy win. After the team switched to the IRL in 2002, the Brazilian made it two in a row, and de Ferran's win Sunday made Team Penske the first to take three in a row at Indy since Lou Moore, 1947-49.

For Cindric, what once was just a kid's dream, has become a repeated reality.

"I used to sit in the stands. I was here every day I could be here from the time I can remember," Cindric said, gesturing toward the massive Indy grandstands. "Since we won in 2001, it's different when you come in under the tunnel.

"Before, I used to always dream of winning this race and what it would be like. Now you come in and you just reflect on last year or the year before that and all the good memories that you have, rather than just wanting to win it," he said.