DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Roger Penske's empire just got bigger. No longer must he be content with more Indianapolis 500 victories than any other car owner. Now he's a Daytona 500 winner, too.

Somehow, it just seems right he won the 50th running of NASCAR's biggest race.

The Captain, as he is known by almost everyone in racing, has always had a way of winning the big one -- in Indy cars.

Now, Penske finally got THE big one in stock car racing, courtesy of Ryan Newman, of South Bend, Ind., who was pushed to the win by teammate Kurt Busch as the two drove past hard-luck Tony Stewart on the final lap.

``I know we did something special for The Captain,'' Busch said. ``Roger never put extra pressure on us to win this race. He does throw in a nice bonus in our contract if we do win this race.''

This victory's meaning was obvious as NASCAR has not been kind to the suave, silver-haired entrepreneur.

``We've been open-wheel guys, and, coming down here, it's been tough,'' said Penske, the winner of 14 Indy 500s. ``And this has got to go to the top of the charts here.''

Although the stock-car team had 82 poles and 57 victories in 927 races entering Sunday's race, there were no victories at Daytona International Speedway.

Penske has come close to winning Daytona before. Bobby Allison was the runner-up in a Penske car in 1975, and Newman finished third in 2006.

But this victory came as a surprise. Nobody gave Penske's Dodges, which hadn't shown any speed, much of a chance.

``I can say I've been coming here almost 30 years trying to get to Victory Lane here,'' Penske said. ``We've worked hard and we've come close, but this one was pure team effort.''

Though Penske Racing entered the race as long-shots, Penske said he knew his team could win.

``I think this year we were confident,'' said the 70-year-old. ``A lot of things had to come together. To me, we got a long way to go before we can sit at the table with (Hendrick and Gibbs), but we're coming close.''