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"Penske Material" provides an inside look at some of the personalities, stories and moments that make Team Penske so unique. 

In 2020, heroes are viewed through a different lense. As we’ve adjusted to life during a pandemic, our avengers might be wearing a mask, but it’s the kind used for personal protection. And our champions don’t wear a cape – they go to work to defeat an enemy wearing hospital scrubs.

Since COVID-19, our heroes aren’t the fictional kind that leap tall buildings in a single bound. Many of them walk into a hospital every day and bravely treat sick patients while overcoming the threat of a contagious and sometimes deadly disease.   

Like so many Americans that are on the front lines in the fight against the Coronavirus, some members of the Team Penske family are also helping the cause, working as medical professionals and being a positive force in their communities. Dr. Bethany Mobley, Katherine Zimmerman and Kaylee Lynch all have spouses that work for Team Penske and they all set their own concerns and risks aside every day as they care for those in need.

Dr. Mobley, wife of Team Penske Director of Business Development Reid Mobley, is a pediatrician who works primarily at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C., but she also helps out at three other hospitals in the area. Her love of children guided her to choose as a career in medicine when she was in high school.   

“I always liked kids and I worked in daycare during the summers in college,” said Dr. Mobley.  “I always thought pediatrics was kind of what I wanted to do. And then in medical school you rotate through all the different types of specialties. This just happened to be the one that I really liked, and I didn’t change my mind to something else.”

Mobley and her husband have two young daughters, two-year-old Avery and her eight-month old sister, Callie. Dr. Mobley’s young family has influenced her to take extra precautions during this unprecedented time to ensure the safety of her loved ones, including undergoing a decontamination process as soon as she leaves work.

“I don’t wear any of the clothes that I wear to the hospital in the house,” she said. “All of that stays in my car. Our daughters haven’t been in my car since early March when all of this started. I shower as soon as I get home. I don’t see or touch anybody until all that’s done.”

Kathryn Zimmerman is the wife of Kyle Zimmerman, who is a Team Penske public relations representative and works with the No. 22 NASCAR Cup Series team and driver Joey Logano. Kathryn works as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department at a local Charlotte-area Medical Center. Zimmerman said she decided to pursue a career in the medical field after her mother battled an illness when Kathryn was a teenager.

“My mom wanted me to (consider a career in medicine) in high school because in her generation, girls were either a teacher or a nurse and back then I didn’t want to do either,” said Zimmerman. “She got really sick when I was 18 so I got to go to the hospital and see what nurses really do in an intensive care unit and then I was like ‘Hey, I can do that.’”  

The Zimmermans have three children and, like many people have during the pandemic, they have focused on the health and safety of their family over the last two months. Kathryn said the family has stayed home and altered their way of life, doing things like grocery pick up to minimize any further risk.

Zimmerman said one of the positives of the COVID-19 crisis is the overwhelming support that those in medical field have received while they try to provide relief from the virus and its effects. From the NASCAR Research and Development Center and other businesses donating much needed face shields to local merchants offering store discounts to health care workers, Zimmerman said she and her colleagues definitely appreciate the support.

“I think we had Krispy Kreme sent to work every day from somebody and some places were offering discounts and that’s nice,” said Zimmerman, who added with a laugh, “there are other people in the community that probably deserve it too, but I’ll take the discounts.”

Daniel Lynch is a mechanic for the No. 12 NASCAR Cup Series team and driver Ryan Blaney. His wife Kaylee is a Registered Nurse at a hospital in Statesville, N.C. who is oncology certified and also works with dialysis patients. She said she never imagined  she would be caring for cancer patients as her career.

“I’ve been on the same floor working with oncology patients for seven years and it’s never where I thought I would want to work,” said Lynch. “I always pictured myself in a trauma or emergency type setting but this was the first place I was hired, and I haven’t left. I do take care of a lot of patients who are at the end of life. We do, unfortunately, see sadder stories than we see good ones, especially dealing with cancer.”

The Lynch family is expecting their first child, and with that in mind, Kaylee has only gone to work and then back to their home over the last eight plus weeks.   

“I have not personally been going out myself because I just fear that I am at somewhat of a risk to catch this,” said Lynch. “I have literally not left the house since the middle of March except to go to work.”   

In addition to working during a “scary” time, Lynch said COVID-19 has also impacted the young family’s finances and she’s thankful that both she and her husband are still working – just in a different manner, like so many others.

“Financially we have taken a hit,” said Lynch said. “Even though I’m considered essential and I’m still working, my hours have been cut. I also teach nursing students at Mitchell Community College and the students have not been able to practice clinical at the hospital and won’t be able to for the remainder of the year.”

While there have been many challenges to face and overcome during the global pandemic, Team Penske thanks our new front line heroes for all they continue to do to help keep everyone safe and healthy.