In the days before the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 it was discovered that the Team Penske cars driven by Josef Newgarden and Will Power had been unlawfully altered. As a result of the infractions fines were assessed, three Team Penske top employees were fired and the Team Penske cars were moved to the back of the field.
Having won the 500 for the past two years, Josef Newgarden was attempting the three-peat.
Team Penski president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer were all let go.
The name Cindric may be very familiar to race fans, Cindric’s son Austin drives the Team Penske number two car in NASCAR’s Cup Series. The young Cindric noted that his father’s firing had no bearing on his status with the company.
Penske, who owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway and gave the command to start engines before the race, said in a statement, “nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams. We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”
Roger Penske has had one of his cars win the Indianapolis 500 20 times.
In a meeting held remotely with team owners, Penske took responsibility for what happened.
Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan spoke after the meeting saying, “what he did in firing three people is a big deal. I think everyone recognized how big of a deal this is to Roger and now it’s just a question of how to move on and how to make sure tech doesn’t miss these things again.”
Cindric and Ruzewski had been suspended for previous actions involving questionable activities.
Penske rival question the integrity of IMS and the Indy 500 operating with just Penske employees and not by an independent governing body.
During qualifying efforts on the Sunday prior to the 500, team owner Chip Ganassi was among the competitors that accused Team Penske of “cheating” when it was discovered that unapproved changes had been made to the cars to give the drivers an aerodynamic advantage.
Upon further investigation, it was found that the car Josef Newgarden drove in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 – the car was on display at the museum – had the very same illegal modifications; as did the car Team Penske took to the White House celebrating Newgarden’s Indy win and NASCAR Cup Series driver Joey Logano’s championship last year.
There have been accusations by rival teams that the illegal modifications have been going on for some time.
Helio Castroneves has four Indy 500 wins – three of them with Team Penske – and he noted that Roger Penske requires all of his cars to be clean and pristine; adding that he thought the modifications were for aesthetic reasons. Speaking on the cars Castroneves said, “I believe they did something to look good. I don’t think that little (adjusted) lip is going to make them three miles an hour faster I know how Roger operates. He wants to make everything beautiful, perfect, shiny. I believe it was, again, a mistake, touching an area they’re not supposed to. In the rule book, they’re not supposed to touch. I believe what the series is doing is right. But they don’t need anything like that to go fast. I don’t see this as a situation that people are cheating. In terms of performance, I don’t think it would have changed anything.”
Andretti Global driver Colton Herta added, “do I think they had it for qualifying Saturday? Absolutely for sure. Do I think that’s why they were fast? Absolutely not. I’d imagine that would equate to the smallest margins of drag. It is still disappointing to see the team get caught up in something again, but sorry, this is way different than 50 extra horsepower and I won’t be passed because of what they did.”
Last year Team Penske was involved in a “push to pass manipulation” that allowed eventual winner Josef Newgarden access to some extra horsepower that was not allowed in the race prior to the Indy 500. Newgarden was DQ’d from the race and Tim Cindric was suspended for two races. Cindric has been a part of Team Penske for 25 years.