Roger Penske has taken major action after his racing team got caught up in a cheating scandal ahead of the Indianapolis 500. On Wednesday, Penske fired three of his top Team Penske executives — President Tim Cindric, IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar GM Kyle Moyer — after it was revealed that two of their cars were found with illegal modifications.
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said in a statement. “We’ve had some serious missteps over the last two years, and it was time to make changes. I want to apologize to our fans, partners, and everyone involved for letting them down.”
Penske owns not just the racing team, but also IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Indy 500 itself — a race he’s won a record 20 times. This was his first public response since it was discovered that Josef Newgarden, the two-time defending Indy 500 winner, and his teammate Will Power had an illegal part on their cars during the final qualifying round.
After announcing the firings, Penske reportedly held a remote meeting with other team owners, taking responsibility for what happened. According to sources who were on the call, it lasted about 20 minutes, and most seemed satisfied with how he handled it. No one pushed for Penske’s cars to be disqualified, and the focus quickly turned to how the sport moves forward.
Tony Kanaan, team principal for Arrow McLaren, told the Associated Press, “Firing three top guys is a huge move. It shows how seriously Roger is taking this. Now it’s about making sure something like this doesn’t slip through tech inspection again.”
Newgarden and Power were disqualified from qualifying last Sunday after rival teams raised concerns about an illegal rear part. On Monday, both drivers were penalized and moved to the back of the grid — they’ll be starting 32nd and 33rd, the last two spots. Some teams argued that the punishment wasn’t enough, especially considering this is the second time in two years Team Penske has been caught breaking rules — and that a potentially legal car, driven by Jacob Abel, was knocked out of the race because of it.
Newgarden is hoping to become the first driver to ever win three straight Indy 500s — something that’s never been done, and certainly not from the last row.
Cindric and Ruzewski had already been suspended by IndyCar and fined $100,000 each before Penske’s decision to fire them. This marks the second year in a row both were suspended from the Indy 500.
Some in the sport are now questioning whether IndyCar and the Indy 500 can operate fairly under Penske’s ownership without having an independent body overseeing rules and enforcement.
The controversy started before the “Fast 12” qualifying shootout on Sunday, when competitors — including Chip Ganassi — noticed an unauthorized change to the cars’ rear attenuator, a part designed to absorb crash impacts. The suspicion is that the change might’ve given Team Penske’s cars a slight aerodynamic edge.
To make matters worse, further digging revealed that Newgarden’s car from last year — which is currently on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum — had the same illegal part. So did the car Team Penske recently showed off at the White House. Some rival teams say they even have photos showing the modification has been around for a while.
Despite the backlash, not everyone believes Team Penske intentionally cheated. Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner with Penske, defended the team and suggested the illegal part might’ve just been for looks.
“I honestly think it was just about making the car look good,” Castroneves said. “That little tweak? It’s not giving them three miles per hour. I know how Roger operates — everything has to look perfect. I believe they touched something they weren’t supposed to. It’s a rules violation, sure, but not a performance booster.”
Colton Herta of Andretti Global also felt this incident wasn’t nearly as bad as last year’s controversy, when Team Penske was caught giving Newgarden access to extra horsepower through a push-to-pass exploit — an advantage that cost him his season-opening win and led to suspensions.
“Yes, I think they had the modification for qualifying,” Herta said. “But was that why they were fast? No way. It’s disappointing, but this isn’t the same as having 50 more horsepower. That was a real performance issue — this, not so much.”
Cindric’s firing is a big deal. He’s been with Team Penske since 2000 and played a huge role in running the racing side of Penske’s empire. Many saw him as the likely successor to Penske. Though he stepped back from a larger leadership role in February, he was still running the IndyCar program.
Cindric is also the father of NASCAR driver Austin Cindric.
