Roger Penske has taken decisive action in the wake of the latest cheating scandal engulfing his race team at the Indianapolis 500, firing his top three executives at Team Penske after two of the team’s cars were found to be illegal.
Among those fired on Wednesday were team president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer.
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said in a statement. “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.”
Penske, who owns the three-car team, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Indy 500, has won the prestigious race a record 20 times.
The firings and Penske’s statement mark his first public reaction since two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and teammate Will Power were found to have an illegally modified spec part on their cars ahead of Sunday’s final round of qualifications for the 109th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Following the announcement of the firings, Penske held a remote team owner’s meeting in which he took responsibility for his team’s actions. Some who dialed-in told The Associated Press that the meeting lasted 20 minutes and the owners were satisfied with the outcome. No owners called for the Penske cars to be kicked out of the race, and the only questions asked were about how IndyCar moves on from the scandal ahead of the biggest race in the world.
“What he did in firing three people is a big deal,” Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan told The Associated Press. “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.”
Helio Castroneves, who won three Indy 500s driving for Team Penske, was among the few who doubted the team was cheating and believed Cindric’s explanation that the illegal modification was for aesthetic purposes only.
“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,” Castroneves said. “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.”
Cindric, a member of the Team Penske Hall of Fame and a long-time executive with the organization since 2000, is the biggest name to fall in this scandal. He was elevated to the role of President of Penske Performance in 2005 and, until February, essentially ran the day-to-day operations of all of Penske’s racing properties. Although he stepped back as the overall leader of the organization in February, he remained president of the IndyCar program.
The firings and penalties come as rivals have been calling on Penske to address the situation since Sunday while questioning if IndyCar and the Indy 500 can continue to operate without an independent governing body absent of any Penske employees.
