INDIANAPOLIS — Roger Penske fired team president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer on Wednesday in the wake of an Indianapolis 500 cheating scandal.
“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 is owner of the three-car team, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500. He has won the Indy 500 a record 20 times.
Two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and teammate Will Power were found to have an illegally modified part on their cars ahead of Sunday’s final round of qualifications for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Neither was allowed to qualify and both on Monday were dropped to the back of the field and will start 32nd and 33rd. Rival teams have been arguing it is not enough since it’s the second cheating scandal in two seasons and illegal cars potentially bumped Jacob Abel of Dale Coyne Racing from the field.
Cindric and Ruzewski had already been suspended by IndyCar for the race and both teams fined $100,000. It is the second consecutive year they were suspended from “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
The trouble for Team Penske began before the fast 12 shootout on Sunday, when rival team owner Chip Ganassi was among a chorus of competitors who accused it of cheating. They noticed unapproved changes had been made to the rear attenuator, a safety device designed to absorb and reduce the force of impacts, and the assumption was the modifications would have given the two Team Penske cars an aerodynamic advantage in their four-lap qualifying runs.
Further investigation showed Newgarden’s winning car from last year which is displayed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum has the same illegal modification, as did the car Team Penske brought to the White House last month. Rivals claim to have photos indicating the modification has been in place for some time.
What made the outrage even greater that is was just one year ago that Team Penske was caught in a push-to-pass scandal in which Newgarden was found to have access to an additional boost of horsepower when he should not have at the season-opener. He was stripped of his win and Penske — suspended Cindric for two races, including the Indy 500.
Cindric is the biggest name to fall in this scandal. He’s a member of the Team Penske Hall of Fame and has been with the organization since 2000 as President of Penske Racing Inc. He’s been long assumed to be Penske’s successor on the racing part of Penske’s empire.
Cindric 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.
But Penske’s right-hand man in February was stripped of most of his roles although he said he chose to step back as the overall leader of the organization. He remained president of the IndyCar program.
Cindric is the father of NASCAR driver Austin Cindric.