Team Penske Axes Top Executives Days Before Indy 500 After Qualifying Controversy
All three of the team members fired had been with the team for many years
If you wanted some serious drama ahead of the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500, boy, oh boy, are you getting it.
As you may be aware, Team Penske — the series' winningest team, owned by Roger Penske, who also owns the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway — has been under the microscope after two of the team's cars failed pre-qualifying inspections after it was found that the attenuators on the No. 2 of Josef Newgarden and the No. 12 of Will Power had been altered.
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That's a no-no since this is considered a spec part and can't be altered in any way.
The controversy deepened as photos started making the rounds that showed that Newgarden's 2024 Indy 500-winning car, which is currently sitting in the IMS museum, has the same alterations.
The No. 2 and No. 12 were bumped to the last row of the grid, while executives Tim Cindric and managing director Ron Ruzewski (both of whom worked as strategists as well) were suspended and teams were assessed $100,000 fines.
However, on Wednesday, Penske announced that Cindric, Ruzewski, and general manager Kyle Moyer had all been fired.
"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."
This is the second scandal that has gotten Team Penske some heat over the last two seasons. The other one involved misuse of the push-to-pass system at last year's Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin won the race, but was stripped of the win a few weeks later.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks to say the least, and it will only get more interesting when the green flag flies on Sunday afternoon.
Coverage starts at 10 am ET on FOX while the race itself is scheduled for 12 pm ET.