Cindric among four suspended by Team Penske over IndyCar push-to-pass scandal

The decision takes out two of the most senior members of the #2 crew, of which Cindric is the strategist, with Newgarden’s Australian race engineer Luke Mason among the four suspended.

Will Power is also affected given Ruzewski is his strategist on Car #12 and Robbie Atkinson, the other individual suspended, is his data engineer.

The punishment is for the next two races, being this weekend’s road course encounter at Indianapolis then the 500 itself, a race which Newgarden last year won for the first time.

“Following the penalties to the Team Penske IndyCar team and drivers after Long Beach, Team Penske has completed an internal review,” read a team statement posted on social media.

“After a full and comprehensive analysis of the information, Team Penske has determined that there were significant failures in our processes and internal communications.

“As a result, Luke Mason (No. 2 Race Engineer) and Robbie Atkinson (Senior Data Engineer) will be suspended from Team Penske for the next two IndyCar races including the Indianapolis 500.

“In addition, Ron Ruzewski (Managing Director, Team Penske IndyCar) will also be suspended for these two races along with Tim Cindric (President of Team Penske), who has accountability for all of Team Penske’s operations.”

Roger Penske was also quoted in the statement, as follows:

“I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I’ve dedicated so many decades,” he said.

“Everyone at Team Penske along with our fans and business partners should know that I apologize for the errors that were made and I deeply regret them.”

Notably, no one from Scott McLaughlin’s #3 entry is among the suspended quartet.

Both Newgarden and McLaughlin were disqualified from the St Petersburg race, in which they were initially classified first and third respectively, given they had been found to have used push-to-pass on restarts.

Power, whose car was also carrying the illegal software which enabled the further breaches committed by his team-mates, escaped with just a 10-point penalty (two points in net terms) because he had not pressed the button on a start/restart.

While the 2018 Indy 500 winner has become collateral damage in the suspensions, the logical inference is that the Car #2 crew has been deemed culpable more so than any other.

The three Penske drivers had given as many different explanations of their actions back at St Petersburg, which is at least consistent with all three behaving differently to each other in that race.

McLaughlin claimed his single press of the button on a restart lap was out of “habit,” while Power said in a statement that he “followed the rules.”

Newgarden, who used the button illegally on three occasions, waited until a special press conference at the Barber Motorsports Park event to pass comment, when he claimed to be under the misapprehension that IndyCar’s rules had changed.

In a situation which even he admitted to be “almost too convenient to be believable,” his alleged misunderstanding was reinforced by the illegal code enabling push-to-pass at all times.

Cindric, however, had apparently not raised that explanation in at least two lengthy interviews he gave to American media outlets prior to that press conference, given it was not reported until Newgarden broke his silence.

When the rule misunderstanding was put to McLaughlin, he affirmed, “I know the rule didn’t change.”

As for the technical aspect of the breaches, Cindric claimed that the team had mistakenly copied code which it modified for the purpose of hybrid testing last August into the electronics for its race cars at St Petersburg.

The issue was only discovered by accident after a technical error meant push-to-pass was initially not enabled for the Long Beach Warm Up, yet the Penske cars were still using it.

Roger Penske, who is in the awkward position of also owning the IndyCar Series, admitted he was “embarrassed” by the episode.

Rival team owner Michael Andretti declared that he would have sacked someone had a similar breach occurred at Andretti Global without his knowledge.

Cindric and Ruzewski have been spared that fate at least for the time being, noting that the official line is a failure of process rather than deliberate wrongdoing.

That is a contrast to the position expressed by rival team boss in McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who said in the days after the disqualifications were handed down that the various excuses/explanation do not “stack up.”

Practice and Qualifying for the Indianapolis Grand Prix take place this Friday local time/Saturday morning AEST.

Statement from Team Penske, Roger Penske on team’s response to recent INDYCAR penalties: pic.twitter.com/KpAfOMLfm3

— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) May 7, 2024