Axe swings on Cindric amid Penske cheating allegations

Team Penske found itself in hot water with IndyCar officials after qualifying for this year’s Indy 500 when the Josef Newgarden and Will Power cars were both hit with technical breaches.

The issue was a modification to the rear attenuator, with the cars initially withdrawn from the Fast 12 before being dumped to the back of the field by the series.

An investigation from IndyCar journalist Marshall Pruett subsequently revealed that Josef Newgarden’s 2024 Indy 500-winning car was also fitted with the illegal blended attenuator.

Making the situation particularly awkward is that Roger Penske not only owns Team Penske, but the IndyCar Series, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The fall-out has now hit a new peak with Team Penske parting ways with three significant personnel – IndyCar 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,” said Roger Penske in a statement.

“We have had organizstional failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologise to our fans, our partners and our organisation for letting them down.”

Team Penske was infamously stung by a push-to-pass scandal last season, with Cindric and Ruzewski suspended for the 2024 running of the Indy 500 for that reason.

Cindric in particular is known to Australian race fans, having been a somewhat public face of the all-conquering DJR Team Penske effort that netted Supercars titles for Scott McLaughlin in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Even then there were scrapes with officials, such as the controversial 2019 Bathurst 1000 that saw the team fined $250,000 for the ‘debriss’ saga.

It was later revealed that the pole-winning DJRTP engine from the same event failed technical checks, earning another $30,000 fine.

While the engine had been used for qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout it was replaced before the race.