Penske’s name has been at the centre of the controversy, which resulted in two of his cars being sent to the rear of the field for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
Illegal modifications made to the rear attenuator have been in use for more than a year but were only discovered during scrutineering on Sunday (local time) before the Fast 12 qualifying.
The knock-on effect has been the axing of Team Penske’s IndyCar program president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer.
It’s the second major controversy the team has been bogged down by. A little more than a year ago, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were disqualified for a push-to-pass breach.
There have been repeated questions about the conflict of interest given Penske’s role owning IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as owning a team.
On Thursday, Penske was asked about the constant criticism over his so-called conflict of interest.
“I’ve heard the word used – optics – and I would say this, as I look at my response to that and what my MO (modus operandum) has been over the last four and a half years, I’ve not been on a pit box, I’ve not been in race control, I’m not in inspection, and I have nothing to do with officiating, and especially the rules,” Penske explained, speaking with IndyCar broadcaster Fox Sports.
“Number one, I can look myself in the mirror and say I’ve done the right thing. Obviously, we have not done a good job in the optics for people outside this and these two violations you would call them certainly show the fact that I need to be more diligent and where we’re going as a team.
“If we go back and look at what we’ve tried to accomplish and what we have, we made a lot of progress, but I think this independence is very important as we go forward for the credibility of the series, the teams, and everyone else, the fans that follow IndyCar.”
Penske said that an independent governing body could be established in the wake of the saga and had been discussed with former IndyCar and IMS president Mark Miles as well as newly-appointed boss Doug Boules.
“For probably the last six months, we’ve talked internally as IndyCar, Mark Miles and now of course Doug Boules – some outside input on how we could become more independent from the operational side of the racing, inspection, race control, et cetera,” Penske explained.
“So we certainly expect, and I would expect, that the team at IndyCar and PE will take a look at that and may take some action as we go forward.”
On the same day that Penske axed three high-profile staff members, Penske met with IndyCar team owners in a bid to quell their concerns.
“I just had a call with all the team owners to go through the process through my thinking of what action I have taken because people have come to me and said you’re supposed to be a leader of this sport and here you have these two situations,” said Penske.
“I think that the integrity of the sport, I didn’t help it any from my perspective. What I have to do, and I told this to the team owners, I’ve got to take the role on along with the Penske Entertainment leadership and gain back that credibility.
“I know the speedway here this weekend it’s a world-class event – the best racing event in the world, and the last thing I want to do is tarnish it with any kind of issues from the standpoint of any inspection or any rules violations.
“My thinking is, we’ve got to make it better. I have to help do that in a way that I’m not affecting anything beneficial for our team.”
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