On the eve of the Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar team announced president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer will depart the company.
Cindric, Ruzewski, and Moyer acted as the strategists for Newgarden, Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin respectively.
The sweeping changes mean Mason will be Newgarden’s strategist with Raul Prados taking the helm as lead race engineer.
Mason, who hails from Perth, was a Supercars engineer with Erebus Motorsport before heading to the United States.
He helped Newgarden to victory in the 2023 Indy 500 but was one of four Penske crew members who sat out last year’s race, suspended following the team’s ‘push to pass’ scandal.
“Luke is going to be just fine,” said Newgarden of Mason’s new position as strategist.
“He’s one of the most naturally gifted race engineers I’ve ever met.
“I’m always excited when he’s on the stand. It will be no different on Sunday.”
Ben Bretzman will step up as McLaughlin’s strategist alongside lead race engineer Malcolm Finch, who hails from Auckland.
Finch raced V8s in New Zealand before turning his attention to engineering.
A graduate of the University of Auckland, Finch was part of Simon Pagenaud’s winning effort in 2019 and later became McLaughlin’s performance engineer, focusing on data.
Power will have Jonathan Diuguid as his strategist alongside lead race engineer David Faustino.
“He (Roger Penske) asked my engineer and all the engineers, What’s the best way to do this? They’re all very capable people on each car,” Power explained.
“I think it wouldn’t have mattered who they went with. I got Jonathan Diuguid, who is extremely experienced and has been an engineer and run Indy cars before.
“I think between Dave (Faustino) and Jonathan, those two guys are incredibly smart and understand strategy, everything. It’s a very strong group for all three cars.”
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