Penske makes further crew changes for Indy 500

Power has been handed a dedicated Strategist again, with Jon Bouslog to call the shots for Car #12 after Race Engineer David Faustino pulled double duty last weekend for the Indy Grand Prix, while Paulo Trentini Filho continues as fill-in Data Engineer.

Bouslog had filled in as Newgarden’s Strategist at the Indy GP, with Jonathan Diuguid taking over on Car #2 for this fortnight.

Diuguid is nowadays Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Managing Director, but had been Helio Castroneves’ race engineer for four seasons and then Scott McLaughlin’s in 2021.

Raul Prados, lead race engineer for the IMSA half of the Porsche programme, continues to temporarily fill the breach on Car #2.

Why there have been further changes is not clear, although there are multiple possible explanations.

Power had expected that Faustino would continue to cover strategy on top of engineering duties, although he did admit he may have erred in calling the Queensland in for an undercut during the Indy GP.

Alternatively, it is worth noting that both the IMSA SportsCar Championship and World Endurance Championship were racing that weekend, at Laguna Seca and Spa-Francorchamps respectively, meaning Diuguid was unavailable then.

Power won the Indy 500 in 2018 before Newgarden did so a year ago, when then-new Race Engineer Luke Mason and regular Strategist Tim Cindric were on the #2 timing stand, and they otherwise would be again this May if not for Roger Penske suspending them.

“I think a lot of it will be the same,” Newgarden said on Peacock.

“It’s definitely different for me having a unique voice, certainly missing Tim, you know, I like having him in my ear, but we’ve got a great team here with the 2 car.

“A lot of it’s holistically the same, we’re going to be going through the same process that we always do and it’s great to be back here.

“I’m glad we had that test last month that always helps things and feeling excited to be here because it’s difficult to not get excited about this place when you roll in the front gates and it’s a beautiful track.

“I think we’re going to have some fast cars at Team Penske this this month. And we’re really very, very focused on trying to get through qualifying and then having a good race.

“I just don’t think you can beat the history and, when you win the race, it just completely changes your perspective. So, it’s been very cool to win it and to be here with this group trying to defend our title.”

Neither Power nor Newgarden set a representative lap time in a virtual washout of Day 1 Practice, which turned out to be a reprieve for the latter given Car #2 struck early technical problems.

“We got an issue, we’re diagnosing,” he added. “We just got a sensor that’s off right now.

“We’re just trying to take our time and we don’t want to run the car without everything fully going, and just want to be safe.”

The Tennessean struggled in the Indy GP but Power, who is missing Ron Ruzewski as Strategist and Robbie Atkinson as Data Engineer, finished second for the second race in a row.