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Roger Penske has indicated that he will step back from race strategy duties for Will Power due to Penske Corporation’s acquisition of the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Penske became one of Power’s strategists in 2018, having held the role for Helio Castroneves before the Brazilian was moved from the team’s IndyCar program to its then new Acura sportscar effort.
‘The Captain’ has not foreshadowed any wholesale changes to the management of the Hulman & Company assets which his firm is set to take ownership of.
However, he says that the role which he will take in the operations of IndyCar and IMS will be his new priority, with race day tasks set to fall to others within the wider Penske organisation.
“Certainly from a competitive perspective, I’m planning to really step down from being a strategist on the pit box,” explained Penske.
“You won’t see me there on race day. I think I’ve got a bigger job to do now, (which) is to try to see how we can build the series to the next level.”
Despite the change set to take place on the timing stand, Penske maintains that it will otherwise be business as usual at his racing operations, which encompass IndyCar, NASCAR, and IMSA Sportscars in the United States.
“I don’t know if there’s any more weekends (in a year) than 52, but if there are, I’ll probably fill them up with some racing opportunities,” he replied when asked about how much less time he anticipated being able to give to his IndyCar and NASCAR squads.
“My wife says… I tell her that this is my fishing trip and golf game. My golf game is not good these days anyhow. But look, I spent a lot of time at the tracks. I love it. I want to be there, and I think that’s a knowledge base for me, too. I’ll continue.
“The good news is that it’s a short flight here from Detroit to get to Indianapolis. We know a lot about it, and I think with the communications capability we have today, we can be connected from a business perspective.
“But from a racing perspective, I’m committed 100 percent to our team.
“We’ve got over 500 people down in Mooresville where we have all our teams, and with Tim Cindric as our leader, I’ll be working with him just as I have in the past.”
