Team Penske Announces IndyCar Personnel Changes, Including the Departure of Cindric

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

The aftermath of the technical violations by Team Penske during qualifying for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 has led to significant changes to the organization.

As of Wednesday, Team Penske confirmed the departures of INDYCAR Team President Tim Cindric, INDYCAR Managing Director Ron Ruzewski and INDYCAR General Manager Kyle Moyer.

On Sunday, the No. 2 and No. 12 entries driven by Josef Newgarden and Will Power, respectively, were unable to participate in Fast 12 qualifying after an issue was found during technical inspection. Although the two cars were originally slated to start 11th and 12th for the May 25 race, an investigation brought further penalties on Monday after it was found out there was manipulation to the rear attenuator. The entries were relegated to the rear of the 33-car field, along with forfeiting qualification points and pit positions, with the strategists – Cindric for Newgarden and Ruzewski for Power – suspended for the remainder of the event, and both entries fined $100,000.

Now, just two days later, the team has made a decision to part ways with the all three key members of its IndyCar program, with replacements yet to be announced.

A statement from Team Penske read: “Team Penske announced today the departures of INDYCAR Team President, Tim Cindric, INDYCAR Managing Director, Ron Ruzewski and INDYCAR General Manager Kyle Moyer from the organization. Team Penske will have further announcements this week related to personnel and replacements for this weekend’s Indianapolis 500.”

This was the second time in the past two years Team Penske has been at the center of a scandal that rocked the paddock. Last year, the illegal use of push-to-pass by Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin at St. Petersburg led to eventual suspensions for Cindric, Ruzewski, along with Luke Mason (Newgarden’s race engineer) and Robbie Atkinson (Power’s senior data engineer) for two races, including last year’s Indianapolis 500.

Roger Penske, who owns the team, along with the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, shared his stance on the latest situation.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said. “We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”