Penske president and Newgarden engineer suspended for Indy 500

Roger Penske has apologized for the “mistakes” that led to two of his drivers being disqualified from the IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg and has suspended a number of employees, including the team’s president of operations and the engineer of Josef Newgarden.

Penske says it has conducted and completed an investigation into the incident in St. Petersburg, in which the three drivers were able to use push-to-pass restarts in violation of IndyCar rules.

Team Penske president Tim Cindric claimed the problem was caused by a line of code being accidentally left in the cars’ software during a hybrid test.

Cindric’s role means he is effectively in charge of the racing team’s operations, with Roger Penske spread across a number of business interests. But Cindric also gives strategy for Newgarden’s car.

Luke Mason was promoted to Josef Newgarden’s lead engineer for 2023 and won the Indianapolis 500 with Newgarden – from 17th on the grid – in his first attempt at the race in that role. He was also suspended for two races.

Ron Ruzewski, general manager of Team Penske, and Robbie Atkinson, the lead data engineer on Newgarden’s car, round out the staff locked out for two races, the Indianapolis road course and the Indy 500.

“I recognize the magnitude of what happened and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I have dedicated so many decades,” Roger Penske said in a separate quote alongside the team statement.

“Everyone at Team Penske, as well as our fans and business partners, should know that I apologize and deeply regret the mistakes made.”

The race says

If you need an indication of how seriously Roger Penske takes his team violating IndyCar rules in St. Petersburg, this is it.

He may have just tasted his team’s 20th Indy 500 victory.

The Indy 500 is IndyCar’s Super Bowl. This single race is bigger and more important to win than the overall championship for probably 90% of the IndyCar paddock.

From the day after last year’s Indy 500 win, the team will have been working and optimizing the car for this year’s event, or at least running tests and simulations to develop new ideas.

It takes the sum of thousands of details to win an Indy 500.

Aside from the pit crew making more than five perfect pit stops, the other areas you need to get right are the car setup and how to optimize it during the race, as well as strategy.

The two people who covered these areas last year will not be available to Newgarden. Penske benched her.

Engineer Mason and strategist Cindric will both be watching the Indy 500 from the sidelines, as will Newgarden’s data engineer, who will add a hat trick of key people he’s missing.

Considering what this race means to IndyCar employees, this has to be the worst form of torture – not to mention punishment.

Roger Penske may have to look back and realize that his team’s actions in St. Petersburg not only cost him an IndyCar championship in the long run, but that he may also have doomed himself to being stuck at 19 wins for at least another year.

The team said in its statement: “After a full and comprehensive analysis of the information, Team Penske determined that there were significant errors in our processes and internal communications.”

Another statement from Cindric was later released in which he said he had failed to meet Penske’s standards and should be held accountable and accept his suspension.

“For Ron and I as leaders of this team, it’s not about what we did, it’s about what we didn’t do,” Cindric said.

“It is our responsibility to provide the team and all of our drivers with the right processes to ensure that something like this cannot happen. For this I apologize to Roger, our team and everyone who supports us.”

“Our most important task is to protect and strengthen the reputation of our brand and those who support us.”

“In this regard, I have failed as an overall leader and I must raise my hand and be accountable to the others. This is a team and in my position it’s the right thing to do.”

Team Penske was heavily criticized on several fronts, and many in the paddock did not believe Cindric and Penske’s explanation that the code had been accidentally left on the car.

In an emotional interview last month, Newgarden held back tears and said he could understand why many thought the story was hard to believe, but insisted he was telling the truth: that his No. 2 team thought it had a rule change made passport printing possible. which resulted in him using it repeatedly.

Scott McLaughlin – who won at Barber, the first race since Penske’s disqualification made headlines – said he used the impetus to overtake for just 1.9 seconds. Will Power was not disqualified for not using it, but was fined 10 championship points because Penske made the mistake of allowing the push-to-pass to be available when it should not have been available.

The fact that Roger Penske’s parent companies own IndyCar and the racing team that competes in it has drawn criticism.

Newgarden’s forfeit victory gave Pato O’Ward victory, ending McLaren’s winless IndyCar streak that stretched back to 2022.

Performance was the least affected among the drivers; The 2022 title holder is now one point behind leader Colton Herta in the overall standings.

The disqualifications have hit McLaughlin and Newgarden harder, as they are ranked ninth and 15th, respectively.

Penske’s engine supplier, Chevrolet, was also criticized by members of the paddock for failing to notice Penske’s push to use the pass between St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Instead, it was discovered by IndyCar after its push-to-pass system failed and the Penske cars were the only ones able to use it.

In a widely viewed statement, Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, said: “Chevrolet hired an outside law firm to conduct a thorough review of the matter, and they found no evidence that any Chevrolet employee had knowledge of or involvement in the matter .” ”