IndyCar stars Herta, Ericsson, Dixon react to Penske suspensions: 'Good for Roger because it's hard to do'
INDIANAPOLIS – While still expressing some doubts about the efficacy of the self-imposed punishment, IndyCar drivers reacted with a mix of surprise and satisfaction to Team Penske’s Indy 500 suspensions.
Team owner Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced Tuesday that he was suspending team president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and engineers Luke Mason and Robbie Atkinson after an internal investigation of the push-to-pass scandal from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg season opener.
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The Sonsio GP officially kicks off racing in May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The disqualifications of race winner Josef Newgarden and teammate Scott McLaughlin (who finished third) for using the horsepower boost button illegally on restarts prompted outrage from the paddock that called out Penske.
Among the most outspoken in the wake of the initial penalties was points leader Colton Herta, who said Newgarden lied by claiming he thought the rules allowing push to pass had been changed.
During a media availability Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Herta said he was “a little bit surprised” by the Penske suspensions but also pleased by the message that it sent to the rest of the paddock.
“It made such a a ruckus, I think it maybe put Roger in a position where he had to do something,” Herta said. “I'm sure he didn't want to, right? Because you want to have the best possible people on the cars for the race and especially for it to be two race weekends.
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Many drivers don’t feel much sympathy for the two-time series champion.
“Good for Roger because it is a hard thing to do, and that will affect them somewhat, At the very least, if they still have contact with the engineers, they don't have the strategists that they work with all the time, and guys that know the series really well. So obviously they're bringing in guys that have been in IndyCar in the past and know a lot about IndyCar, but there is still going to be an adjustment period for them. So, luckily, they'll have a month or basically, two weeks to kind of get up to speed before Indy, but still I think it surely affects them somehow.”
Considered one of the best strategists in IndyCar, Cindric called Newgarden’s 2023 Indy 500 win from the pit stand of the No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet. Ruzewski handle strategy for two-time champion Will Power (the only Penske driver of the trio to escape disqualification because he didn’t use push to pass illegally despite having access at St. Pete.
Team Penske also will prevent the suspended team members from communicating remotely with the team while cars are on track at the Brickyard this month (though they still would be permitted to communicate during debriefs and after hours).
Defending winner Josef Newgarden will be without race strategist Tim Cindric.
“It shows that they're taking responsibility,” 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson said. “You can always discuss how harsh should you be or not. There's always different ways to see it, but I think it was a reasonable punishment that's definitely going to hurt them for the month of May.
“I think for sure you get pressure on you when you're also running the series and the speedway and a team, so I think for sure Roger felt like he had to do this to show how serious he takes it as well. It shows that it's very important for Roger and the integrity of the sport.”
Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was a little more skeptical of the suspensions' impact on Penske. “We all did a pretty good job working remotely through COVID," he said with a wry grin.
Noting that Ganassi “would have fired someone” in such a situation, Dixon said the scandal still left a stain on IndyCar.
“It's just not a good look,” he said. “That was the whole problem with the situation anyway like I've said before. When you've got a team that's owned by the person that owns the series that owns the engine that's supplied (Penske owns Ilmor, which builds the Chevy engines). Even if it was something smaller, it's just it's a tough situation to be in. I think they're doing the best that they can with what happened.”
Ericsson said Andretti Global “would feel that for sure” if the team lost its top two competition executives as Penske did with Cindric and Ruzewski.
“They’re two of the most senior figures of that team,” Ericsson said. “Even though they can put in structures, and I'm sure everyone in Team Penske knows exactly how things are supposed to be done. But it's still in any sport, the leaders are leading, and everyone is sort of following that. To take away Tim and Ron is probably the two biggest leaders in that team. So it would be tough for them.
In an interview with Kenny Wallace, the Andretti Global owner says he would have handled the controversy ‘a lot differently.’
“Obviously, they have a lot of good guys. I'm sure there will be other people who would step up and do a great job. So it's not like ‘Oh, Penske is not going to be there fighting.’ I still see Penske as one of the main competitors for the 500. There's no doubt about that in my mind, but it's definitely tougher for them with this what Roger did.”
Echoing the sentiment of team owner Michael Andretti, Herta also said he thought Newgarden would have won at St. Pete even without having the illegally timed horsepower advantage.
“Even the cheating thing wasn't really that big of a deal to me,” he said. “The races that they were going to win, they were going to win regardless if they were doing that or not, so it didn't really affect things. I was just confused about their statements and how they were all very different.
“I never really had a problem with the cheating thing at all. It was what it was. Honestly, if I'm in that position, I'm pushing that button, too so it's kind of hard to say, but it was more about everybody contradicting themselves. That was like, ‘Come on, guys.’ ”
