Roger Penske: 'Proper investigation' led to 4 IndyCar team suspensions including Indy 500

After a pair of tumultuous weeks inside his IndyCar team and a week of independent internal review by Penske Corp.’s general counsel, Roger Penske maintains no members of Team Penske had any “malicious intent” in its push-to-pass scandal that led to a pair of disqualifications, $75,000 in fines and now four multi-race suspensions that will include this month’s Indianapolis 500.

Tuesday, the team announced two-race suspensions for team president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski, race engineer Luke Mason and data engineer Robbie Atkinson, following Penske’s visit Monday to the team’s Mooresville, N.C. shop to make final decision on how the team would move forward.

“Through that process, it was obvious there was no malicious intent with anybody,” Penske told IndyStar on Tuesday morning of the coding error that from hybrid testing last year and was left in software of all 3 of Penske’s cars for the season-opener, giving them the use of push-to-pass on starts and restarts that their competitors didn’t have. “Nothing was done on purpose, but unfortunately, it was left in the car and used during the St. Pete race by Josef (Newgarden) and Scott (McLaughlin).

“We determined that the people involved would be penalized, and the leadership said they had to take responsibility too.”

In clarifying, Penske noted that the decisions for Cindric and Ruzewski, who also serve as race strategists for Newgarden and Will Power, respectively, to sit out the 500 rested on the shoulders of the two veteran team officials.

“(Tim and Ron) led like real leaders should lead,” Penske said. “There was a process and communication failure, and they certainly weren’t going to leave two people out on an island. They felt they needed to take responsibility also.”

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Atkinson, Penske said, had been involved in inserting the software in the drivers’ setup profile software last August, with the implication that he should’ve removed it ahead of regular season competition this year. Cindric told IndyStar April 25 that the coding ended up in the team’s three cars due to a “copy-and-paste” error. On race weekends, Atkinson also serves as Power’s data engineer.

Mason, Newgarden’s race engineer, was part of the No. 2 crew that Newgarden said during a press conference at Barber Motorsports Park two days after the punishments were levied that had convinced themselves that rules on overtake use on starts and restarts had changed for the 2024 season – rather than just the $1 Million Challenge.

When asked Tuesday how that rule change misunderstanding could’ve taken place solely on the No. 2 car, when Cindric leads the entire team and when Newgarden said at Barber that he asked during St. Pete to be reminded of the change, Penske noted that a “failure in communication” was a major part of the findings of his general counsel.

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Power and McLaughlin told reporters at Barber that there had been no team-wide discussion about season-long push-to-pass rule changes, and both were perplexed as to how Newgarden and his crew had come to that conclusion. His competitors – drivers and team owners alike – were similarly confused and weren’t shy publicly and privately to levy claims of an outright coverup by the No. 2 entry.

“I can’t put words in the mouth of people in the paddock. They’ll make their own comments on the actions we took, but I stand 100% behind Josef,” Penske told IndyStar.

Penske, too, was adamant – as he was to team owners in a private meeting held inside his motorhome ahead of qualifying at Barber – that he was and is deeply sorry on behalf of the team, that he remains disappointed and that he knew nothing of Team Penske running afoul of the rules until it was caught during warmup at Long Beach last month.

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“I can look you and anybody else in the eye and say we’ve done a proper investigation on this,” Penske said. “This was a process and communication failure. You could decide however many races you wanted (for the suspensions) based on the circumstances, but certainly with the Indy 500 coming up and the impact that has on the team and everyone else, we thought this was something we had to do now, rather than wait and make it some other time to try and skip over the 500.

“I felt that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. I can look you in the face and say I wasn’t involved with this. I’m disappointed, and I know many people have their own thoughts on the situation, but I can tell you from my perspective that we’ve taken the action that I think was needed, and we’re going to move on.”

Those suspended – including Cindric and Ruzewski – will not be at the track or in Indianapolis-area for the Sonsio Grand Prix (May 10-11) or any activity around the 500, practice for which starts May 14, Penske said. They also won’t have any contact “with the cars or people” during any on-track activity, Penske said – including practice, qualifying and races. When asked whether they may be allowed to have communication with team members while cars aren’t on-track – i.e. texting and talking on the phone ahead of and after on-track activity for typical debrief sessions – Penske said he wasn’t certain.

He also didn’t yet know who would take over any of the four temporarily vacant roles in the interim, though he noted those decisions would be made this week.

When asked why no drivers – namely Newgarden, who played the most active role in the failures among his teammates – received any internal penalties (suspension or otherwise) and why he opted not to fire anyone – as Michael Andretti said last week that he would have – Penske affirmed he thought the decisions were fair and fitting of the investigation’s findings and that the drivers deserved nothing more than points penalties that series leadership handed down.

He also pushed back against any idea of a culture of stretching rules too far, after his NASCAR driver Joey Logano was found wearing an illegal webbed glove during qualifying earlier this year at Atlanta to gain a competitive aerodynamic advantage. Last year, his IMSA GTP program with Porsche was stripped of a win at Watkins Glen after the car’s skid plate was less than one millimeter out of tolerance at the completion of the six-hour endurance race.

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“There was nothing on-purpose (in IMSA), and Joey’s situation with the glove was obviously something he did that I didn’t like, and he understands that. But to think we’re on some route here to circumvent the rules, I would say that’s not the case,” Penske said Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s anyone out there who hasn’t had some issues that have affected their race or qualifying or their car going through inspection more than once.

“I don’t want to get into what other people have or haven’t done. I have to look at our own situation, but my conscience is very clear on this situation that, going forward, we’ll put the processes in so that this cannot happen. This was a process failure and communication failure.”

As to whether there would be any consideration towards selling IMS, IndyCar or his race team among concerns of a conflict of interest – which Penske shot down during his initial acquisition press conference Nov. 4, 2019, but which have cropped back up in recent weeks – Penske was perhaps his most resolute.

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“I will do nothing different than I’ve ever done since we bought (IMS) and owned the series and acted as the owner of the race team. My head is high, and we’ve taken action. It’s unfortunate, and I’m going to move on,” Penske said. “I’ve operated as the owner of IMS (and IndyCar) since the sale and haven’t been in the pits at any races and certainly haven’t been in race control. I feel I’ve honored my responsibility during the last four years.

“I can say to you that the track and series are not for sale. I feel if my reputation and actions I’ve taken the last 50 years aren’t good enough for people to understand how we do business, then I’m obviously disappointed.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Roger Penske: IndyCar team suspensions for Indy 500 'right thing to do'