After 2 Executives Are Fired By Penske In Response To Cheating Scandal, Team Does Some Soul Searching

Roger Penske fired his top three executives at Team Penske after two of the Penske cars were found to be illegal. Penske fired team president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer on Wednesday in the wake of this cheating scandal at Penske’s beloved Indianapolis 500.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said in a statement. “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.”

This statement and the firings of the three executives was Penske’s first public reaction since two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and teammate Will Power were found to have a modified spec part that was illegal on their cars before the final round of qualifications for the 109th running of ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’.

Penske has won the Indianapolis 500 a record 20 times and is the owner of the three-car team, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500.

Penske held a team owner’s meeting remotely after the firings, where he took responsibility for his team’s actions.

“What he did in firing three people is a big deal,” Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan told the Associated Press. “I think everyone recognized how big of a deal this is to Roger and now it’s just a question of how to move on and how to make sure tech doesn’t miss these things again.”

Newgarden and Power were not allowed to qualify on Sunday when the illegal modifications were pointed out. Both drivers on Monday were dropped to the back of the field and will start 32nd and 33rd. Since this is the second cheating scandal in two seasons, rival teams have argued that it was not enough.

Newgarden is attempting to become the first driver in history to win three consecutive Indy 500s, which no driver has ever won starting from the last row.

Cindric and Ruzewski had already been suspended by IndyCar, which would make it the second consecutive year that they were suspended from the Indianapolis 500.