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IndyCar president says qualifying scandal is "devastating" to Roger Penske

IndyCar president Doug Boles held a press conference on Monday to break down the penalties that were issued to

On Monday morning, news rocked the IndyCar paddock as the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet of Josef Newgarden and the No. 12 Chevrolet of Will Power were sent to the rear of the field for the 109th running of the Indy 500. Both teams have been fined $100,000 each and their race strategists [Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski] have been suspended.

The reason? An illegal modification to the rear attenuator where a part was filled in and smoothed over in an apparent rules breach. Originally, the cars were pulled out of line for Fast 12 qualifying and were set to start on Row 4, but that has since changed dramatically.

Why McLaughlin wasn't penalized

As for the third Penske car of Scott McLaughlin, which was heavily damaged in an airborne practice crash, series officials did look at the rear attenuator of the No. 3 as well. Speaking to the assembled media at the track, IndyCar and IMS track president Doug Boles explained why he was not penalized in the end.

"We do have the attenuators from all three of these cars," explained Boles. "The #3 car attenuator from the crash with the crashed wing still attached to it was provided to us, and we still have it. That attenuator was not modified at all. So on Sunday, we can tell you by facts -- again, the lawyer in me -- that car was presented when it drove at least with an attenuator on the car that met all of the rules of the IndyCar Competition Rule Book. So the #3 car will start in (the) 10th spot, which will be the last car in the Fast 12 that did not get removed to the back of the field. So the #3 car will not have any additional penalties.

Why Abel has no path into the Indy 500 field

The other burning question surrounds Jacob Abel, the only driver who failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Some have argued that he should now have a place in the 33-car field and one of the Penske cars should be pushed out of the event instead. Boles disagrees.

"Transparently, the 33 fastest cars are in the Indianapolis 500," said Boles. "On Saturday all the cars passed tech. There was not a reason to look at those cars. They got through the cars, so on Saturday that qualification attempt should stand as far as I'm concerned.

"On Sunday is where we're talking about right now, the facts are that those cars did not meet to qualify in the 12. The rule says, if you get disqualified from the 12, you start 12th and 11th. We've gone one step further and put them in the back. Do I feel gutted for Jacob Abel? Absolutely. The guy is running our whole season. I know how important this race is to Dale Coyne. Dale Coyne and I have had arguments after arguments over whether we should guarantee starting spots at the Indianapolis 500. He and I are on opposite sides of that conversation, but in this instance, I don't think that the result for the 33 cars should be changed."

Roger Penske's stance and involvement

This is also an awkward position for Roger Penske, who of course owns the cars driven by Newgarden and Power, but also runs IndyCar in its entirety. This is not the first a scandal involving the Penske cars has arisen since Roger took control of the series with the 2024 push-to-pass (P2P) controversy being another unfortunate highlight. So where does Roger stand on all of this?

"I've known Roger Penske for an awful long time, and I've gotten to know him really well since November 2019," said Boles. "I don't think Roger Penske understands some of the things that might be going on.

"I get the optics challenge, and it's definitely something we should think about. I mean, how do you manage the optics challenge? A lot of these challenges I think are -- while they roll up to Roger at the end of the day, I think they are certainly below him. There are things that happen that don't ever get to Roger.

"I can tell you that Roger Penske would not condone this. In fact, I had a chance to talk to Roger, and I can tell that this is devastating to him. Nothing means more to Roger Penske than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. He certainly loves racing across the board. This is something that I think he's going to have to address at some point in time."

As for who made the final call to penalize Team Penske, Boles explained that it was a group of officials including himself and IndyCar CEO Mark Miles. However, he stressed that Roger Penske "was not involved" in the decision in any way.

"I didn't sleep at all last night," said Boles. "You probably can't tell, but I frankly didn't take a shower this morning. My hair is a mess. The first thing I did this morning was call Mark [Miles]. Mark basically said the same thing. The two of us sat down and started thinking through what is the appropriate thing to make sure that we're managing the integrity of the Indianapolis 500?"

Cleaning up the confusing timeline of events

Boles also clarified the timeline of events, as there were some discrepancies over how this all unfolded. Boles confirmed that officials noticed that the attenuator on Power's car may have been modified as he went through tech, but they weren't completely sure. Power's car made it out to the pit lane, but as more cars went through, they noticed that Newgarden's attenuator was the only one altered like Power's. That's when alarm bells began to ring.

"At that point in time Kevin [Blanch, IndyCar technical director] said to the car chief of the #2 [Newgarden], who was standing with him, will you please call the car chief of the #12 car [Power] and tell him to move the car aside because that attenuator also is illegal," said Boles.

Boles further explained the events that followed as Penske suddenly started working on their cars in the pit lane, much to the objection of rival teams. "It is not unusual for -- it's not common, but it is not unusual for our technical team to find something on a teammate car and actually go out onto pit lane and inspect a car, a teammate's car, just to ensure that if they found something on one car, it's not on the other," explained Boles.

"So the tech team did the job as they were supposed to. Some confusion happened on pit lane, I think, when members of the 12 car I believe started to grind on the back of the attenuator where it had been modified, which then created -- I think some rumors came out of that, but that was really the reason we were trying to think through the facts of that position."

The Penske team was informed that they could still qualify, but they would likely be disqualified in post-qualifying inspection. "The team chose to pull out of line and take that option versus qualifying and being disqualified for sure as they went through the tech line."

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Tim Cindric among 3 fired by Penske in wake of cheating scandal
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Roger Penske attempted to close the latest cheating scandal engulfing his race team -- this one at his beloved Indianapolis 500 -- by firing 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 Indianapolis 500 cheating scandal.

"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."

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

The firings and Penske's statement have been his first public reaction since two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and teammate Will Power were found to have an illegally modified spec part on their cars ahead of Sunday's final round of qualifications for the 109th running of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Penske after the firings were announced held a team owner's meeting remotely in which he took responsibility for his team's actions. Some who dialed-in told The Associated Press the meeting lasted 20 minutes and the owners were satisfied with the outcome; no owners called for the Penske cars to be kicked out of the race, and the only questions asked were about how IndyCar moves on from the scandal ahead of the biggest race in the world.

"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."

Neither Newgarden or Power were allowed to qualify Sunday when rivals pointed out the illegal modification. Both drivers on Monday were dropped to the back of the field and will start 32nd and 33rd. Rival teams have been arguing it was not enough since it's the second cheating scandal in two seasons and potentially illegal cars bumped Jacob Abel of Dale Coyne Racing from the field.

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

Cindric and Ruzewski had already been suspended by IndyCar for the race and both teams fined $100,000. It is the second consecutive year Cindric and Ruzewski were suspended from the Indy 500.

Rivals have been calling on Penske to address the situation since Sunday while questioning if IndyCar and the Indy 500 can continue to operate without an independent governing body absent of any Penske employees.

The trouble for Team Penske began before the fast 12 shootout on Sunday, when rival team owner Chip Ganassi was among a chorus of competitors who accused it of cheating. They noticed unapproved changes had been made to the rear attenuator, a safety device designed to absorb and reduce the force of impacts, and the assumption was the modifications would have given the two Team Penske cars an aerodynamic advantage in their four-lap qualifying runs.

Further investigation showed Newgarden's winning car from last year that is displayed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum has the same illegal modification, as did the car Team Penske brought to the White House last month. Rivals claim to have photos indicating the modification has been in place for some time.

Helio Castroneves, who won three Indy 500s driving for Team Penske, was among the few who doubted the team was cheating and believed Cindric's explanation that the illegal modification was for aesthetic purposes only. Penske, after all, requires everything he owns to be pristine and with as clean lines and looks as possible.

"I believe they did something to look good. I don't think that little (adjusted) lip is going to make them three miles an hour faster," Castroneves said. "I know how Roger operates. He wants to make everything beautiful, perfect, shiny. I believe it was, again, a mistake, touching an area they're not supposed to. In the rule book, they're not supposed to touch. I believe what the series is doing is right. But they don't need anything like that to go fast. I don't see this as a situation that people are cheating. In terms of performance, I don't think it would have changed anything."

Colton Herta of Andretti Global also did not believe this latest scandal was as damaging as last year's Team Penske fiasco.

"Do I think they had it for qualifying Saturday? Absolutely for sure. Do I think that's why they were fast? Absolutely not," Herta said. "I'd imagine that would equate to the smallest margins of drag. It is still disappointing to see the team get caught up in something again, but sorry, this is way different than 50 extra horsepower and I won't be passed because of what they did."

Herta is referring to last year's Penske scandal when the team was caught in a push-to-pass manipulation in which Newgarden was found to have access to an additional boost of horsepower when he should not have while winning the season-opener. He was stripped of his win and Penske suspended Cindric for two races, including the Indy 500.

Cindric is the biggest name to fall in this scandal. He's a member of the Team Penske Hall of Fame and has been with the organization since 2000 as President of Penske Racing Inc. He's been long assumed to be Penske's successor on the racing part of Penske's empire.

Cindric was elevated to the role of President of Penske Performance in 2005 and, until February, essentially ran the day-to-day operations of all of Penske's racing properties.

But Penske's right-hand man in February was stripped of most of his roles although he said he chose to step back as the overall leader of the organization. He remained president of the IndyCar program.

Cindric is the father of NASCAR driver Austin Cindric.

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Originally posted by urbanwarrior238:
I think Tony George is Ed Carpenter's step-dad IIRC