Team Penske will be without some key members of its team for the Indianapolis 500.
Team owner Roger Penske announced Tuesday that Team Penske President Tim Cindric and two others would be suspended for Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix and the May 26 500 following an investigation into a push-to-pass scandal that has been the IndyCar Series’ biggest story. so far this season.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were disqualified from the season-opening St. Petersburg Grand Prix after their engines were found to have software that allowed them to use the P2P feature on starts and restarts. The extra boost is disabled per IndyCar rules immediately after starts and restarts.
Team Penske’s Will Power received 10 points, but was not disqualified after his car also had the software. However, it was determined that Power did not use the feature while the other two drivers did.
The team has said the engines were misconfigured after a test session and were not returned to race standard. The Penske issue was discovered on the season’s second race weekend at Long Beach when race control saw all three cars running P2P when the feature was not enabled during a pre-race warm-up session. Since the problem was first discovered in Long Beach, the St. Petersburg disqualifications came weeks after the race ended.
McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was declared the winner of the race after finishing second between Newgarden and McLaughlin.
“After a complete and thorough analysis of the information, Team Penske determined that there were significant flaws in our internal communications and process,” the team said in a statement.
Penske’s role in IndyCar has made this more than just a run-of-the-mill rule violation. Penske also owns the IndyCar Series after purchasing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series in 2019. Newgarden is the defending Indianapolis 500 champion and Team Penske has long been one of the best teams in the Series. IndyCar.
“I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I have dedicated so many decades,” Penske said in a statement. “Everyone on Team Penske, along with our fans and business partners, should know that I apologize for any mistakes that were made and I deeply regret them.”
In addition to Cindric, Team Newgarden engineer Luke Mason, Team Penske engineer Robbie Atkinson and Team Penske general manager Ron Ruzewski are also suspended for the next two races.