Roger Penske, who owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar series and a major IndyCar team, didn’t wait long to react to a major embarrassment.
Penske’s team was penalized by his own racing series after the team improperly prepared team race cars for a run at the pole position for this weekend’s Indianapolis 500. That meant that two Penske entries will start at the back of the Indy 500 field on Sunday.
The Captain, as Penske, 88, is known, announced Wednesday he fired three leaders of his IndyCar team: Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski, and Kyle Moyer. No replacements were named.
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said in the statement issued Wednesday. “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.”
In 2024, Team Penske got caught in a cheating scandal. That involved illegal use of so-called “push to pass” software. Driver Josef Newgarden was stripped of his win for the first 2024 IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Florida.
That controversy died down after Newgarden won the 2024 Indy 500 late in the race. It was Newgarden’s second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory and Penske’s 20th Indy 500 win as a team owner.
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This year’s controversy arguably is more of a stain on the Penske brand.
Penske drivers Newgarten and Will Power will start 32 and 33 in the 33-car field because of the rule violations. That will make Newgarten’s task of winning a third consecutive Indy 500 much more difficult.
More broadly, Penske has used his image as a team winner to help his transportation businesses, which include auto dealerships and truck rentals.
Team Penske was known for professionalism and preparation. That image rubbed off on Penske’s larger business interests.
Today, Roger Penske wears many hats when it comes to IndyCar. He bought the Indianapolis speedway and the IndyCar series in a deal announced in 2019 which was completed in January 2020.
On top of everything else, Penske announced in November, he was acquiring the Long Beach street race, a major IndyCar event.
The latest controversy for Penske comes on the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Indianapolis 500 when the team owner was unable to qualify a single car for that race.
Until now, 1995 was the biggest embarrassment for Penske’s racing efforts.
Penske, the Lion in Winter, is IndyCar. How well the Captain reacts will tell a lot about where IndyCar in heading.
