Team Penske announced on Tuesday (May 7) that multiple suspensions were issued for crew members on defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden‘s team heading into the Month of May.
INDYCAR had announced in April that the team had illegally overridden the push-to-pass system at the opening round of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which Newgarden won before eventually being disqualified. The team then conducted their own review to implement corrective action outside of the sanctioning bodies penalties.
“Following the penalties to the Team Penske INDYCAR team and drivers after Long Beach, Team Penske has completed an internal review,” the team said in a statement. “After a full and comprehensive analysis of the information, Team Penske has determined that there were significant failures in our processes and internal communications.
“As a result, Luke Mason (No. 2 Race Engineer) and Robbie Atkinson (Senior Data Engineer) will be suspended from Team Penske for the next two INDYCAR races including the Indianapolis 500. In addition, Ron Ruzewski (Managing Director, Team Penske INDYCAR) will also be suspended for these two races, along with Tim Cindric (President of Team Penske), who has accountability for all of Team Penske’s operations.”
Besides the Indy 500, the crew members will miss the upcoming Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday (May 11).
Tim Cindric, who is president of Team Penske’s racing operations which include NASCAR, IMSA and IndyCar, has been a lead race strategist for all of Newgarden’s championships as well as his Indy 500 win last year.
“For Ron and I as leaders of this team, it’s not about what we did, it’s about what we didn’t do,” Cindric said. “It is our responsibility to provide for the Team and all our drivers with the right processes to ensure something like this can’t happen.
“For that, I apologize to Roger, our Team and everyone that supports us. In that regard, as the overall leader, I failed, and I must raise my hand and be accountable with the others. This is a team, and in my position, it’s the right thing to do.”
Since INDYCAR announced the disqualification penalties on April 24 that stripped the St. Pete win from Newgarden, a third place from Scott McLaughlin and points from all three cars, there has been intense scrutiny and doubt on how the team handled the news. Multiple owners and drivers at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix…
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