Will Power calls Penske dismissals ‘a pity,’ Josef Newgarden tight-lipped

INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden wouldn’t say much about the drama surrounding his attempt at a third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory, as Newgarden and teammate Will Power attempt to rally from the rear of the field on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden views his challenge as a “mountain” that he “absolutely” can win after upheaval in the Team Penske organization.

“Right now, I’m trying to remain — what’s the way to put this — trying to remain happy,” Newgarden said. “This is the Indy 500. I look forward to this time of year every season.

“I can’t wait. … To see all the people that show up and make this what it is, I look forward to that. That’s how I feel right now. I’m ready to go racing.”

INDYCAR officials found the Newgarden and Power cars had attenuators with the seams filled (considered an illegal modification) prior to the qualifying session Sunday for the top-12 cars from qualifying Saturday. Newgarden and Power were eventually moved to the rear of the field, their strategists were suspended for the 500 and their teams were fined $100,000.

Those penalties were issued on Monday morning by INDYCAR and about 48 hours later, Roger Penske announced he had dismissed three main members of the organization’s INDYCAR executive team – president Tim Cindric, managing director, Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer. In addition to their executive duties, they also served as team strategists for each of the Penske drivers.

“I don’t want to disappoint or offend anybody,” Newgarden said during his Indianapolis 500 media day news conference. “I’m here to talk about the race.”

Newgarden will have engineer Luke Mason as his strategist. Scott McLaughlin (who starts 10th after crashing Sunday morning and never presenting a car for the final qualifying round) will have engineer Ben Bretzman as his strategist. Power will have Jonathan Diuguid as his strategist. Diuguid filled in as Newgarden’s strategist last year.

“It’s kind of a shock and a pity,” Power said about the dismissals. “They’re all extremely good at their job. It was just the pressure from outside.

“Roger had to make a tough decision, but I can tell you these were very credible people. They really were. The infraction was very minor. It wasn’t a performance gain.”

The amount of performance gained could be debatable. But what’s not debatable is the impact it had on the Penske brand, as Penske Corporation owns the three race teams, the INDYCAR Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The qualifying infraction could be characterized as significant but not major, since it’s unclear if there was a performance advantage. That’s different from the one last year at St. Petersburg. That’s where Newgarden and McLaughlin were disqualified (Newgarden had won the race) for engaging push-to-pass on the restarts before regulations allowed them to do so closer to the end of the first lap on the restart.

Those two big penalties in about 15 months cost the three executives their jobs.

“Those three guys are friends of mine and have done a tremendous amount in my career to get me to this point,” McLaughlin said. “I guess you could say there’s a sadness from my perspective.

“At the end of the day, I drive for Roger Penske. I respect the decision. I understand the decision. We move forward. … People forget just what Roger’s done for this sport in general, and that definitely gets thrown to the side a little bit, which I find a hard time not being passionate about that.”

Power said Penske told them he didn’t sleep the night before making the decision to release three lieutenants who had been with the organization for at least a decade (Cindric had been there since 1999).

Tim Cindric posted on X: “While my conscience remains clear through all of the noise and accusations, I’m grateful to have so many great people to draw strength from in times like this. Still standing tall!”

As far as being angry or wanting to beat anyone who might have pointed out the issue to INDYCAR officials, Power said he isn’t focused on what happened.

“I’m just very focused on the race. I’m not really out to get anyone,” Power said.

“It’s the circumstance that it is, and we’re all very motivated to have a good day, sort of try to put this stuff behind us. News cycles move pretty quick, so if you can throw a win in there, that would certainly be a good way to move forward.”

McLaughlin said he was disappointed in his garage peers who threw Penske under the bus but not for anything they might have done to point out the violations to INDYCAR officials.

“That’s part of the game,” McLaughlin said. “I get it. … That’s racing. That’s how it is.”

There are few who would doubt that the Penske organization can move forward.

“I don’t think the team is going to be affected at all, to be honest,” said former Penske driver Helio Castroneves. “Those cars still are really darn fast.”

Team owner Ed Carpenter, who is also driving in the race, said conversations were productive this week as INDYCAR continues to work toward having a more independent entity (from Penske) when it comes to officiating and technical inspections.

“It’s obviously a tough situation for everyone, whether you’re talking the Penske drivers, especially the personnel that’s no longer with the team, but also the rest of the teams and drivers, our partners,” Carpenter said. 

“That’s probably the most disappointing thing to me, is that we’re at a point in our sport where we have so many good things going on, so much momentum around this month, that it’s changed the storylines a little bit.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass

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