Following an inner evaluate of the penalties assessed to Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Energy after improper utilization of the push-to-pass system throughout the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg in March, Crew Penske has introduced multi-race suspensions for 4 senior officers in a press launch Tuesday morning.
Penske will probably be with out crew president Tim Cindric and IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski for this week’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS Street Course and the Indianapolis 500 later this month. In an announcement from the crew, Cindric is being suspended as a result of he has “accountability for all of Crew Penske’s operations.” Cindric has been President at Penske since 2006 and has received 26 races as Newgarden’s strategist since 2017, together with the 2023 Indianapolis 500.
The North Carolina-based crew additionally suspended Newgarden’s race engineer Luke Mason, who has been on the No. 2 stand since 2023, and senior knowledge engineer Robbie Atkinson. Atkinson has been a part of the No. 12 crew with Will Energy since 2010, profitable two championships and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 on the way in which.
The suspensions come following an IndyCar investigation that discovered Crew Penske to be illegally utilizing the push-to-pass system on race begins and restarts, which is explicitly not allowed beneath sequence guidelines. The problem was revealed to sequence officers throughout the morning warmup earlier than final month’s race at Lengthy Seashore. An investigation discovered that Newgarden, who crossed the end line first at St. Pete, used push-to-pass thrice illegally, and gained a major aggressive benefit. In consequence, IndyCar disqualified Newgarden and McLaughlin, giving Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward the win over a month after the checkered flag flew. Energy didn’t use push-to-pass similtaneously his teammates, and was subsequently solely given a 10-point penalty.
“I acknowledge the magnitude of what occurred and the impression it continues to have on the game to which I’ve devoted so many many years. Everybody at Crew Penske, together with our followers and enterprise companions ought to know that I apologize for the errors that have been made and I deeply remorse them.”
– Roger Penske
Crew Penske claims that the setting was first added for hybrid testing in August 2023 and copied over into the 2024 setup. Newgarden gave an emotional press convention on Friday morning at Barber, putting the blame on himself and defending the actions of his crew to start the season. As a part of the sequence’ investigation, there have been no related violations discovered after hybrid testing final season.
Crew proprietor and Penske Leisure chairman Roger Penske met privately with crew house owners on Saturday at Barber and is believed to have apologized on behalf of his crew to his fellow house owners.
Newgarden at present sits at sixteenth within the standings, with McLaughlin in ninth, and Energy only one level behind chief Colton Herta in second. Personnel replacements have but to be introduced for the subsequent two races.
UPDATE: Tuesday, 9:00 AM
Tim Cindric has launched an announcement by Crew Penske on X. He takes accountability on behalf of himself and Ruzewski.
