By David G. Firestone
During practice for the Indy 500, two Team Penske cars were busted for technical violation. This, in turn, led to the firing of Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer. Tim Cindric was the highest member of the team to be fired. According to Wikipedia:
“Tim Cindric served as the Team Manager for Team Rahal from 1994 to 1999, before joining Penske in October 1999. He was promoted to the position of president at Penske Racing in January 2006. He also serves as strategist for the Penske-owned IndyCar teams of Will Power (through 2016) and Josef Newgarden (from 2017). His teams won the IndyCar championship for the 2014, 2017 and 2019 seasons. He departed the team in May 2025, three days after Will Power and Josef Newgarden’s cars failed technical inspection for having a modified part during the Firestone Fast 12 in qualifying for the 2025 Indianapolis 500.”
The reason for the firing was the modification of a rear attenuator. What is a rear attenuator, I hear you ask, well, let’s look at a well-written article on Motorsport.com by Bozi Tatarevic.
“In order to understand what transpired at Team Penske, we need to start with the function of the rear attenuator on an IndyCar. This rectangular piece sits at the back of the car and is attached to the gearbox where it serves two basic roles. Its primary role is to absorb impact in a crash and reduce the g-forces felt by the driver. It also serves as the mount for the rain light assembly.
According to multiple sources that aren’t authorized to speak publicly, Team Penske started receiving these updated attenuators back from Dallara in early 2024 and members of leadership were not pleased with the aesthetics of the new glued-on panels as they showed a bright glue line that stood out and with a large raised edge. A member of the technical leadership is rumored to have instructed members of their team to “clean up” the edges on the pieces in order to make the bright glue stand out less so these technicians applied a dark compound to the edges and smoothed them out.
Once these attenuators were modified, they were cleaned up and coated with sealer – per the standard procedure for many carbon fiber parts at Penske – and placed into their parts rotation to be installed on the cars to start the 2024 season.”
This whole situation is amazing, since, realistically, it didn’t provide any on-track advantage at all, and was just for aesthetic purposes. Many fans are complaining that IndyCar overreacted to the violation. Realistically, there could be other reasons for the firings.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that were other things that were brewing in Team Penske. Looking at the standings, it’s clear Team Penske isn’t where they need to be, in terms of on track performance. I’m willing to bet that Roger Penske saw the opportunity to clean house, which isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes you have to take what isn’t working, throw it out, and try something new.
But this brings me back to something that’s not talked about as much. The fact that the owner of IndyCar also owns a team in IndyCar is a massive conflict of interest. Say what you want, but if the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB owned one of the teams while the rest were owned by outsiders, wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?
The fact is that Roger Penske does not look good here at all. He may have fired three of his top guys, but that still doesn’t make him innocent in all of this. If you are the owner of a business, and your subordinates make a mistake, even if you weren’t at said business, it’s still on you. Nobody blames the janitor when the company goes bankrupt. Nobody blames the guy in the mailroom when a major industrial accident happens. The top brass gets the blame.
Roger needs to sell Team Penske if he is going to own IndyCar. It’s just that simple. Even if he his not involved, his name is still on the team. He will still be blamed for everything, regardless of personal involvement. Any boss who claims that he isn’t responsible for his subordinate’s actions needs to be replaced anyway.
In addition, the conflict of interest will only make things worse. If the owner of the league’s team gets busted again, or suddenly starts seeing success without explanation, wouldn’t that look suspicious? Roger Penske has given his critics all the rope they will ever need to hang him with, and they will hang him at some point, it’s just a matter of time. This will not end well at all.
Sources Cited:
The Driver Suit Blog 