How Penske feels about latest drama

Team Penske is making headlines ahead of the 109th Indianapolis 500 for the wrong reasons and it hurts “The Captain” in his gut as questions also surround last year’s winner.

As Team Penske prepares for its pursuit of a hat-trick of wins with Josef Newgarden, it has been rocked by a cheating scandal.

Both Newgarden and Australia’s Will Power were disqualified from qualifying after modifications were found on the Attenuator – the rear impact structure that is seen just before the rear wing.

Due to the modifications only been seen in certain batches, it has been a luck of the draw for the drivers with Scott McLaughlin’s car staying legal, but the car he drove to a record-breaking 2024 pole not.

This comes just over a year after Team Penske was also found to be running too much boost at the 2024 season opener.

As a result, Team Penske has given the flick to one of its longest and highest profile figures, Tim Cindric, whose son Austin races for the team in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Australia’s Will Power was unable to fight for pole after being disqualified. Image: Penske

Team Penske founder Roger Penske spoke with Fox Sports for the first time since the scandal and admitted it has been tough to take.

“I would say that I’m totally disappointed with the outcome, certainly on Sunday,” he said.

“It’s a world-class event, the best racing event in the world. And the last thing I want to do is tarnish it with any kind of issues from the standpoint of any inspection or any rules violations.

“My thinking is we got to make it better. I have to help do that in a way that I’m not affecting anything beneficial for our team.

“When I think about Team Penske, we really have had an organisation failure two times, not once, but two times. And believe me, it hurts me in my gut when you think about it.

“But I look at it this way, that there’s a certain amount of credibility you have to have. 

“It’s integrity, individually and collectively, our team, the sport.

“I think we let people down. I’ve made some management changes we announced today. I think we’ll move on. And our goal is to win the race this coming weekend.”

Photos have circulated that suggest the cars Newgarden and McLaughlin drove to victory and pole respectively last year may also be illegal.

Scott McLaughlin flying to pole in 2024. Photo by Phillip Abbott / LAT Images)

Penske did not deny that due to the batch of attenuators that were received.

However, he made it clear the cars were given the all clear in the immediate aftermath.

“I would say yes. I would say we had nine attenuators that were modified by Dallara back at the beginning of 2024 and those have been rotated through the cars over the last 15 months,” he said. 

“We also had newer ones that we bought and those have been in the same batch and that’s why you see that Scott McLaughlin didn’t have an issue with his car.

“From my perspective when you think about the attenuators and what happened there my question to you is what would we do we know that the situation was not right from the standpoint from the officials on Sunday?

Josef Newgarden wins the 2024 Indy 500. Photo by Phillip Abbott / LAT Images)

“But when I go back to night to 2024, that car was taken apart piece by piece in detail following the race and it was said to be completely legal for the win.”

Meanwhile, Cindric himself who had been at Penske since 1999 as President farewelled with a short social media statement.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Cindric wrote.

“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.”

The Indianapolis 500 will be this Monday morning AEST.

Photo by Scott R LePage / LAT Images

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