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Roger Penske, the owner of Team Penske, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and INDYCAR, has taken accountability for the violations Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Will Power committed in the Fast 12 session of Sunday’s qualifying for the Indy 500 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).
In an exclusive interview with FOX Sports’ Jamie Little, Penske said he was “totally disappointed” by the violations, which marked Team Penske’s second major technical violation over the last two years, and that he “didn’t help” the integrity of INDYCAR. That led Team Penske to dismiss three of its top executives on Wednesday: longtime executive Tim Cindric from the Team Penske race team organization, INDYCAR managing director Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer.
“I’ll really have to go back four-and-a-half years ago when we bought the speedway and I said, ‘No. 1, that I would invest capital, get the best people and we’d take the series IMSP and certainly in [the] motorspeedway into higher levels.’ I think we’ve done that. Then, I look at my right hand, and I say, ‘What about Team Penske?’ When I think about Team Penske, we really have had an organizational failure two times. Not once, but two times,” Penske told Little when asked what his response was to the news of the violations.
“Believe me, it hurts me in my gut when you think about it. But I look at it this way: There’s a certain amount of credibility you have to have — it’s integrity, individually and collectively, our team and the sport. I think we let people down. I made some management changes that we announced today and I think we’ll move on. Our goal is to win the race this upcoming weekend.”
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Penske doesn’t believe there are any conflicts of interest involved in this situation, but admitted that his side hasn’t done a good job of presenting itself in the right manner.
“I would say this, as I look at my response to that and what my M.O. has been over the last four-and-a-half years: I’ve not been on a pit box. I’ve not been in race control. I’m not in inspections. I’ve got nothing to do with officiating, especially with the rules,” Penske said when asked about potential conflicts of interest. “No. 1, I can look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘I’ve done the right thing.’ Obviously, we have not done a good job in the optics in the people outside of this. These two violations certainly show that I need to be more diligent and where we’re going as a team.
“I would challenge, if we go back and look at what we’ve tried to accomplish and we’ve made a lot of progress, but I think this independence is very important for the credibility of the series, teams, everyone else and the fans that follow INDYCAR.”
EXCLUSIVE: Roger Penske, Chairman of Penske Corp, sits down with Jamie Little to address the Indy 500 qualifying rules violations that led to the dismissal of three Team Penske employees
As Penske’s officiating body was the one that found the violations with Newgarten and Power’s vehicles, Penske seemed open to the idea of an outside officiating operation governing the INDYCAR series.
“For probably the last six months, we’ve talked internally as INDYCAR, Mark Miles and Doug Boles, and some outside input on how we can be more independent from the operational side of the racing — inspection, race control, etc. — so we certainly expect, and I would expect, that the team at INDYCAR and PE will take a look at that and we may take some action as we move forward,” Penske said.
While Penske seemed open to making changes to the officiating operations surrounding INDYCAR, he vehemently disagreed with the idea that Newgarten and Power should be barred from Sunday’s race. The two drivers will be sent to the rear of the field for the 109th Indy 500, instead.
“Those cars went through inspection on Saturday, got the sticker, they performed in the top 12 and were available to run on Sunday,” Penske said. “From that point on, there was a question about our cars on Sunday — we actually pulled a car and did not make a run because of the question from the officials. But as far as I’m concerned, they’ve earned the right to be in the 109th Running of the Indy 500.”
Newgarten enters the weekend as the two-time defending Indy 500 champion. His 2024 car had the same modifications to the attenuator that the two penalized cars on Sunday did.
Penske explained why the cars looked similar.
“I would say we had nine attenuators that were modified by Dallara at the beginning of 2024, and those have been rotated through the cars over the last 15 months,” Penske said. “We also had newer ones that we bought and those have been in the same batch. 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 the situation was not right from the standpoint from the officials on Sunday.
“But when I go back 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.”
Penske said that he had a call with other team owners to go through the process about what happened over the weekend. He shared what his message to the owners was to Little.
“People have come to me and said, ‘You’re supposed to be a leader of this sport and here you have these two situations.’ I think the integrity of this sport, I didn’t help it any,” Penske said. “From my perspective, what I’ve got to do, and I told this to the team owners, I’ve got to take the role on, along with the Penske Entertainment leadership, and gain back that credibility. I know that the speedway here this weekend is 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 inspections or any rules violations.
“So, my thinking is we’ve got to make it better. I have to help do that in a way that I’m not affecting anything beneficial for our team.”
Now, Penske is focused on race day.
“We’re going to have one of the greatest races we’ve ever had here.”
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