The Month of May is nearly at its conclusion with the Indianapolis 500 less than a week away. While rookie Robert Shwartzman’s shock pole win should have dominated chatter among fans heading into Sunday, another Team Penske cheating scandal has overshadowed the occasion. The IndyCar team announced on Wednesday that it’s parted ways with its entire leadership staff. The second cheating scandal in two years raised questions about the competition’s integrity, especially with the potential conflict caused by Penske’s ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series.
This debacle began before Sunday’s 2nd-round qualifying session when the Penske cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power pulled out of line because one of them failed pre-run technical inspection. The spec attenuator at the rear of the cars had a gap filled in and smoothed. Series officials levied a raft of penalties against Penske for altering spec parts, including suspending both entries’ strategists and two $100,000 fines. Also, Newgarden and Power will start the race from the back of the field.
IndyCar’s integrity is at stake over poor officiating
The severity of penalties, or lack thereof, brought a wave of criticism from its rivals. McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said the Penskes should have been forced into the Last Chance Qualifier to defend their starting spot in the race, presuming their cars weren’t legal on Saturday either. This outcry came before Team Penske dealt its own internal punishments. The team announced the departures of team president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer. In a statement, Roger Penske said:
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race team. We have had organizational failure during the last two years, and we had to make the necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organizations for letting them down.
IndyCar, for its part, admitted that it missed the illegal modification during inspections because it was an area of the car that’s there for safety reasons. It’s a ridiculous excuse to not consistently check a safety component on a car that’s going over 230 miles per hour on a wall-lined track.
The series also mentioned that it’s looking to create an independent body to officiate the series and end Penske’s conflict of interest. It first reached a boiling point last year when it was discovered Penske drivers had illegal access to their car’s Push-To-Pass boost system. Josef Newgarden and his teammate Scott McLaughlin were disqualified from the St. Petersburg Grand Prix 45 days after the race. Newgarden was the race winner. While an independent arbiter won’t guarantee an end to cheating in IndyCar, it would end concerns that Team Penske is granted leeway that other teams aren’t.
