Team Penske announced on Wednesday morning that it has released three members of its IndyCar leadership.
IndyCar Team President Tim Cindric, IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moyer have all been released from the team with immediate effect.
All three of the high ranking personnel have been with Team Penske for many years, Cindric since the year 2000, and their firing is a major shake-up in the organization.
The announcement comes days after the team was discovered to have modified the rear attenuator on two of the team’s cars in an apparent attempt to smooth out visible seams.
IndyCar levied heavy penalties on Team Penske, including fines, suspensions, and the demotion of Will Power and Josef Newgarden to 32nd and 33rd on the starting grid for this year’s Indy 500.
Now the team has responded with high profile firings of its own.
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” said Roger Penske.
“We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”
Extra scrutiny is placed on Team Penske ever since Roger Penske purchased IndyCar in 2020 and continued to own and operate a race team within the series.
The team was also found to have raced with illegally modified software during the first portion of the 2024 season, and received major penalties at that time as well.
During a press conference held by IndyCar President Doug Boles two days before the most recent announcement, he said that Penske was devastated to hear about the additional infractions.
“I can tell you that Roger Penske would not condone this,” said Boles. “In fact, I had a chance to talk to Roger, and I can tell that this is devastating to him.
“Nothing means more to Roger Penske than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. He certainly loves racing across the board.
“This is something that I think he’s going to have to address at some point in time.”
The team will have further announcements later this week regarding short term and long term replacement plans.
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