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‘Roger’s got to clean his house up’: IndyCar owners meet with Roger Penske over scandal

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7 months ago

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‘Roger’s got to clean his house up’: IndyCar owners meet with Roger Penske over scandal

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LEEDS, Ala. – Nine IndyCar team representatives lined up outside Roger Penske’s maroon, gold and black Prevost motorhome and traipsed in single-file less than an hour before qualifying at Barber Motorsports Park, summoned by the man who found out Monday on a flight home from Europe that his series caught his racing team cheating.

During what was characterized as a roughly 15-minute meeting that covered more than just Team Penske’s cheating scandal, its dubious excuses and series president Jay Frye’s move to discard Josef Negarden’s St. Pete win and Scott McLaughlin’s podium. Those present characterized Penske as “contrite”, “candid”, “bothered” and “very honest.”

“Roger’s not in there making excuses,” Bobby Rahal told IndyStar on Saturday evening while sitting outside his own RV. “You’ve got to believe he may never have been more embarrassed in his life. His team let him down, and he’s not standing by for it.

“He’s taking his medicine. What more can you do?”

Penske, who touched down in Alabama on Saturday morning for the third points-paying IndyCar race of the year, requested the meeting which included seven other IndyCar team owners – Chip Ganassi, Michael Andretti, Mike Shank, Dale Coyne, Ed Carpenter, Ricardo Juncos and Rahal. Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward attended on behalf of his program, with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown attending Formula E’s Monaco E-Prix this weekend. AJ Foyt Enterprises president Larry Foyt was present on behalf of his team’s namesake.

“I think, wherever possible, it’s good to get that group together to try and move us forward,” Ward told IndyStar. “I think it was appreciated. I think the conversation was good, and it’s best to have those behind closed doors where people feel they can be honest – and it stays that way.

“Fifteen minutes of chat heading into qualifying probably isn’t going to be enough, and I don’t think anyone would say they came out of there with good answers, per se, but perhaps we now have the ability to come and ask questions to get those answers and constructively suggest what it might take to get there.”

A bad copy-and-paste: Tim Cindric explains how Team Penske ran afoul of IndyCar rules

‘It’s my organization, and I’m responsible’

As Penske rooted his Penske Porsche World Endurance Championship program to its second podium finish of 2024 in as many starts last Sunday, the sterling reputation of his championship-laden, reigning Indy 500-winning IndyCar team was fading halfway across the world. During that morning’s pre-race warmup ahead of IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, it became glaringly obvious that software controlling Team Penske’s push-to-pass capabilities was amiss.

Soon after team president Tim Cindric and managing director Ron Ruzewski were called to race control, both sides discovered that the CLU (central logger unit) in Penske’s No. 2, 3 and 12 entries contained a code that overrode IndyCar’s control of when overtake could be used. A quick fix that made all three cars ‘legal’ for the race later that day was made, but there was soon suspicion that the suspect code had been in Penske drivers’ setup profiles for months.

It’s origin, Cindric would learn, dated back to the intensive manufacturer testing for IndyCar’s yet-to-be-debuted hybrid unit in August of last year, when Cindric told IndyStar that his engineers had altered code to have free reign over the ability to test the hybrid system’s capabilities alongside IndyCar’s longstanding overtake system. In the leadup to St. Pete, engineers had simply copy-and-pasted those driver profiles into each driver’s 2024 machines, forgetting to change back the code, according to Cindric. No driver, engineer or team official was actively aware of the advantage entering the St. Pete weekend, or in the six weeks before St. Pete – a story many rival team owners say they don’t believe.

Newgarden claimed Friday he and others on his No. 2 team – where Cindric serves as strategist – were under the impression IndyCar had given drivers the ability to use overtake on starts and restarts for the first time in his career, leading him to push the button three times during a pair of restarts – two of which helped propel him back towards the lead of a race that he paced for 92 of 100 laps after starting on pole.

‘You think we’re all stupid?’: IndyCar reacts to Team Penske’s rules violations

Allegedly unaware of his multiple infractions, the team and Newgarden claim its three-car program pressed forward in the ensuing six weeks, and say no one became aware of the No. 2 car’s misinterpretation of the rules or thought anything of the anomalies in its push-to-pass data – which included McLaughlin hitting the button once “out of habit” and not noticing it.

In the days since the penalties were announced Wednesday morning, many of Penkse’s rivals say they’ve ridden a rollercoaster of emotions that began mid-week with shock and slid to disgust and dismay, as drivers and team officials rolled out stories and excuses that no one IndyStar has spoken with have accepted.

“To me, one of the big questions is Chevy had to have known about it,” Rahal told IndyStar. “I think there’s a lot of other people that need to answer questions that aren’t necessarily in the Penske organization. ‘How did it get that far? How did it happen?’

“But I don’t believe for a moment that Roger knew of it, let alone condoned it or approved of it, and I really do believe he’s very embarrassed. I feel bad for Roger. I don’t think anyone has ever accused him of trying to break the rules – particularly with the role he’s in now, where he owns the series. I think he’s very bothered by it, and I think the team put Roger in a bad position.”

Penske told IndyStar he was on a flight home from Europe on Monday when he received a call from Frye – the first time the team and series owner had been alerted to the Long Beach incident.

“I called Tim to get his understanding,” Penske wrote in a message to IndyStar earlier this week. “I told him to look and see if we had the same situation in St. Pete, and if we did, to call Jay right away and give him the details.”

Penske opted not to discuss the details of Saturday’s meeting. “I’m sorry to create this mess,” he said as he stood up at the end of a brief sit-down with IndyStar inside RP1. As he extended an outstretched hand, he said plainly: “It’s my organization, and I’m responsible. There’s nothing that I can say, other than, ‘It’s my responsibility.’”

‘I don’t really believe the story’: Gavin Ward discusses Team Penske’s push-to-pass violations

Bobby Rahal: ‘I don’t think Roger Penske is a cheater’

Without question, there’s work to do. No team owner who spoke with IndyStar on Saturday afternoon said they came away with a markedly different attitude to the situation – as appreciative they may have been for the meeting and Penske’s willingness to confront IndyCar’s first race-winner DQ in nearly 30 years.

“I went in there neutral and came out neutral,” Shank told IndyStar. “(The meeting) was good. It was stable, and it was good for the future, too. There was no BS. It was all straight truth, and that’s what I love about him.”

Coyne described it as “candid,” a sit-down where “nobody held back anything.” Ricardo Juncos said he felt as if Penske “put his face on the table.”

“This is what men should do, and I appreciate that a lot,” he continued. “I think (the meeting) was too quick, to be honest, but at some point, we needed to have it.

“I feel for (Penske), right? Because I admire him as an owner, so he’s a reference for my life. Like I always say, for me to be (in IndyCar), it’s an honor and a pleasure, and from him, I learn from the best. I think he’s an honest guy, and I would never doubt anything about him. It’s clear in my mind there is nothing he knew.”

Still, as Penske readily admitted, as much as he isn’t seen as the villain in the series’ latest soap opera, he remains in charge of what happens next. Frye, along with Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles, declared IndyCar’s investigation into Team Penske “closed” in a brief interview with reporters Friday – noting that Frye’s team reviewed Team Penske’s car-specific data for 2023 and found no evidence of illegal activity.

Frye noted that each car’s CLU will be locked series-wide, preventing the tinkering moving forward. He was unable to explain why IndyCar had let this advantage nearly go unchecked into a second race weekend, though. Entering Sunday’s race, for which McLaughlin and Power locked out the front row, Cindric has yet to offer a suitable explanation for his rivals as to how he and some of the best engineers in the business misunderstood one of IndyCar’s longest-standing rules, missed these overtake anomalies in-race and/or didn’t see them as bright red flags in the days after Newgarden captured his 30th-career win.

Some owners say they’re content moving on, simply satisfied that IndyCar’s response should prevent such an event from repeating. Others remain unsettled, deeming Cindric, Newgarden and others to be liars whose excuses have only dug them a deeper hole. “Roger’s got to clean his own house up,” Coyne said.

In multiple ways, this saga remains Penske’s storm to weather.

“I feel for Roger,” Rahal said. “That’s not how Roger works. I don’t think Roger Penske is a cheater.”

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