The Indy 500 qualifying scandal led to dramatic Team Penske firings which saw IndyCar team president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer leave as team owner Roger Penske acknowledged ‘organization failures.’
The decision to dismiss top leadership was the culmination of a series of events that not only cast a shadow over one of motorsport’s most storied organizations but also raised questions about the standards of integrity in the sport’s most important race.
Team Penske, a dominant force in IndyCar with a record 20 Indianapolis 500 victories, entered the 2025 month of May as the clear favorite. The team boasted a formidable lineup including two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden who was aiming for an unprecedented third consecutive win and veteran driver Will Power.
The organization’s stature was further elevated by the fact that Roger Penske himself owns not only the team but also the IndyCar Series, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Indy 500 event itself, making the integrity of his operation a matter of both sporting and personal significance.
The scandal unfolded in the days leading up to the final round of qualifying for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. During routine pre-qualifying technical inspections officials discovered that both Newgarden’s and Power’s cars featured an illegally modified spec part.
Specifically, the rear attenuator—a component designed to absorb energy in the event of a crash—had been altered. The modification involved smoothing an uneven surface with an unauthorized material – a clear violation of IndyCar’s strict rules regarding spec components which are supplied by a single source to ensure fairness and parity across all teams.
The use of a modified part not only gave Team Penske’s cars a potential performance advantage but also threatened the integrity of the entire Indy 500 qualifying process.
IndyCar’s response was swift and severe. Both Newgarden and Power were disqualified from their qualifying runs and relegated to the back of the grid, starting 32nd and 33rd, respectively.
Additionally, Team Penske was fined a total of $200,000 and the race strategists for each driver—Cindric for Newgarden and Ruzewski for Power—were suspended from the race.
This marked the second consecutive year that Cindric and Ruzewski had been suspended from the Indy 500 following a separate “push-to-pass” scandal in 2024 which had already put the team’s leadership under scrutiny.
The gravity of the situation ultimately resulted to Team Penske firing the suspended officials. In a public statement issued on Wednesday, Penske expressed deep regret and took full responsibility for the organizational failures that had led to the scandal.
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said. “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.”
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Team Penske firing Cindric, Ruzewski, and Moyer was a decision not taken lightly. Tim Cindric had been with the team for 26 years, Ron Ruzewski had served for 21 years while Kyle Moyer had been with the team for 11 years.
Their collective experience and leadership had been instrumental in Penske’s sustained success. However, the repeated lapses in compliance with IndyCar regulations and the magnitude of the latest infraction left Penske with little choice but to make sweeping changes at the top.
The firings were announced just five days before the Indianapolis 500, leaving the team without its senior leadership at a critical juncture. No immediate replacements were named and the organization indicated that further announcements regarding personnel and replacements would be made in the days leading up to the race.
In the aftermath of the firings, Roger Penske convened a remote meeting with other team owners. During the 20-minute session he reiterated his acceptance of responsibility and outlined the steps being taken to address the scandal.
Reports indicate that the owners were generally satisfied with the outcome with no calls for the Penske cars to be excluded from the race.
“What he did in firing three people is a big deal,” Arrow McLaren team boss Tony Kanaan told The Associated Press. “I think everyone recognized how big of a deal this is to Roger and now it’s just a question of how to move on and how to make sure tech doesn’t miss these things again.”
