Team Penske Suspends Major Team Personnel For Two Races Including Indy 500 Following Scandal

The fallout from the Team Penske push-to-pass scandal is still coming and the team has announced that several high-ranking team personnel have been suspended for two races, including the series' marquee race, the Indianapolis 500.

You may recall that all three Team Penske cars were penalized ahead of the Grand Prix of Long Beach when it was found that two of the team's cars — driven by Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin — had made improper use of the push-to-pass button on starts and restarts at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

The push-to-pass button provides extra power on road and street circuits to aid in overtaking but was used improperly.

Newgarden was stripped of the race win and the team dealt with a slew of points penalties and fines.

Now, Team Penske — owned by motorsport legend Roger Penske who also owns the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway — announced self-imposed suspensions to several team members including team president Tim Cindric.

Cindric, as well as race engineer for Newgarden's No. 2 car Luke Mason, senior data engineer Robbie Atkinson, and Team Penske managing director Ron Ruzewski, will all miss the Sonsio Grand Prix — held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course — and the Indy 500.

"I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I've dedicated so many decades," Penske said in a statement. "Everyone at Team Penske along with our fans and business partners should know that I apologize for the errors that were made and I deeply regret them."

This was a tough situation and an unfortunate one at that. You hate to see people miss out on what is the IndyCar Series' Super Bowl, but the optics of the team owned by the guy who owns the entire series was not a good one.

I think the team handled it pretty well.

Last month, the team claimed that the software used during a test of the IndyCar series' still-in-development hybrid system was left on the car and allowed push-to-pass to be used.