TEAM Penske president Tim Cindric and ex-Supercars engineer Luke Mason are among four key staff members that have been suspended over the squad’s disqualification saga.
Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were belatedly excluded from the St. Petersburg season-opener in which they had finished one-three, due to the illegal use of push-to-pass at restarts.
Those DSQs headlined the sanctions issued by IndyCar, and now Team Penske has taken matters into its own hands by self-inflicting further disciplinary measures.
“Following the penalties to the Team Penske IndyCar team and drivers after Long Beach, Team Penske has completed an internal review,” read a statement released overnight.
“After a full and comprehensive analysis of the information, Team Penske has determined that there were significant failures in our processes and internal communications.
“As a result, Luke Mason (#2 race engineer) and Robbie Atkinson (senior data engineer) will be suspended from Team Penske for the next two IndyCar races including the Indianapolis 500.
“In addition, Ron Ruzewski (managing director, Team Penske IndyCar) will also be suspended for these two races along with Tim Cindric (president of Team Penske), who has accountability for all of Team Penske’s operations.”
Team owner Roger Penske added himself: “I recognise the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I’ve dedicated so many decades.
“Everyone at Team Penske along with our fans and business partners should know that I apologise for the errors that were made and I deeply regret them.”
Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts the next two rounds of the season, with the series racing on the road course this weekend, before the 108th running of the 500 on May 26.
Three-time Supercars champion McLaughlin is ninth in the standings after his last-start win at Barber.
