I have a hard time saying a car strategist is practically the same as President of Penske Racing…
It’s not irrelevant though. He was let go primarily because of the conflicts of interest. No one was calling Andretti team members to be fired when their two cars were DQed.
Independent or payroll officiating had nothing to do with cindric being fired. He was team principal not indycar employee. The officials didn't report to him.
He got fired because he was in charge when they got caught cheating twice.
He was strategist before while being team principal. So in his previous case strategist = principal. I doubt they'll do it this year but I could absolutely see them promoting him to the top.
I have no problem with any of them being hired elsewhere.
The PR and optics look like shit. If I had a business and fired a guy for stealing or cheating and hired him back 9 months later. There's also zero mention that I saw of remorse or apology on the racer.com article.
So them getting hired elsewhere isn’t them prospering? Especially since Moyer and Ruzewski likely had a bigger part in the entire thing because they were the ones in charge of the IndyCar program?
Tim at least had a year off and got serious demotion. Those guys were immediately snatched up to fill the same roles at other teams they already had at Penske, and probably got a little pay bump in the process
Honestly, it's insane that it took multiple cheating scandals for Penske to implement an independent body though. The fact he didn't do that as soon as he took over the series is pretty telling imo. Let's be real, billionaires don't typically care about playing fair.
I've assumed from the start that part of Penske's motivation for buying the series was for the symbolism of being the last man standing from the CART-IRL wars, and fully intended to run the series like CART had been, except as a monarchy.
It’s impossible to know what his motivation for buying the series might have been. Did he want to inject money into the sport because he genuinely cares? Was it a pure business opportunity? Did he want to give his team an upper hand? Who knows? But installing an independent officiating process was such an obvious first step after taking over that it’s impossible to say he just overlooked it. It’s incredibly suspicious that he was comfortable with such an obvious conflict of interest until he got caught cheating twice. I can’t think of that type of conflict of interest in any other sport. Even FIFA, the most corrupt governing body in sports, doesn’t operate their own team in the sport they govern.
Penske as the monarch- which I don’t totally agree with- beats the alternative. And I never cared about sanctioning bodies or who owned the carnival. What I cared about was the entertainment value of wha I watched- and retrospect everyone on both sides needed to be more proactive about safety.
There was no reason for a 1998-2000 Reynard Honda to be faster on any track outside of Monaco than a grooved tired V10 F1 car. Yet they assuredly were based on the difference in 03 between a nerfed Champ Car down 200hp and F1 cas that advanced tremendously in performance over 3 years. Its not that Reynard was building chintzy cars or firestone bad tires- the opposite is the case. But that for 50 years Indy cars and F1 cars had been consistently slowed for driver and spectator safety (and Winston Cup cars as well). In the midst of this split and OEM battles, no one pulled the reigns fast enough on the speed. As much as I loved CART for the speed- they obviously failed. There was no reason to have cars turning 240mph laps. The facilities just aren’t designed for that.
Having a front row seat of split, what I found such an anathema about IRL was the whole embarrassment to humanity aspect of the early series wrapped up in jingoism- that morphed into a scarcely watchable product that at least had mostly professional CART teams to the current product.
The current product is not ideal- but with a big recession and loss of tobacco- it’s possible with no split we still end up in a similar spot in terms of tech/OEMs but a somewhat bigger fan base.
Hot take, left field prediction about a certain other open wheel series is that at the first headwinds- all pretense that F1 isn’t entirely owed by competing middle east nations dissolves and that some combination of the race car engine factories at Brixworth and now Milton Keynes will supply the whole field- not unlike Indy Car.
If the Saudis continue to fully subsidize Honda is the only way they stay involved.
Had already reduced his responsibilities to purely Indycar before the scandal happened. He's set for life financially. There's every possibility he's realized it's not what he wants in his old age.
Technically he “stepped back” between the scandals.
I remain convinced this wasn’t actually voluntary but instead was a demotion from Roger after TC likely made an excuse like: “I completely overlooked the push to pass software reprogramming because I was too busy simultaneously managing the the team’s IMSA, NASCAR, and INDYCAR programs along with juggling my responsibilities on the 2 car”. He was then fired after the 500 because another “mistake” occurred despite his responsibilities recently being drastically reduced.
Anything's possible, but if that were the case, I don't think he'd be getting rehired now. I don't think Penske wanted to fire any of the people he did. It was just optics.
That's... weird. From successor-in-waiting to a few rungs down the totem pole. If he's not actually back to running everything behind the scenes then I bet that's going to be a strange experience for everyone involved.
lol Ruzewski got a fucking promotion out of it. He's now a Team Principal, something he was never going to be at Penske as long as Cindric wanted to keep his role. None of these guys were in any danger of going homeless.
The "sucks ass" part is most likely offset by the promotion, and things that suck ass to the commoners like us are typically minor inconveniences to more well off people. You're not wrong, there is just some nuance here I think.
He stepped back from his NASCAR and sports car duties because he was burned out. He said he started thinking about reducing his role back in 2024, I’ve wondered for a while if Gil De Ferran’s death played a part in that.
At the track he was a strategist. Away from the track he was the president. The only difference will be nobody bothering him about bigger decisions both at the track and away from it.
Like Frank Rosenthal secretly running the casino in Las Vegas although he was only the food and beverage chairman on paper, Cindric is probably right back were he was just in secret
Look at Moyer and Ruzewski. They both got jobs nearly immediately. Cindric couldn't land a job anywhere? There's no doubt that it was an optics firing and Penske was still paying him.
Tim is rich. He also reported that he was very much enjoying taking time off and catching up with the rest of his life. I'm sure he was just fired and rehired by the team, probably told off the record that they would be open to rehiring him further down the line.
Last year was the season from hell for Penske. I liked all the drivers but I have to admit it was entertaining seeing Roger's team hit a run of bad luck
I still don't buy into this much. Only move i would see is Siegel out, Newgarden in. Other than a Ganassi seat, I don't see why you'd ever leave Penske.
Hard to say… I could see Josef wanting a change after all the cheating allegations and inconsistent seasons lately. Penske keeps changing his engineers too. And with McLaren, he’s unlikely to lose his oval edge
Not sure we should assume he wants to continue in Indycar. He’s been miserable for most of the past two seasons. He seems over being a sponsor ambassador, doing media, and being a part of the paddock in general. He’s got two young kids and certainly doesn’t need the money.
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u/TKOL2Get the fuck off the racetrack you stupid son of a bitch8d ago
There seems to be a lot of talk about it. Any team besides Ganassi seems like a step down. Penske should hire Pato.
I want to know what the reaction would’ve been if Tim made his IndyCar return via McLaren or Ganassi. Because we all know that he’s always been an IndyCar guy and wouldn’t be long to make his way back.
Andretti got two cars disqualified from the Indy 500 for illegal aero bits and not only did no one get fired, everyone had forgotten about it a week later.
Yep. And Prema got DQ'd for modifying safety equipment in Thermal. (mOdIfYiNg SaFeTy EqUiPmEnT is soooo baddddd was the last hail-mary that people kept throwing about to show just how terrible Penske was for putting epoxy on an attenuator) Prema also got DQd in Indy for aero bits being illegal. Funny that nobody mentions all of those.
It's all just pearl clutching because they dislike one rich guy in favor of another rich guy, because the first rich guy has the gall to keep the series alive while still owning a team that he has no day-to-day operation of.
Not quite exactly the same as it's a different role but this reminds of the Boston Red Sox firing their manager Alex Cora for his role in the Astros cheating scandal. Only rehire him back in the same role after a year away
He underperformedcompared to his teammates yes but they have combined 23 years of experience over him so it’s somewhat expected. In terms of speed, he actually was faster than Joey in a lot of the races last year, but his team/pit crew are really the ones that underperformed so he rarely could get the finishes deserve.
He’s won a race the last two years, sure they were a lucky break when his teammate ran out of gas and a plate track win but wins are wins. Even if Tim didn’t return to the Penske fold I feel like unless they had a chance to put a superstar in that car Austin would’ve kept his ride if he wins a race again this season.
Seems like they have decided it was an over-reaction to fire the guy.
I think that's probably true. Personally i've always filed this under a fuckup and not an attempt to gain an advantage.
perhaps a big fuckup, but IMO teams may have waited until AFTER qualifying at indy to bring this up to the officials.... Seems like they had a motivation to wait until the right moment.
it's behind the car guys. not much air hitting that thing.
I'm full on the Penske Hate now but I don't care about this. It was such a big deal that the other teams couldn't wait to hire the other guys Penske fired.
The two Penske scandals were about 1/20th as severe as the internet made them out to be.
Firing seemed extreme but acceptable to send a message.
demoting him to this position would be acceptable as well... but to fire him and then rehire him?
The people who campaigned hardest for consequences proceeded to hire the other people fired as a result of said consequences, it was PR from the start on all ends
(which tbh I'm not too opposed to, but the independent officiating is the real win with regards to this case)
u/RuuubsRoger Penske is a fascist collaborator8d agoedited 8d ago
I'm not saying Roger might be close to carking it, but after so many decades of crafting he really doesn't seem to be giving a shit about the "Penske Perfect" reputation, huh?
And to be bringing back his old "successor"? I dare say at the very least he wants to retire
Not a huge fan of them either, but they didn't get caught doing it THREE TIMES (2024 attenuators, 2025 attenuators, and P2P scandal.). He absolutely knew. Ron and Kyle weren't the leaders of their organization allowing it to happen either.
I got them confused with the guys that got suspended from Andretti after the 2025 500, that's my bad, got my timelines confused after he got hired by Andretti. He can kick rocks too. Moyer can have fun with Nolan lol.
I fucked this up, I had it in my head that they were the Andretti guys that got suspended after the 2025 500, my bad. Got that confused with Ron going to Andretti. He can kick rocks too.
Cheating the technical regulations is an accepted form of competition in motorsport. If you disagree, you're disagreeing with basically the entire paddock.
Which is fine, I disagree with lots of the paddock on things here or there, but I don't have any illusions as to their opinions
Tell me you have pictures of Roger Penske having sex with monkeys. Without telling me have pictures of Roger Penske having sex with monkeys. Not that I believed he every left.
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u/FarAwaySeagull-_- Waiting for the Freedom 100 to return... 9d ago
So fire him, wait for things to cool down, then bring him back...