Team Penske fires Cindric, other key officials involved in latest scandal

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16 Comments

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    1. Agree if true but that car was in subsequent races so they can’t prove if the modification happened before or after the 500.

    1. You failed to provide any logic for your statement. “QED”…is that supposed to be a mic drop? LOL.

    2. Rationale – they cheated and shouldn’t be able to compete. How hard is that to grasp?

    3. I know what QED stands for and actually means….its just hilarious you using it to try and make yourself seem educated.

  1. Don’t mess with The Captain. You have to appreciate his sense of accountability. No excuses. No explanations. Just fire those responsible and move on.

    1. Sure, wouldn’t you love to work for such a boss!?! No excuses …”Off with their heads”!

      I’d be more impressed if Penske held himself accountable. After all, it’s his team.

  2. It’s not clear at all that filling that seam violated the rulebook. The rulebook states that safety devices, like the attenuator, can’t be modified. Does filling the seam where the attenuator fits constitute modifying the attenuator, itself? It’s not clear. The teams are allowed to fill other seams in a car’s bodywork with sealer. But apparently not this seam because it adjoins the attenuator?! This is why Power’s car initially passed tech, because not even the tech officials were certain how to interpret or enforce this rule? Furthermore, it’s all about naval-picking nonsense! To think that a race that once encouraged innovation now enforces spec rules down to this microscopic level of triviality — it’s utterly ridiculous! Next, Indycar will be dictating where decals can be placed on the car, for fear that variation in placement might create some minute aero advantage! Yet, Penske fires 3 good men just so he can deflect public criticism from an ignorant media and self-interested competitors.

    1. Easy to sit here and interpret the inner workings of a massive organization and assume many things….especially intent. If they knowingly broke the rules, their departure is justified IMO. One still doesn’t know, nor will we ever, the whole story behind the Hybrid issue from last year and the #2 Car. And Roger is absolutely holding himself accountable bc these are 3 of the best at what they do and will likely have a massive impact on the results at the 500 for the Penske team as a whole, not to mention the rest of the season and the future of the organization. Don’t worry, those 3 will likely find jobs quickly…and if they don’t, then maybe there are some untold ethical issues and this was just the final straw(s)?!?

    2. The rule states what modifications can be made to the car. The sub-rule then specifies that any modification besides what is stated to be allowed is not allowed. Based on that, making ANY changes to the attenuator is NOT allowed.

  3. It was clear they unitized those assembly components which is a direct violation of the rules. There is a mechanical rigidity and aerodynamic advantage. That is cheating.

    1. By “unitizing”, you mean the joining seam was filled with sealer, exactly as is done in every other seam on the body of the car. The rulebook is not clear on whether this is a violation, unless you assume that the using the seam sealer in this joint amounts to modifying the attenuator. When I seal gaps between the window frame and brick surround on my house, am I “modifying” the window frame, the house, both, or neither? This is why Power’s car initially passed tech, because whether sealer can be used in this joint is a grey area in the rules. There are always grey areas in rulebooks, especially in racing regs. And the unwritten rule in racing has always been, take the grey. And if the tech inspectors disagree with your interpretation, you fix it and maybe you get a slap on the wrist. I suspect that’s what would have happened, here, had any other team done this. But instead, we get a mountain made of a mole hill because it’s in the interest of the sensationalist media and some competitors to push a story about how the dominant team, owned by the guy who also owns of the track and the series, is cheating. And 3 guys get thrown under the bus, so the owner can credibly signal that the race and the whole series isn’t rigged. It raises the issue of whether Penske should own a team when he’s effectively prevented from defending his people against this sort of nonsense, only because he also owns the track and the series.

    1. Thank you for posting the link to this article. As it objectively explains, the “modifications” to the attenuators were made for purely aesthetic reasons, only, and were not intended to effect performance, nor could they effect performance. McLaughlin’s car was not found in violation because it had an attenuator from a later batch, produced by Dallara, that didn’t have the unsightly glue stains and rough edges on the earlier ones on Power’s and Newgarden’s cars. For once, “Penske perfection” backfired!

      This is the kind of nonsense you get with a micromanaged spec series based on a 12-year-old chassis design — an obsession with the trivial … even when it’s immaterial and should logically be judged irrelevant!

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