'I'm sorry for them, but ...': Owner Chip Ganassi ready to put Indy 500 Penske scandal to bed

Indianapolis Star

23-05-2025

INDIANAPOLIS — Chip Ganassi said he feels the fallout from Team Penske's tech inspection violations ahead of Fast 12 qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 — leading to six-figure fines, a pair of 21-spot grid penalties and a pair of suspensions that turned into a trio of firings, among other things — were appropriate penalties levied by IndyCar brass and series owner Roger Penske himself.
'Look, I can sit here and sharp-shoot some comments by drivers, but I'm not gonna do that,' Ganassi told select reporters Friday morning at his annual "Chip on the bricks" media availability minutes before the start of Carb Day practice. 'My issues were with, well, everybody knows my issues and what they were about, and it's nothing personal. It's about the sport. It's about the Speedway, and it's behind us now.'
In the early moments of Sunday's scandal, as Team Penske crew members thrashed at the back of the team's Nos. 2 and 12 cars in hopes of bringing the cars' illegally modified attenuators back to code after they were spotted by the IndyCar tech inspection team during routine pre-session checks, it was Ganassi who was spotted being most emotive on pit lane, up in arms about Team Penske's attempted modifications that far exceeded what the IndyCar rulebook allows for once cars have been checked over.
At that point, teams are only allowed to change tire pressures and wing angles, and yet after IndyCar technical director Kevin 'Rocket' Blanch noticed the cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power had a seam between the attenuator's main piece and support panels had been filled in, sanded over and smoothed over, Penske employees were see bringing out grinders and blowtorches in an attempt to bring them back to their original spec conditions that the rulebook demands they be used in.
The cars' irregularities were spotted during inspection, but were still allowed to roll onto pit lane in the service of timeliness, and though ex-Team Penske IndyCar president Tim Cindric said there was a moment when the team believed they'd be allowed to fix the parts, Blanch eventually told the team they'd be allowed to make their Fast 12 runs but would have their cars checked again in post-tech and the results of those runs almost certainly tossed.
Initially, Newgarden and Power were set to start Sunday's Indianapolis 500 11th and 12th but, on Monday, IndyCar president Doug Boles went beyond the rulebook's demands, feeling as if letting those cars start where they might've qualified had they run Sunday with legal cars, and moved them to the last two spots on the grid. The cars' strategists Cindric and IndyCar team managing director Ron Ruzewski were suspended for the remainder of the event, and both entries were fined $100,000, lost their respective points gained in qualifying and lost their priority in the pit box selection process.
Wednesday morning, despite a large majority of the paddock coming to terms with the idea that the changes to several attenuators in Team Penske's rotation were unlikely to provide any competitive advantage and were likely done for purely cosmetic reasons, Team Penske announced its founder had fired Cindric, Ruzewski and IndyCar team general manager Kyle Moyer — the trio making up its three premier leaders — for what Penske termed its second 'organizational failure' in 14 months, events which have 'let down' the paddock and series fans and called into question the team's ability to properly and fairly govern and officiate itself given Penske's at least perceived conflict of interest.
Ganassi called Penske's decisions 'a big deal' and 'serious.'
'I don't know that it's going to help them at all in the race, getting rid of those three guys,' he said. 'I don't know the structure of their team, but any company where you lose the top three guys, it's not good.
'I'm sorry for them, but this is the fallout for these type of actions.'
Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin was the most vocal of the team's three drivers Thursday during media day, accusing members of the paddock of unfairly and unnecessarily blowing the news of the week out of proportion.
'I guess you could say there's a sadness from my perspective,' Scott McLaughlin said. 'At the end of the day, I drive for Roger Penske. I respect the decision. I understand the decision. We move forward.
'I'm disappointed in some of my peers and people in this room, just how it was taken out of proportion in some ways. It's frustrating that this has blown up like it has, and it's cost three people that I'm very close with their jobs.'
It would appear Ganassi's reference to 'some comments by drivers' may have been made with an eye toward McLaughlin's fervent defense of his team members past and present.
As part of the fallout from the events of this week, Boles and Penske both have confirmed for the first time IndyStar reports from last month that Penske Entertainment has put significant time and effort into forming an independent third party officiating and tech inspection arm the last six months, a project that if completed would help remove questions of IndyCar's independence with Penske owning Team Penske, IndyCar, IMS, Ilmor (which manufacturers engines for Chevy) and the promotion of roughly half the races on IndyCar's calendar.