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Austin Cindric Addresses His Father Being Fired From Team Penske In Wake Of Indy 500 Cheating Scandal

May 25, 2025  ·
  John Trent

Austin Cindric, the son of former President of Team Penske Tim Cindric, responded to this father being fired in the wake of an Indy 500 cheating scandal.

Team Penske fired Tim Cindric after IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch declared that the cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power failed inspection due to a “body fit violation on the rear attenuater.” Following this failed inspection, Roger Penske fired Tim Cindric, IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moyer on Wednesday. He said, “Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams. We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”

Tim Cindric had previously been suspended by Team Penske after it was discovered that Team Penske cars had extra push-to-pass including winner Josef Newgarden at St. Petersburg last year. Newgarden was stripped of his win while his teammate Scott McLaughlin lost this third place finish.

Austin Cindric addressed his father’s firing while speaking to the media head of the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte. He said, “Obviously, what happens in Indy — I’m just as much of a fan and spectator — but, obviously,  when family is involved, right, you got to understand it from both sides. And I feel like from every step of the way since I started racing for the team in 2018 I feel like between myself, my pops, and Roger [Penske] and most involved I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job at separating personal life and professional life. And I see this as no different.”

“Racing can be a cool industry. It can be an incredibly rewarding industry and past that it’s not something that I have weighing on me heavily for this weekend. And for my pops, I love my dad and it’s kind of about all I had to say about it.” he stated.

He later added, “Professionally, I’m in no different place than I was a week ago. I feel like we have a lot of momentum on our team right now, on the 2 car. I’ve never felt better. I’ve never had a better start to a season. So for me, I’m more focused on execution. I feel like we’ve had some really fast race cars and some good opportunities.”

“The interesting thing for me about my first three years in Cup is it was the first time I was actually in meetings with my dad. And that ended at the beginning of this year, so I feel like there really is only a personal connection to any of the news from this week,” he concluded.

What do you make of Cindric’s comments?

NEXT: Hendrick Motorsports Signs William Byron To Four-Year Extension

Author: John Trent