CONCORD, N.C. — A shockwave was sent through the racing world on Wednesday (May 21), when Tim Cindric, president of Team Penske’s NTT IndyCar Series operation, was released alongside managing director Ron Ruzewski and general manager Kyle Moyer.
The firings came in the wake of the penalties Josef Newgarden and Will Power received for possessing modified attenuators in Indianapolis 500 qualifying on May 17. That in turn wasn’t far removed from Newgarden’s and Scott McLaughlin’s disqualifications at St. Petersburg last year for push-to-pass violations.
The decision to release Tim Cindric in particular came as a surprise, as he had been with the team for more than a quarter-century and had served as its IndyCar president since 2006. Also notable is that Tim’s son, Austin Cindric, currently races for Penske’s NASCAR Cup Series program.
When addressing the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway prior to Sunday’s (May 25) Coca-Cola 600, Austin made it clear that he understood the nature of the business and that the decision was the least of his worries at the moment.
“I feel like between myself, my pops and Roger [Penske], we’ve done a pretty good job of separating personal life and professional life, and I see this as no different,” Cindric said. “Racing can be a cool industry; it can be an incredibly rewarding industry. 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 have to say on it.”
And while Tim’s presence at Penske helped Austin get his foot in the door when he was rising up through the ranks, it appears that his departure will have zero impact on Austin’s future with the team.
“I don’t think [my future] was even in question,” Cindric stated. “Their support has been always very strong and also very transparent. When I’ve not performed at my best, we’ve had those conversations. And past that, it’s as business as usual for me.”
Business as usual, indeed.
“Professionally, I’m in no different place than I was a week ago.”
It also helps that Cindric has had a great start to 2025. He scored his third Cup win at Talladega Superspeedway in April, which locked him into the playoffs for the second consecutive year. He’s led 226 laps in the first 12 races and is 30 laps away from setting a new personal best for laps led in a season.
He’s also improved his performance on non-superspeedways, with 107 laps led between the races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. And if it wasn’t for a 50-point penalty he picked up at Circuit of the Americas in March, he’d be ninth in regular-season points.
“I feel like we have a lot of momentum on our team right now, on the No. 2 car,” Cindric said. “I’ve never felt better; I’ve never had a better start to a season. So for me, I’m just more focused on execution really. I really feel like we’ve had some really fast race cars and some good opportunities.”
He’ll start 14th in Sunday’s Coke 600 and look to keep the streak of fast cars and good opportunities going.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf