On Friday (July 4), Team Penske announced that they filled two vacancies in their team’s leadership structure following their calamitous month of May.
The organization fired then-Team President Tim Cindric, IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moyer after two of their three cars were found to be outside the regulations with modified attenuators.
After the second cheating/conflict of interest scandal on the IndyCar side of Team Penske, change had to happen and the organization announced that Jonathan Diuguid would be the new President of Penske Racing and Travis Law would become the new Competition Director.
Both have been working primarily on the IMSA side of Team Penske with the factory Porsche 963 program that has been highly successful, but both have significant IndyCar experience. Let’s take a look at how both got to their current positions.
Diuguid was an engineer in the original Porsche Penske American Le Mans Series program with the RS Spyder program before moving over to the IndyCar side of the organization after their withdrawal from both ALMS and Grand Am.
After spending years with Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves, Diuguid went back to the Acura IMSA program until Scott McLaughlin‘s debut IndyCar season in 2021.
“I was very fortunate to have Jonathan (Diuguid) as my race engineer for my first full IndyCar season in 2021, so I know firsthand how perfect of a fit he is for this position,” McLaughlin said. “He knows how to walk that balance of being well-liked by the guys, but can be absolutely firm when things need to get done. He is very organized, very meticulous, with a great racing mind. He was a huge asset for me in getting up to speed in this series and I’m happy that he has this amazing opportunity.”
Diuguid then became the Managing Director of the IMSA program when the Porsche 963 program came online but still maintained an IndyCar presence. When Josef Newgarden won the 2024 Indianapolis 500, Diuguid was on the timing stand as race strategist. When Will Power needed a strategist after Ruzewski’s firing, Diuguid filled the role at Indianapolis and Detroit.
Keeping with Power, let’s move over to Law. Law was a pit crew member with Power’s car and was involved in one of the more controversial pit stops in the 2013 IndyCar season.
When Scott Dixon and Power stopped together during the IndyCar race at Sonoma, Dixon exited his pit box first and passed Power as he was getting ready to leave. Law was carrying the right rear tire behind Power’s car and he and Dixon collided.
Yeah. Not exactly what Law wanted to be known for at the time.
Law had been with the team since 2007 as a tire specialist and eventually became chief mechanic with Castroneves before moving over to Newgarden’s car, winning two Indianapolis 500s and two championships with the Tennessee native.
Most recently, Law has been Competition Director for the Porsche Penske IMSA program, so he and Diuguid have been very familiar with each other as they have worked side-by-side.
With their vast IndyCar and IMSA experience to guide them, expect big things from Diuguid and Law.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.