Team Penske boss denies "ill intent" in Josef Newgarden cheating scandal

Team Penske's Managing Director, IndyCar, Ron Ruzewski, has broken his silence on the cheating scandal that embroiled them in 2024, for which their drivers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin faced disqualification.

The incident occurred at the 2024 season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Newgarden took a dominant victory and his teammate Scott McLaughlin finished in third. However, a month and a half later, on April 24, IndyCar announced that the duo was disqualified because of the illegal use of the push-to-pass system. Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward, who finished in second place, inherited the win.

Team Penske had forgotten to disable an unofficial version of the push-to-pass system, which was only meant to be used during pre-season testing. Their reputation took a big hit, and owner Roger Penske temporarily suspended four team members. Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, who was one of them, has now commented on the scandal.

"From where I sit, it was a major distraction, there's no question. But for the people, the feet on the ground here, it didn't change because we knew what the truth was, we knew how the issue came about, we knew there was nothing done with ill intent or to do something out of the norm. So it was business as usual. You can't ever control what people are gonna say or think. So you just have to move on and go forward," he said on the Pit Pass Indy podcast. [23:05 onwards]

IndyCar controls the push-to-pass system during race starts and restarts. As a result, Josef Newgarden admitted to using the button three times, assuming there was a rule change and McLaughlin did it once. Team Penske's third driver, Will Power, didn't use it, and thus, wasn't disqualified. However, IndyCar fined all three drivers $25,000.

The rest of the grid was left divided over the issue. While Andretti Global's Colton Herta criticized Team Penske's negligence, his teammate Marcus Ericsson chose to let Newgarden off.

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Josef Newgarden aims for a comeback after his "volatile and rocky" 2024 season

Josef Newgarden, celebrates after winning the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

Josef Newgarden witnessed the greatest of highs in 2024 after winning his second consecutive Indy 500 in May. However, the rest of the year wasn't as rewarding. He finished eighth in the standings, his lowest finish in a decade.

At IndyCar's content days before the 2025 season, the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy driver spoke about the volatile season and how that inspires him to come all guns blazing this year. He said via the NTT Indycar Series (10:10 onwards):

"Yeah, I do think it was a dynamic year is maybe the way to put it. It was a year of great highs, as you said. There was multiple strong points to it. But then there were some tremendous lows, very volatile and rocky. But I would say transformative, if anything."

"For me, it was a really good year to go through. It makes me excited about 2025. It ended up being a really positive year for the way everything transpired, even the waviness of the year. It just put us in a good spot to come out firing in 2025, and I think we can do that," he said.

Josef Newgarden's biggest goal for 2025 is to win the Indy 500 for a third consecutive time. IndyCar recently awarded him and Roger Penske with the Baby Borgs for their 2024 Indy 500 victory at the Henry Ford Museum.