$6.5B tycoon Roger Penske’s NASCAR team announces Major organizational shakedown

Team Penske has announced that Tim Cindric is stepping down as the day-to-day leader of the team. He will continue to serve as the President of the team's IndyCar division.

A graduate of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Tim Cindric began his career as a design engineer with the TrueSports IndyCar team before becoming Team Manager for Team Rahal. He joined Team Penske in 1999 and was promoted to president in 2006. Under his leadership, Team Penske has achieved remarkable success in NASCAR and IndyCar.

In a post on X, Team Penske announced:

"Team Penske announced today that Tim Cindric has decided to step back as the overall day-to-day leader of Team Penske's racing programs."

"Tim will remain as the President of Team Penske's IndyCar efforts and have oversight of the team's racing archives and historical assets. Ron Ruzewski will continue as Managing Director for the IndyCar team."

"Michael Nelson will remain as the President of Team Penske's NASCAR program and Vice President of Operations, while Jonathan Diuguid will continue in the role of Managing Director of Porsche Penske Motorsport. Both Nelson and Diuguid will report directly to Roger Penske."

Tim Cindric spoke on the organizational changes.

"I have lived my dream job for the past 25 years as the overall leader of the Penske Racing organization. I've had the opportunity to work with some of the best people in the business while achieving many milestones together. I've decided I need to make a change that provides me with the flexibility I need at this stage of my career. I appreciate the understanding Roger has provided throughout our conversations, and I'm confident this team will continue to succeed as we have a proven leadership team in all areas."

Roger Penske, referred to by many as "The Captain", has a net worth of $6.5 billion (via Forbes). He is a legendary figure in American motorsports and the founder of Team Penske. Born on February 20, 1937, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, he began his career as a successful race car driver before transitioning to a prominent business leader.

After retiring from driving in 1965, Penske focused on building his automotive empire, which includes Penske Automotive Group and Penske Truck Leasing. Under his leadership, Team Penske has secured over 600+ victories and 47 national championships, including 20 Indianapolis 500 wins, making it one of the most successful teams in motorsports history.

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"That's a comment I don't think we deserve": When Roger Penske responded to Martin Truex Jr.'s remark on Joey Logano's NASCAR win

Roger Penske responded to comments made by Martin Truex Jr. regarding Joey Logano's victory in the 2018 Martinsville Speedway race in October. Truex Jr. had expressed his belief that Logano wouldn't win the Cup Series title and called his move in the final turn of the race a "cheap sh ot".

"He’s a racer and should know better than to say that," Penske told NASCAR in the post-race interview. "That was as clean a shot as you can have in a race like this. I didn’t hear Kyle Busch or (Kyle Larson) have any kind of that conversation after that (Chicagoland) race. To me, I’m really looking forward. We want to go to Miami."

Following this, Penske lauded Logano:

"Joey ran a great race. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just a comment that I don’t think we deserve. We’ll race him day after day. (That’s just) stirring some controversy that he’s trying to spread. From my perspective, Joey drove a great race. The team won on pit road. You can see that, how many times he got out front. Leading the number of laps shows the kind of car we had and the job that Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and the team did. That’s my position."

Logano ultimately won the 2018 Cup Series title, while Truex Jr. finished the season in second place.