Power, Newgarden begin Indy quests by adapting to new strategists and engineers

Will Power of Australia, drives into a turn during a practice session for the
IndyCar Grand Prix auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Josef Newgarden and Will Power went back to work last weekend with revamped teams.

The drivers’ race strategists, Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski, will miss Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 on May 26 while serving two-race suspensions for cheating. So will engineers Luke Mason and Robbie Atkinson.

How quickly the drivers adapt to the new voices on their radios could determine whether either of the two 500 winners and series champs can achieve their traditional May goal of putting team owner Roger Penske back in victory lane.

“It’s not ideal losing someone off your stand. Losing two people is definitely not ideal. We were better off with them,” Power said Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “But I sat down with Dave (Faustino) and we just said we’re going to do absolutely the best we can with what we’ve got. We’ve got very good people on the team. It is what it is.”

Fortunately for Team Penske, Faustino and Power have a longstanding relationship that should help smooth the transition between now and IndyCar’s most prestigious race, the 500, in two weeks.

But this is certainly not how the team owner wanted to start what he has long considered the most important month on the series’ schedule.

Penske became a household name by changing the image of auto racing. He brought an exacting, businesslike approach to the Brickyard’s historic Gasoline Alley and when the pole-winning runs and race victories started piling up, he won converts, too.

Now, though, The Captain’s ship is taking on water.

Six weeks after Newgarden won the season opener at St. Petersburg, Florida, series officials determined the team’s three cars each had a software system that provided the drivers with horsepower boosts on starts and restarts — violating series rules.

“For Ron and I as leaders of this team, it’s not about what we did, it’s about what we didn’t do,” Cindric said this week in a statement. “It is our responsibility to provide the team and all our drivers with the right processes to ensure something like this can’t happen. For that, I apologize to Roger, our team and everyone that supports us. Our No. 1 job is to protect and enhance the reputation of our brand and that of those that support us.”

The drivers took the hardest hits.

Newgarden was stripped of his win, Scott McLaughlin was stripped of a third-place finish and all three drivers lost 10 points and were fined $25,000. Although Power was cleared of any wrongdoing and none of McLaughlin’s team members were punished, Power and Newgarden are now dealing with the transition to new team members.

“That’s the call that Roger made, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Power said.

Newgarden said after the weekend’s qualifying he was surprised that team president Cindric was suspended.

“I was surprised, but this isn’t my team, it is Roger’s team,” Newgarden said. “And all I can say is I am so happy to be here. It is not disingenuous, I feel so good to be here, and we’ve got a team, a little different than it looked last year, but not that different. We’re here as a team and we’re ready to go.” MICHAEL MAROT, INDIANAPOLIS, MDT/AP