The controversy over Team Penske’s Indy 500 qualifying cannot overshadow this weekend’s 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
INDYCAR acted fast on Monday, announcing that Josef Newgarden and Will Power would start the race from behind the grid. The series went a step further, confirming that the 2 and 12 cars were to forfeit their points from qualifying while also fining both teams $100,000 each.
The final action by INDYCAR was to suspend Tim Cindric, Josef Newgarden’s race strategist, and Ron Ruzewski, Will Power’s strategist. The severity of the penalties should serve as a lesson to the team. However, this is not the first time there has been an issue.
Rewind to 12 months ago, and Team Penske also suspended Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing over the now-infamous push-to-pass scandal.
All of this drama in the buildup to the world’s largest single-day sporting event should not diminish some really positive storylines heading into Sunday’s race.
In the last hour, Roger Penske and Team Penske announced the immediate departures, of their INDYCAR President Tim Cindric, Managing Director Ron Ruzuwski and Kyle Moyer. More on that here.
The main story is that for the first time since 1983, a rookie driver will start the Greatest Spectacle In Racing from pole with Robert Schwartzman leading the field to the green flag. Schwartzman has never competed on an oval track, and it is his team, PREMA’s first Indianapolis 500. Speaking to Paddock Eye following Sunday’s qualifying, when asked if his endurance racing experience would help him in the Indy 500, Schwartzman said:
Yeah, for sure. When I was doing Lamond overall I’ve driven a bit more than eight hours. You don’t sleep. In that way when the races are so long, you get sort of this knowledge and ability of being just calm.
You sort of put yourself in autopilot. Just be smooth, take things under control, but you don’t overpush yourself because you can go for so long at your max effort. You have to balance well your energy.
I think in that way endurance racing helped me to get this knowledge, to get this feeling and understanding how to approach races like that. Obviously in a week’s time it’s going to be a new thing for me. So definitely it’s going to be difficult because it’s not only long race, but it’s like it’s my first oval race starting from pole, so there is a lot of things going on.
Again, I just try to use that knowledge to just be calm and as I said, take it easy without rushing things up. Yeah, hopefully we’re going to have a good, strong, fast, competitive car. Who knows? Maybe in the last laps I’m going to be there battling not only for pole position like for today but also for a race win.
The 25-year-old becomes the first Israeli-born driver to start the Greatest Spectacle in Racing from the pole. Other storylines we are watching on Sunday are whether Scott Dixon can score his second Indianapolis 500 victory in what will be his 408th INDYCAR SERIES start. This would make the Iceman the most experienced INDYCAR driver in history as he surpasses Mario Andretti’s start tally of 407.
Helio Castroneves is aiming to win an unprecedented fifth Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. The Brazilian has been highly successful at the Brickyard over the years.
Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly, from Noblesville, Indiana, goes into the race having matched his career-best Indianapolis 500 start. Can Takuma Sato become a three-time winner of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing?
What about Kyle Larson? Will he complete the double this season, the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600?