In the wake of Roger Penske’s suspensions of four Team Penske employees, Josef Newgarden will not have his usual race engineer Luke Mason or race strategist on his timing stand at this weekend’s Indianapolis Grand Prix or to defend their win at the Indianapolis 500. Will Power will also contest both events without his race strategist Ron Ruzewski and assistant engineer Robbie Atkinson in position as he looks to win the GP and add a second Indy 500 victory to his first in 2018.
Taking the place of Mason for the Indy GP is Raul Prados, a veteran Penske race engineer with extensive IndyCar and IMSA experience, who joined the team in 2017 from A.J. Foyt Racing. Jon “Myron” Bouslog, one of Penske’s longest-standing employees whose career has covered almost every role in the team in IndyCar, and more recently in IMSA, will replace Cindric.
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Power’s race engineer David Faustino will serve double duty as race strategist and Paulo Trentini Filho, a data engineer who joined the team in 2018, will fulfill Atkinson’s duties. The appointments are for the Indy GP alone; Team Penske will announce its Indy 500 staffing for the Nos. 2 and 12 in the coming days.
Also of note, a Team Penske representative confirmed the following to RACER regarding the nature of the suspensions for Cindric, Ruzewski, Mason, and Atkinson: The four will not be allowed by Penske to be at the Speedway or housed nearby in a “war room” to assist in matters.
As well, Team Penske confirmed the four will not be allowed to make contact with the team while its cars are on track at the GP and the 500, but they will not be restricted from communicating with the race team or performing their roles — Cindric is the team’s president and Ruzewski is its managing director — when their Indy cars aren’t on track.