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Team Penske announced Wednesday morning that the team has fired IndyCar team president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and GM Kyle Moyer in the fallout from a cheating scandal that has marred the leadup to the 109th Indianapolis 500. The Penske cars driven by two-time and defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power were found to have illegal attenuators in qualifying over the weekend, leading to the two being sent to the rear of the field for Sunday's race and stripped of all points earned in qualifying. In addition, Cindric and Ruzewski have been suspended and Team Penske was fined $100,000.

Prior to Fast 12 qualifying on Sunday, IndyCar officials discovered that the rear attenuator -- a safety device designed to reduce the force of impacts and a spec part that must not be modified -- had illegal fillings in the seam on both Newgarden and Power's cars. The discovery came after other teams noticed and accused the Penske cars of cheating, and further outrage occurred when it was found that Newgarden's 2024 Indianapolis 500-winning car displayed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum also had the same fillings in the attenuator.

The belief is that the modifications to the attenuator gave the Penske cars an aerodynamic advantage, and the matter is made complicated by the fact that Team Penske owner Roger Penske also owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, leading to strong actions to protect the integrity of the sport and its biggest race.

"Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams. We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes," Penske said in a statement. "I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down."

As alluded to in Penske's statement, the team had also been at the center of another scandal leading into last year's Indy 500 when Newgarden's winning car at St. Petersburg was found to have its push-to-pass system illegally engaged on restarts, giving it an extra boost of horsepower it should not have had. Newgarden was disqualified and a two-race suspension was issued to Cindric, who doubled as Newgarden's race strategist.

While IndyCar officials elected not to throw the two cars out of the field given that they had passed tech inspection for the first day of qualifying on Saturday, both were barred from making a qualifying attempt in the Fast 12 and will start in the final row for the Indianapolis 500. While Newgarden and Power were initially going to start in the fourth row, additional penalties were later assessed given the circumstances and the assertions of rival team owners such as Chip Ganassi and Zak Brown.

The dismissal of Cindric is a massive development as he had been with the organization since 2000 and served as Penske's right-hand man on all racing operations. He is also the father of 2022 Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric, who races for Penske full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and earned his first win of the season just weeks ago at Talladega. For his part, Cindric had argued Sunday that the team did not believe the seam fillings provided a performance advantage.

Team Penske is the most successful organization in the history of the Indianapolis 500, as they have won the 500 mile race 20 times and enter Sunday's race going for their third win in a row with Newgarden. Penske acquired both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar in 2019, which has prompted discussions at the Speedway about the necessity of protecting the integrity of the race and the sport.