Amid Indy 500 scandal, Josef Newgarden gets special honor from the New York Yankees

Team Penske star Josef Newgarden was invited to the New York Yankees game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, May 21. The two-time Indy 500 winner, along with Team Penske, was involved in the attenuator controversy at this year's Indy 500 qualifying. Regardless, he got a special honor from the Yankees.

The Yankees faced the Rangers in the MLB matchup at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Yankees won the two games against the Rangers 5-2 and 4-3. The third game will take place on Friday, May 22.

Newgarden was at Yankee Stadium and was honored by the home team as the Team Penske driver threw the ceremonial pitch before the game. The New York Yankees' Instagram account uploaded a story about the same, thanking IndyCar and Newgarden for throwing the ceremonial pitch.

The account uploaded an image of Josef Newgarden in the New York Yankees jersey with the baseball in his hand, as the IndyCar star waved to the crowd. The caption of the image read:

“Thanks to American @indycar Series driver @josefnewgarden for throwing out tonight's ceremonial first pitch 👏🏻🏎️”

Image credits: Instagram/@yankees

Josef Newgarden and Will Power's IndyCars were found in violation of the technical regulations before the Top 12 Indy 500 qualifying. The team was informed, and Penske chose to withdraw the cars from the qualifying. The attenuator of the #2 and #12 Chevrolet failed to meet the regulations.

A day later, IndyCar announced that the two cars would be sent to the back of the grid for the Indy 500, and each entry was fined $100,000 for not meeting the technical regulations. A couple of days after the incident, Team Penske took action regarding the scandal and fired three senior members from the team.

Team Penske's strict action following Josef Newgarden and Will Power's Indy 500 controversy

Team Penske came out with a public statement on May 21, 2025, as they took action following Josef Newgarden and Will Power being sent back to the grid after their cars failed to pass the technical regulations. The team fired Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer in the aftermath of the scandal.

“Team Penske announced today the departures of IndyCar Team President Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer from the organisation. Team Penske will have further announcements this week related to personnel and replacements for this weekend's Indianapolis 500,” read the public statement.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams. We have had organisational failures during the last two years, and we have had to make necessary changes. I apologise to our fans, partners and organisation for letting them down.”

Team Penske was also involved in the push to pass scandal in 2024, where their cars were using the P2P on restarts, which wasn't allowed by the regulations. Team personnel were suspended back then, and the drivers were either disqualified or deducted points.