Roger Penske shares heartbreaking apology for Indy 500 scandal; axes Team Penske's IndyCar bosses

Since Team Penske's No. 2 and No. 12 cars were found to be infringing the technical rulebook, the Roger Penske-led operation has found itself at the receiving end of criticism. However, the 88-year-old has now broken his silence and shared a sincere apology through the team's social media accounts while announcing the departure of multiple key figures from his IndyCar outfit.

During the second day of qualification for the Indy 500, the Team Penske trio was in the Top 12 qualifying. However, a crash for Scott McLaughlin ruled him out, while Josef Newgarden and Will Power were taken out of the queue as they failed the technical inspection.

Word soon spread in the paddock about how the Penske cars were running an illegal rear attenuator, which led to them being blocked from taking part in their qualifying run. Soon after, the illegal entries were fined $200,000 and were relegated back to the last row of the field for the race on Sunday (May 18).

But this led people to lament how Roger Penske owns the IndyCar team and the series, which might have led to a conflict of interest. Despite this, the 88-year-old did not make any comments on the matter.

However, in a sudden turn of events in light of the recent criticism, the motorsport tycoon owner broke his silence and sacked multiple members from the IndyCar team. This included Team President Tim Cindric, Managing Director Ron Ruzewski and General Manager Kyle Moyer, with their possible role in the illegal modification of the cars.

Penske also shared his disappointment and apologized to the fans for breaking their trust, as he said in a team statement:

"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. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down."

The Team Penske scandal led to a number of drivers calling out the Mooresville-based squad for their recent scandal, tainting the team's reputation.

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Has Roger Penske done enough to stop the mud being thrown at Team Penske?

Roger Penske (L) and Josef Newgarden (R) at the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

While the team has seemingly acted in an accountable manner, questions would still be raised about Roger Penske's ownership status of the series and a team that participates in the same championship. Moreover, multiple people have questioned Team Penske's wrongdoings, with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown being one of them.

The 53-year-old had shared his thoughts on the whole saga ahead of the departures of Team Penske members. He expressed how it was unfair for Jacob Abel to be bumped out of the race while two illegal cars would be forming the grid, as he said (via Associated Press):

"While I appreciate and support IndyCar’s position to move those two cars to the back of the field, there obviously remains a question mark regarding their compliance on Saturday.

"If it turns out this technical infringement was on their cars when they qualified Saturday, then it’s incredibly unfair that Jacob Abel and his team were bumped by non-compliant cars. However, I have complete confidence in Roger Penske’s commitment to look at that situation and to ensure that any such wrongs are righted."

The 109th running of the Indy 500 will take place on May 25 with the Mooresville-based squad's cars starting in 10th, 32nd and 33rd positions.