MADISON, Ill. — Overcast skies with humid heat and drizzling rain covered World Wide Technology Raceway. The driver interview area inside the garage area, however, was dry as could be. Will Power strolled into the room with his clean pressed, red Team Penske shirt and black pants.
He and teammate Josef Newgarden showed no sign of reeling from Tim Cindric’s dismissal from the team.
“Obviously, people have had to step up, obviously not the best situation,” Power said.
Roger Penske fired Cindric, along with two other top officials of Team Penske’s IndyCar operations, on May 21, in the wake of a second cheating scandal in the span of a year.
At press time, Team Penske hasn’t tapped anyone to replace Cindric or Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer to take over the INDYCAR operations, but it’s motivated others at the team to show they can move into those higher positions.
“So, you know, I think in the off season, obviously start to fill from the bottom, very deep talent there, so people are able to take up the slack,” Power said.
It’s probably too early to judge whether or not Cindric’s dismissal affected the performance of Team Penske, as two races is too small a sample size. In that time, however, Power finished 16th in the Indianapolis 500 and fourth in the Detroit Grand Prix (where he led his first lap of the season).
Power followed Friday’s interview by taking pole position for Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 with a two-lap average speed of 180.329 mph.
