INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Roger Penske personally told Will Power about the firings of Team Penske's top three executives — a decision Power said his boss made after a sleepless night contemplating how to handle a cheating scandal ahead of the Indianapolis 500.
“I know it was very tough for him. He said that. He said he didn’t sleep the night before because he had to make a very hard decision,” Power said Thursday, one day after the shock dismissals of team president Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer.
Penske cleaned house after the cars for both Power and two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden failed inspection ahead of Sunday's final round of qualifying. The cars were found to have modified a spec part — the rear attenuator is a safety part and IndyCar said it has found no evidence the Team Penske filling a seam on it provided a competitive advantage.
Newgarden declined to discuss the situation Thursday.
“I don’t want to disappoint or offend anybody. I’m here to talk about the race. I’m here with my team. I’m ready to go racing,” he said. “I love this race. My goodness, I’ve been enjoying being here this whole time. I look forward to it every year, as we all do. Ready to go to work with our group. Proud of everything that we have done up to this point. Ready to go racing. So that’s what I got to say.”
It was the second major technical violation for Team Penske in just over a year. The team last year was found to have illegal access to its push-to-pass system at times the drivers should not have been able to gain the additional boost of horsepower. Newgarden was stripped of last year's season-opening victory once IndyCar discovered the team was illegally using the software.
Power expressed sympathy for Penske, who owns the three-car race team, IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. Penske confirmed to new television partner Fox Sports that IndyCar is exploring an independent governing body that does not consist of Penske employees.
“I feel bad for him. He’s in a very tough spot in that situation,” Power said of Penske. "You could tell it was heavy on him. Tough, tough for him to have to do that. I think Roger moves forward very quickly. He makes decisions. He moves forward. Doesn’t dwell on it.
“Starts looking at what is absolutely best for the team and everyone to move forward. That’s Roger. That’s why he’s so successful,” Power continued. “He’s not going to sit and spend a month worrying about what happened. I think he’s ‘How can we fix this and let’s move forward and make sure it doesn’t happen again.’”
Team Penske earlier Thursday announced the personnel that has been adjusted for its three cars ahead of Sunday's 109th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Penske has won the race a record 20 times.
Newgarden, who is trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive Indy 500s, will have Luke Mason as his strategist and Raul Prados as lead engineer. As part of the penalties levied on the team, he was dropped to 32nd on the starting grid and no driver has ever won from the last row.
“You can win this race from any seat in the house. There’s no bad seat in this house,” Newgarden said. “I like the challenge of coming from 32nd. We do have a great car. It just seems to be getting better every year. I’m trying to protect that right now. It’s one of these things where every day changes a little bit at the Speedway. You have to stay on top of it. Sunday is really going to be the day that counts. We have to make sure we’re in the right place for that day. If we can do that, we should be in a good spot.”
Scott McLaughlin, who crashed early Sunday and didn't participate in the final rounds of qualifying, will start from 10th with Ben Bretzman as his strategist and Malcolm Finch as lead engineer.
He was the only driver of the Penske three to admit to being angry over the situation.
“I’m disappointed with how Roger’s name has been thrown through the mud, his integrity, our team, the people on the floor, the people that spend hours away from their families trying to build these cars,” McLaughlin said. “Basically they’re being thrown to the mud. I take that personally.”
Power, who is in the final year of his contract at Penske and was dropped to last in the 33-car field, will have Jonathan Diuguid as strategist and David Faustino as lead engineer.
He believes Penske was forced into the firings by the external pressure from other team owners who are furious Team Penske has had major technical violations in two consecutive seasons. He also said the attenuator modification gave him no advantage and felt good people lost their jobs over the incident.
Cindric had been with Penske since 2000.
“It’s kind of a shock and a pity. They’re all extremely good at their job,” Power said. “It was just the pressure from outside. I guess Roger had to make a tough decision, but I can tell you these were very credible people. They really were. As you know, the infraction was very minor. It wasn’t a performance gain.”
Cindric posted on social media late Wednesday calling his time with Penske “an amazing ride!”
“While my conscience remains clear through all of the noise and accusations, I'm grateful to have so many great people to draw strength from in times like this,” Cindric wrote. “Still standing tall!”
A second social media post on Thursday encouraged “those who truly want to understand more about the technical side of the part that was in question” to read an article explaining the modification that was written by a motorsports mechanic.
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Josef Newgarden waits for the start of practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
The former winners of the Indianapolis 500, top row, left to right, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, of Brazil, and Marcus Ericsson, of Sweden, bottom bottom row, Will Power, of Australia, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, and Takuma Sato, of Japan, pose for a photo on the start/finish line before practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
President of Team Penske Tim Cindric, left and driver Josef Newgarden wait for the start of during practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade to stop ships from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after historic U.S.-Iran peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next steps in sight.
In his first public comments after the 21 hours of talks, Trump sought to exert strategic control over the waterway that was responsible for the shipping of 20% of global oil supplies before the war, hoping to eliminate Iran’s key source of leverage.
The prospect of a U.S. blockade likely will further rattle global energy markets and prices for oil, natural gas and related products. It was not immediately clear how the blockade might be carried out or when.
Trump said he has “instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” Other nations would be involved in the planned blockade, he said, but did not name them.
Trump stressed that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the failure to end the war, and said the U.S. was ready to “finish up” Iran at the “appropriate moment."
Face-to-face talks ended earlier Sunday, the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials blamed the U.S. for their breakdown without specifying sticking points. Both delegations later left Islamabad.
Neither side indicated what will happen after the 14-day ceasefire expires on April 22. Pakistani mediators urged all parties to maintain it. Both sides said their positions were clear and put the onus on the other, underscoring how little the gap had narrowed.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side, said afterward.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran in talks, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.” Iranian officials earlier said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue between Iran and the U.S. in the coming days.
Iran said it was open to continuing the dialogue, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, the fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.
Tensions have long centered on Iran's nuclear program. Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insisted on its right to a civilian nuclear program. It has offered “affirmative commitments” in the past in writing, including in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say its stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.
The current deadlock — and Vance’s take-it-or-leave-it proposal that Iran end its nuclear program — mirrored February’s nuclear talks in Switzerland.
An Iranian diplomatic official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks, denied that negotiations had failed over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
“Iran is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, but it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” the official said.
In Iran, there was fresh exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that had begun with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, and then weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” 60-year-old Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.
During the talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers transited the critical strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media said the country’s joint military command denied that.
“We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” Trump said during the talks.
Before talks began, the ceasefire was already threatened by other deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s 10-point proposal had called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It wanted the end of fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.
Pakistani officials earlier told The Associated Press that the U.S. 15-point proposal included a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program. Speaking on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss details, they said it also covered reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The impasse raises new questions about Lebanon. Israel has said the agreement did not apply there, but Iran and Pakistan claimed otherwise. Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the lack of official relations between the countries.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Though Israel’s strikes over Beirut have calmed, its attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside the ground invasion it renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the war's opening days.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday in an Israeli strike in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre.
Israel wants Lebanon's government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy from Cairo. E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis contributed.
Vice President JD Vance walking on the tarmac for a planned refueling stop in Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Sunday, April 12, 2026, after attending talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)
Vice President JD Vance, left, talks to Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, right, and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, center, before boarding Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
In this photo released by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center right, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center left, are greeted by Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, right, and Army Chief Field Marshal Gen. Asim Munir, left, upon their arrival at Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)
In this photo released by the Pakistan Prime Minister Office, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, left, meets with hand with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026 (Pakistan Prime Minister Office via AP)
Vice President JD Vance, second left, shakes hands with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, as Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, left, Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, third left, and Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad Natalie A. Baker, right, look on, as he prepares to board Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Vice President JD Vance arrives for news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Vice President JD Vance, right, speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran as Jared Kushner, left, and Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy for Peace Missions listen, on Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
