It's been a few weeks, but the Team Penske IndyCar series cheating scandal in St. Petersburg continues to emit plenty of stench. So Roger Penske took a meeting with other team owners, with one telling the Indianapolis Star, "Roger's got to clean his house up."
Penske does appear to be taking responsibility for the ordeal, with reports indicating he himself called for the meeting with other representatives to address the issue directly.
In the meeting, described as candid and honest, Penske expressed contrition and did not offer excuses for his team's actions. This attitude seems to have been appreciated by those present, including Bobby Rahal and Gavin Ward.
"Roger's not in there making excuses," Rahal told the Indy Star. "You've got to believe he may never have been more embarrassed in his life. His team let him down, and he's not standing by for it. He's taking his medicine. What more can you do?"
The cheating scandal itself involved software manipulation in Team Penske's cars, specifically related to push-to-pass capabilities. While a quick fix was implemented to ensure compliance with regulations for subsequent races, suspicions arose that the manipulated code had been present for a longer period, potentially providing an unfair advantage.
Team president Tim Cindric revealed that the origins of the manipulated code trace back to manufacturer testing for the IndyCar hybrid unit, where engineers inadvertently left it in the driver profiles. Despite Cindric's assertion that no one was aware of the advantage at the time, some rival team owners remain skeptical of this explanation.
"I think, wherever possible, it's good to get that group together to try and move us forward," Ward told IndyStar. "I think it was appreciated. I think the conversation was good, and it's best to have those behind closed doors where people feel they can be honest - and it stays that way.
"Fifteen minutes of chat heading into qualifying probably isn't going to be enough, and I don't think anyone would say they came out of there with good answers, per se, but perhaps we now have the ability to come and ask questions to get those answers and constructively suggest what it might take to get there."
