Cindric at ease with decision to downshift at Penske

The decision by Penske Racing president Tim Cindric to step back from overseeing all of Roger Penske’s programs across IMSA, IndyCar and NASCAR came as a surprise last week, but he says the call wasn’t made in haste, nor was it inspired by anything negative in his personal or professional life.

Decades of running as many as four teams for Penske have taken a toll on Cindric, and with championships earned in IMSA and NASCAR last year, plus the earning of back-to-back Indianapolis 500 victories, the son of renowned IndyCar engine builder Carl Cindric decided the timing was right to downshift a few gears and focus solely on leading Team Penske’s three-car IndyCar effort.

For the California-born Cindric, who turns 57 in April, it’s a return to where he began for “The Captain.”

“A lot of people forget that where I started — I came into the team in 1999 and my title was president of the IndyCar team. I did that for five or six years, and back then, that was a two-car team,” Cindric told RACER. “And then Roger asked me to start up an American Le Mans program (in 2005) and we did that. Then a year later, he said, ‘Hey, I’d like you to head up my NASCAR team and combine it all and move it to Mooresville, North Carolina.’ Then we started up the Supercars team in Australia for like six years, took that on, and just continued to try and deliver on the expectations.

“And then 25 years of my life goes by and I really haven’t had any time for anything else. I completely understand how it’s easy to assume that somebody in his mid-to-late 50s still has some runway left, or there’s got to be something else to it, but there’s no underlying thing that’s been the catalyst for this. It’s really down to, ‘Man, if I keep up this pace forever, I won’t experience a whole lot outside of racing.’”

Add together all of the flights, hotel check-ins and check-outs, gathering and returning of rental cars, plus the endless number of in-person meetings, Zoom sessions, plus working dozens of races each year in open-wheel, sports cars and stock cars, and it’s easy to imagine Cindric has been more of a visitor at home than a central fixture in family life.

Speaking from a golf tournament he’d signed up for this weekend, the architect behind one of racing’s most consistently competitive and successful teams sounded relaxed and balanced in a way that was not present before making this change.

“The past 20-some years, it’s been hard to really even plan for anything,” he admitted. “People that ask you, ‘Hey, would you be interested in being involved in this or that outside of racing?’ And I want to learn and do other things, but at the same time, I don’t want to compromise my responsibilities, and you know I want to deliver and meet the expectations that come with the Penske legacy. You look at it every year throughout the process and ask, ‘How long can I keep doing this at this level?’ Because I would never want to leave it in a bad place, or when there’s a weakness.”

Cindric’s call with Penske — a personal hero who also happens to be his no-nonsense boss — was the next step in the process, and despite being known for his stone-face composure, there were nerves involved.

“Finally, after the holidays, I said, ‘You know what, I’m breaking the ice with Roger,’” he continued. “And that’s not an easy thing to do when you’re talking to somebody that you’ve always wanted to work for and now you’re going to tell them that you don’t want to work as much for him. You have to understand or be prepared for him to tell you that he doesn’t want you to do anything but what you’re (currently) doing.

“I sent him a note after the holidays because I didn’t want to be a distraction. I wanted to finish out ’24 with budgets, contracts, personnel reviews, all that stuff, and not be a distraction, and get to right after the holidays. The note was, ‘Hey, I’d like to get together and meet because I’m not sure I’m the right guy to continue looking over the overall program anymore.’

“I think initially, he thought I had other plans (to join another team) and, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no, Roger, just so you understand, I’ve only ever talked to my wife about this. I haven’t talked to anybody else. Nobody’s asking me to go work somewhere else. I’m not. There’s no other agenda other than what I’m telling you.’ And he’s like, ‘OK, I get it. Come up to Detroit and you and I will talk about it.’ And it was a great conversation between him and I for a few hours.”

The end result keeps Cindric atop Team Penske’s IndyCar program where he’s a minority owner in the open-wheel team, and keeps him in the same operation position on Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevy as head coach and strategist for the double IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner. Cindric will also retain his leadership over Penske’s vast collection of historic race cars and its associated archives.

“I said, ‘Look, RP, if it’s all or nothing, I get it. I completely understand. I’m prepared for that,” he said. “And he’s like, ‘No, what do you think would give you the flexibility you need here? Do you want to end up in this? If I can help you stay here in some way, what are you looking for?’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to keep up with a NASCAR schedule the way it is. From the Porsche standpoint and all that, I want to be there with you when you win Le Mans. But all the things are in place in those series, and I don’t feel like we’re to the point now where it’s going to happen with or without me.’

“I said, ‘Look, with the IndyCar schedule, and, yeah, I have a minority interest in the team; I’m not looking for you to buy me out or anything like that, but if you want to go business as usual there, relative to the IndyCar team, I’ll give it a shot.’ I think I can find the balance with 17-20 weekends on the schedule there. And he said, ‘That’d be great if you do that; we’ll figure out the rest.’ We have great people in the other places and we’ve been able to build some really good leadership there with long-term commitments.

“Then he asked me if I’d continue with the collection of cars and archives and directing traffic there, and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a passion of mine. I’ve known your history probably as well as you have before I went to work for you.’”

Like attending a golf tournament a week prior to the Daytona 500, Cindric is looking forward to taking more opportunities to enjoy life — in and out of the sport — in ways that were previously inconceivable.

“I might actually get to go to Amelia Island or Goodwood,” he said. “Or go see and experience some of the other things in life that are out there.”