After being dropped last May, Tim Cindric returns to Team Penske

After Kyle Moyer's arrival at Arrow McLaren and Ron Ruzewski at Andretti Global, Tim Cindric was the last of the former bosses of Team Penske in IndyCar not knowing what the future held. Somewhat surprisingly, it was announced that Cindric would be returning to Penske to be Scott McLaughlin's strategist for the 2026 season. A role he had already held for many years in the same No. 3 car, driven at the time by Helio Castroneves.

Unlike his previous roles with the team, where he served as President of the organization before reducing his involvement to focus solely on the IndyCar team, Tim Cindric will only be present on race weekends, managing the strategy for Scott McLaughlin's car. This part-time return suits Cindric perfectly, as he had expressed a desire to reduce his involvement at the beginning of 2025, allowing him to spend more time with his family.

"I started to consider some of the opportunities available to me, such as going back to work weekends or doing odd jobs here and there, because I missed the competition."Cindric explained to Racer.com. “Six months ago, I probably would have told you it wasn’t an option (to come back), but then I received some offers that, all things considered, didn’t seem bad, and when I left [Penske], I told them I really didn’t think I’d be returning. But I changed my mind and wanted to talk to them about it first, so after the start of the year, I sent a message to Jonathan Diuguid (President of Penske Racing) that essentially said: ‘Hello, I’m contacting you to let you know that I’m seriously considering becoming a race strategist.’ And I told him: ‘I think you’ve probably already found someone, but if not, I’d be willing to discuss it.’”

Diuguid was indeed willing to discuss it, and this led to Tim Cindric's return to the team he first joined in 1999. Having become Roger Penske's right-hand man, the 57-year-old was regularly seen as the "Captain's" heir should he wish to step down. This scenario changed considerably last May, but it cannot be entirely dismissed, given the numerous twists and turns the Team Penske saga has seen in recent months…

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