Josef Newgarden has broken his silence on former Team Penske president Tim Cindric’s return to the team as a race strategist. Cindric, who was Newgarden’s race strategist until the 2025 Indy 500, was welcomed back as Scott McLaughlin’s strategist ahead of the 2026 season.

In May last year, Cindric, alongside Managing Director Ron Ruzewski and General Manager Kyle Moyer were fired by team owner Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in the wake of the team’s Indy 500 scandal.

Josef Newgarden and Will Power’s cars were found to have illegally modified rear attenuators during Indy 500 qualifying. Fans and rival teams questioned how Team Penske was caught ‘cheating’ for the second time in under 15 months, after the St. Pete push-to-pass controversy in 2024. While Ruzewski and Moyer found new homes at Andretti Global and Arrow McLaren, Roger Penske re-hired Tim Cindric.

On Friday, in a press conference during IndyCar’s opening race weekend of 2026 in St. Petersburg, Josef Newgarden was asked how different the dynamic feels with Cindric back on the team, but no longer on his timing stand.

“Not that different because we’re all on the team together,” the two-time Indy 500 winner replied. “We’re all in the trucks together. So a lot of it feels the same to me. You know, I’m used to having different voices recently. I must have had four or five different voices over the last two years. To me it doesn’t feel that different.”

Cindric started his comeback with a bang, as Scott McLaughlin went quickest in Practice 1 on Friday. The No. 3 Chevrolet driver had a “smooth” session and felt his car was “straight way fast.”

Josef Newgarden highlights ease of work at Team Penske despite multiple strategist changes

In 2026, Josef Newgarden will have a new race strategist in Jonathan Diguid, who replaced Tim Cindric as president of Team Penske. Diguid, who was director of Porsche Penske Motorsport in IMSA, was promoted to include Team Penske’s IndyCar efforts in his role.

In January this year, Diguid, who has previously worked with Newgarden, was confirmed as the two-time IndyCar champion’s permanent race strategist. On Friday, when Newgarden was asked about the changes on his pit wall and if working with Diguid felt smooth, he said:

“I think so. I mean, you know, they’re all – I mean, I’ve said this in the past. I think you could plug into any one of these cars at Team Penske, and you would have a great unit around you. It really almost doesn’t matter. Same thing with Travis Law (David Malukas’ strategist). You know, you’re going to take Travis, Tim (Cindric), Johnny (Diguid), or any of these guys around, they’re all solid teams.”

“As I was saying before, I’ve had three or four different people in my ear over the last couple of years, and they’re all pretty good to me. So it’s not really a pick-and-choose type scenario, but I don’t think it’s going to be a hard transition. He’s been on the radio with me before, and I think we’ve got a great group. I come back to that original point, though. You could step into any one of these cars right now, even if we all wanted to switch throughout the weekend, I think we would all be in a good spot. I really mean that,” Josef Newgarden added.

Newgarden was 14th-quickest in Practice 1 on Friday after having a spin and crash that prematurely ended his session. He finished 20th-quickest in Practice 2 on Saturday and doesn’t seem to be in contention for Fast 6 in qualifying.