Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Penske Racing's Tim Cindric: 'There was no conspiracy'




  Penske Racing president Tim Cindric was on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Wednesday night with host Claire B. Lang and discussed the "controversy" involving his team and Front Row Motorsports.

    Tim Cindric: "I know that NASCAR is gathering the facts about the whole situation and that's their job, that's what they have to do. But the facts from where I sit are, number one, there was no conspiracy, there was no bribe. Roger Penske is not involved in trying to manipulate the outcome of a race or what have you. In fact, the first time Roger heard any of this stuff was this afternoon. So the 'big guy' as he's called wasn't part of any discussion with any spotter. But there's a lot of discussion that goes on up on that spotter's stand. I watch the races [from] up there quite often and there's a lot of discussion, there's a lot of requests from one team to another team about, 'Hey, this is our situation, can you help us?' and that type of thing. What I've seen has been totally blown out of proportion by a radio conversation that Penske didn't have anything to do with."

    Lang: "What are you guys doing about this? Regardless of what NASCAR says do you look closer at it? Has NASCAR been in communication with you guys?"

    Cindric: "Yeah, I mean, internally, obviously, our integrity is very important to us. Roger has spent his lifetime creating the integrity that he has and the organization has. It's difficult to listen when people challenge that. There's a lot of things that you can't do to change people's opinions. The facts are there was no radio communication on our side. There was a lot of discussion over there that I really can't explain because I really don't know the basis for it. I know NASCAR is investigating that on their own so I'll let that process take its course. But what I can tell you, like I say, is that there were no offers, there were no bribes, there were no conspiracies from our end. And also the facts are that the outcome of the race and the way it affected the Chase and all that is pretty much a moot point anyway."

NAPA will "review" partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing

   Complete text of NAPA statement via Facebook on Michael Waltrip Racing:

    Dear Facebook Fans and the NAPA community,

    The actions taken by Michael Waltrip’s Racing team this past weekend leading to the penalties assessed by NASCAR, are very concerning. We are disappointed that a partner associated with our organization would make such a significant error in judgment. In addition, we have launched our own review to determine the future of our partnership with Michael Waltrip’s Racing team. The NAPA AUTO PARTS organization is proud of its long-standing NASCAR relationship. We share a passion with our customers for high quality racing and seek to determine the best course of action for our customers, NASCAR fans, and the NAPA organization.


   NAPA