Andretti Global hires Ron Ruzewski as team principal, reuniting him with driver Will Power
Andretti Global hires Ron Ruzewski as team principal, reuniting him with driver Will Power
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — TWG Motorsports made yet another power move for Andretti Global on Wednesday by naming Ron Ruzewski, one of three Team Penske executives fired during an Indianapolis 500 scandal, team principal of its IndyCar team.
Ruzewski will start in January, per the Andretti announcement, and take over for Rob Edwards, who will transition into chief performance officer for TWG Motorsports. The motorsports division is an arm of TWG Global, which owns the new Cadillac F1 team that will debut in 2026.
The hiring of Ruzewski will reunite him with driver Will Power, who after a full season of not being told by Roger Penske if he would return in 2026 for an 18th season instead signed with Andretti Global after last month’s season finale.
Power’s contractual rights are being held by Penske through the remainder of the year — a flashpoint amongst Penske critics who believe the two-time IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was not treated fairly by an organization the Australian was extremely loyal to for his entire career.
Many believe that since David Malukas has already been hired to replace Power in the No. 12, has a merchandise line up on the Penske website and is free to get a start on his new job, that Power should be afforded the same luxury since Team Penske didn’t want him anyway. Questions about Penske’s ability to maintain separation between ownership of the IndyCar Series and a three-car team are being asked because in holding on to Power through the end of December, Penske is prohibiting a rival team from a competing manufacturer to get a start on its 2026 season while Team Penske is able to do so with Malukas.
In the case of Ruzewski, who was IndyCar managing director for Penske, his contract likely held a clause that prohibited him from working within the series for a specified amount of time following his May dismissal. Penske fired team president Tim Cindric, Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer in the wake of the Indianapolis 500 scandal.
The firings were the result of the discovery that two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Power had an illegally modified spec part on their cars ahead of the final round of qualifications for the 109th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” It was the second major checks-and-balances failure at Team Penske in just over a year.
Moyer was hired by McLaren Racing midseason and worked the entire second half of the schedule. Cindric, a member of the Team Penske Hall of Fame, has not yet landed anywhere after working for Penske since 2000 as President of Penske Racing Inc. He was long assumed to be Penske’s successor on the racing part of Penske’s empire.
Cindric was elevated to the role of President of Penske Performance in 2005 and, until February, essentially ran the day-to-day operations of all of Penske’s racing properties.
But Penske’s right-hand man in February was stripped of most of his roles although he said he chose to step back as the overall leader of the organization. He remained president of the IndyCar program until his May dismissal.
The hirings of Power and Ruzewski come as Dan Towriss, who took over as majority owner from Michael Andretti after the 2024 season, shows his commitment to rebuilding the Andretti organization into a powerhouse. Penske and Andretti feuded all of the 2024 season over Andretti’s criticism of how Penske was running IndyCar, and many speculated that was partly what led to Towriss taking control of the entire operation.
Towriss has been aggressive in both successfully pushing the Cadillac F1 team across the finish line after three years of rejections from Formula 1, and now he’s charging hard at making big hires for the IndyCar program.
On Tuesday, Andretti Global announced a technical partnership with Dale Coyne Racing for 2026 that will place reigning INDY NXT champion Dennis Hauger in one of the Coyne cars. The Norwegian driver earned six wins, five additional podium finishes, 13 top-10 finishes and seven poles in 14 races en route to winning the development series championship in 2025 as a rookie with Andretti.
He clinched the title at the penultimate race of the season, at the Milwaukee Mile.
The Honda-powered IndyCar team at Andretti in 2026 will consist of Power, Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood. Colton Herta will become Cadillac’s test and reserve driver and potentially compete in F2 as a way to gain the super license needed to compete in F1.
Herta’s move opened the seat for Power, who turns 45 in March but was the most consistent of the three Penske drivers in what was a terrible 2025 season for the organization. Power’s late-season win at Portland and Newgarden’s victory in the season finale were the only two wins for Penske in IndyCar this year.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
