Alumnus’ Cool
Decision-Making Under Pressure Paves Way to Another Penske Indy 500
VictoryRose-Hulman Institute of Technology alumnus Tim
Cindric’s athletic and engineering skills helped Team Penske and Sam
Hornish Jr. drive into the winner’s circle of the 90th Indianapolis
500-mile race –- by the second-closest margin in Indy racing
history.
Cindric, a 1990 mechanical engineering graduate, is president of
Penske Performance, Inc., overseeing all of Roger Penske’s racing
operations in the Indy Racing League, NASCAR and the American Le
Mans Series.
On Sunday (May 28), Cindric huddled with team owner Roger Penske
to make the most critical decision in this year’s Indianapolis 500.
In an attempt to beat the leaders out of the pits on lap 150,
Hornish pulled away early, leaving part of the fuel hose stuck in
his car and knocking a crew member to the ground. The Penske team
was penalized a stop-and-go penalty -- a drive through the pits at
60 mph -- to be served when the race went green.
"With 50 to go I thought we were going to go home and close our
tent," Penske told reporters afterward. "We said, 'What is the next
thing we can do? What I try to do is stay cool and calm. I said,
look, here is what we have to do. I asked for a [fuel] calculation.
He [team manager Tim Cindric] said we've got to go to the end."
The decision was made to add fuel when the penalty was served, on
lap 163, and then nurse the car without another pit stop to the end.
When the green flag flew for a four-lap dash for Indy 500 glory,
Hornish turned laps at 219.935 mph to storm through the pack to get
back to the top. By lap 199 (of 200), he found himself trailing
leader Marco Andretti and setting up for the fantastic dash to the
finish line.
"Nobody had seen Sam (Hornish) run 100 percent fuel for the last
two stints of the race," stated Cindric in the post-race press
conference. "He was sitting there running position six, which is
about I don't remember if it's 10 percent or 12 percent lean.
There's a lot less power just trying to make it to the end there. It
wasn't till that (last) restart. He hadn't run full fuel since maybe
the start of the race.
Penske added, "At the start of the race we found that we could
run four or five more laps than the leader. We came in on, I think,
Lap 38, while they came in on Lap 35. Our goal was to stay out
longer. It certainly paid off at the end."
Cindric, a Rose-Hulman Athletic Hall of Fame basketball player
known for his competitive spirit, kept reminding the Penske team
that Jacques Villeneuve won the 1995 Indy 500 after being two laps
behind the leader mid-way through the race.
"This race is so long . . . You never give up," he said.
The Indy 500 victory, worth $1,744,855 of a record $10.5 million
purse, is the fourth during Cindric’s tenure as president of Penske
Racing. He also helped driver Helio Castroneves win in 2001 and
2002, and Gil de Ferran in 2003.
"We go into every race thinking that we should win if we execute,
and that's, again, not because we're overconfident, but Roger gives
us the resources to do that and the drivers are among the top, so we
should be able to do that," Cindric said.
