Tim Cindric Q&A

"We're trying to go forward on the basis of what's best for our organisation and our sponsors. Obviously with the successes we've had recently it was important for our partnership with Philip Morris to move forward. It is important for them to race in as many races as possible in the domestic market and its important to be in a situation where we can go to Indianapolis.

"Leaving the CART series is very difficult for everyone. When you've raced with an organisation for that long, particularly with the success we've had. It's tough. It was a very difficult decision, but one we felt we had to make at this time."



"We'll have our work cut out for us, no doubt. I hope our critics are correct and that we will be as successful as some of them seem to think we'll be in the IRL. But I feel we have a lot of work to do. The teams that have been running full time in that series are very serious and talented. We have a lot of work to do to consistently match their level, but we're very much looking forward to the challenge."



"We'll announce our package in the future. We're currently testing a 2001 Dallara-Oldsmobile. Gil [de Ferran] ran last week at Phoenix, and Helio will be there for the next two days.



"There has been a lot of unfounded speculation about the support from our drivers about this decision. The fact that the announcement was delayed has absolutely nothing to do with what has been reported. Gil and Helio [Castroneves] are very supportive of Marlboro Team Penske and its future direction. Obviously any driver of their talent and background will miss the challenge of road racing one weekend and oval racing the next. I'm sure they would like the opportunity to road race again at some point, and hopefully that opportunity will come around in the future."



"Ultimately no. We had to pick a direction that was best for our organisation for the future. We had to look at the bigger picture rather than on any isolated situation. At this point, our organisation is looking forward rather than towards the past. The ultimate goal for us, and I hope for everyone involved on both sides, is to get together for a single open wheel championship. This country needs one premier open-wheel series for open-wheel racing to be successful, and that's what we should all be working for."