Will Power and Josef Newgarden begin Indy quests by adapting to new strategists and engineers

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Josef Newgarden and Will Power went back to work Friday with revamped teams.

The drivers’ race strategists, Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski, will miss Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 on May 26 while serving two-race suspensions for cheating. So will engineers Luke Mason and Robbie Atkinson.

How quickly the drivers adapt to the new voices on their radios could determine whether either of the two 500 winners and series champs can achieve their traditional May goal of putting team owner Roger Penske back in victory lane.

“It’s not ideal losing someone off your stand. Losing two people is definitely not ideal. We were better off with them,” Power said Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “But I sat down with Dave (Faustino) and we just said we’re going to do absolutely the best we can with what we’ve got. We’ve got very good people on the team. It is what it is.”