Penske's technical director plans exit

By foxsports
Published

Penske Racing technical director Tom German will part ways with the company at the end of May.

Penske Racing's Jonathan Gibson, vice president of marketing and communication,  confirmed the change to FOXSports.com on Wednesday.

German, who spent 10-plus years with Penske Racing, originally on the IndyCar side and most recently with the NASCAR program, has been accepted to the prestigious Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch was upset during the race at Richmond International Raceway, calling out German on the team radio in a profanity-laced tirade. Then last week at Darlington Raceway, he alluded to changes having been made within the team, though he would not get specific.

"It’s been a productive week," Busch said. "There’s been a lot of movement behind the scenes with restructuring, moving some things around and getting a general idea what some of the actual issues are instead of just talking about them; we’re acting to it."

German has a lengthy history of success with Penske. He worked with the organization's entries in both the CART and IZOD IndyCar Series with the team winning three championships and producing four Indianapolis 500 victories during his tenure.

He was Sam Hornish Jr.'s race engineer when he won the 2006 Indy 500 from the pole position and the championship. He was Gil de Ferran's race engineer from 2000-03, with the pair winning the 2003 Indianapolis 500 and two consecutive CART Series Championships (2000–01). German also helped de Ferran establish a new world closed-course speed record with a lap of 241.428 mph at California Speedway in 2000, and the tandem scored Roger Penske’s historic 100th victory at Nazareth Speedway that same year.

The prestigious Sloan program only accepts a small percentage of applicants each year.

"Last fall, Tom came to us with interest in attending this elite school," Gibson said. "Acceptance is extremely competitive, with less than 15% of the applicants being selected for the program. We supported him during this application process and he found out this spring that he had been accepted and will begin classes in June. We are thankful for all of his contributions to Penske, and we are proud of Tom for being accepted to this elite school and wish him the best as he furthers his education at MIT."