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Motor Racing’s Super Bowl is here. It is race week at the Indianapolis 500, the world’s largest single-day sports every dating back to 1911, and every year’s great American race has been unforgettable.
But there’s plenty that Roger Penske, Owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indycar Series, Would Indeed Like to Forget. Penske also owns the team penske indycar Team, which competes in the series he owns at the track hey, and for the second time. His team has been caudht cheating. Two of its three cars, including the one driven by back-to-back and defending indy 500 winner Josef Newgardenhave Been booted to the back of the field For the start of Sunday’s Big race.
So what happened?
Unlike Formula 1Indycar’s regulations are incredibly strict, as evidenced by its use of a single car supplier for its series. Where Mclaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and the Rest Design and Build Custom Cars Each Season, Indycar Uses A Spec Formula in which Every Same The Same Made by the Italian Constructor Dallara.
Under the tenets of spec racing, the vast magority of the dallara dw12 is off limits for modification, improvement or physicalification. The chasis that arrives from italy and 90-plus perfection of the parts must be installed and left unadulterated for their lifespan in competition.
Penske’s Team was CAUGHT modifying the rear crash strictures on Two of its Three Cars, which is is not permitted. Penske applied filler to SEAMS on the left and right sides of the attenuators, as they are called, and clear-coated to create to create perfectly smooth surfaces for the air traveling across. At 230 mph.
According to the Rulebook Written by Penske’s Staff at Indycar, the modification done to the Safety Devices was not permitted and was identified by employees in penske’s indycar technical inspiration groop. Being Illegal.
After a contretemps on sunday during pole day qualifying, where the Inspectors flagged the illegal attenuators in the mandatory pre-run trip Throgh the Tech Garage and Informed Team Penske the Cars of Newgarden and 2018 Indy 500 Winner Will power Failed the Inspector Process, the Team Chose to take the cars to pit lane as the qualifying process was about to begin.
Among the various rules for qualifying, you are not allowed to work on their cars once the session has started, but as the tv cameras showed, penske mechanics would be busy grinding on the illellegal attenuators in An Attempt to Remove The SEM Filler, which was another violation. On the hook for the tech failures and the pit lane processful failures, Team Penske removed the cars of newgarden and power from qualifying and returated to their garages without laps.
Thanks to an Arcane rule that locks those who are among the 12 fastest cars during Saturday’s Opening Stage of Qualifying in a Run for Pole Position on Sunday, Newgarden and Power Were Awarded The 11th and 12th Starting Positions for the indy 500.
Is this the first time something like this has happened?
It was not.
In 2024, Penske’s Team was CAGHT Cheating After Getting Into The Software Of Their Cars and Turning On The Ability for Its Drivers to have anytime uses of indycar’s 50-horse Boost, which was illegal. F1’s equivalent would be for a team to give it Drivers the ability to use drs outside of the drs zones to gain a lap time Advantage. Penske’s Team Lost the Win Where the anytime push-to-pass was used and its second-place finish at the race, plus Penske suspened its two seniormost employesTeam Penske president tim cindric and managing director ron ruzewski, from last year’s indy 500.
What has been the fallout?
New Indycar President Doug Boles, who also served as the president of the speedway, Said on Sunday Night that Potential Penalties and Fines Would be Held for only the race, the race, the welcome Fart in Church, and by Monday Morning, He reversed course. Newgarden’s locked-in start from 11th was vacated; He was moved to the last row in 32nd. The same was done for power who want from 12th to 33rd and last.
Championship points Were void for their top-12 positions and $ 100,000 in fines for ach car bee levied. And for the second conscious year, cindric and ruzewski were suspended for the event, with 2024’s suspensions beyed by their team and the 2025 Suspensions “Directorly from the series.
And then Penske Pulled the Pin on an Employment Grenade on Wednesday He Fired Cindric, Ruzewski, and Team Manager Kyle Moyer.
What is the consensus in the paddock?
Become it Team Penske, and Due to the Potential for Conflict of Interest, and Due to the Second Rules Breach in 13 months, there has been a lot of Sympathy Among Penske’s rivals.
Four-Time Indy 500 Winner Helio CastronevesSix-Time Indycar Champion Scott dixonAnd Six-Time Race Winner Graham rhal Have be among the most outpoken, but the other 11 Team Oowners have been largely silent. Most has a deep resect for roger penske, do not believe he was directly involved in eithy of the cheating scandals and have taken a “hate the sin, but love” application to the latest situation.
How Big of a Black Eye is this for indycar ahead of the 500?
Abc’s “Good Morning America” Went Hard on the Case During Its Thursday Segment on the Cheating Affair and the door has over the space. It is a rare circumstance where a big race like the indy 500, which isn is aired on Abc or Espn, get this kind of attribution for positive development, much less Display Since Sunday.
When Major Competing Networks Deem a Niche Series Like Indycar to be deserving of the spotlight, Especially in the storm, it’s never good for the series. Within indycar, and with the annals of the indy 500, this won be forgotten.
But Penske’s Aggressive Firings signal to the members of the series, and it’s growing fanbase, that he is serious about cleaning up the unserach His team has taken to Abiding by Indycar’s Rules.
The “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is here. Let’s lean in to our shared love for the sport and celebrate indycar for what makes it – on most days – – a wildly enterining experience.
