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Penske fraud scandal from Indy 500 explained: Why the IndyCar power was punished

Penske fraud scandal from Indy 500 explained: Why the IndyCar power was punished

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Indianapolis – The Indianapolis 500 is in the headlines this week for the wrong reasons and overshadows an incredible surprise for the pole position at the beginning of this week.

Team Penske, the Powerhouse Racing Organization and 20 times Indy 500 winner, sees two illegal cars with two illegal cars before last Sunday last Sunday.

Although they were punished, the controversy was heard by WHO, to whom the cars belong: Roger Penske, who also has both the Indycar series itself and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The driver wants Power and Josef Newgarden-and the two-time defending champion Indy 500 Champion, who tries to become the first driver to descend three in a row to the last row of the 33-car field. And on Wednesday Penske announced that he had fired his three best managers from IndyCar team.

But the situation is complex even for racing fans, and there are many layers for controversy. Here is a look at what happens, what it means and what comes next.

Ok, what did Team Penske do?

In the back of an Indycar vehicle there is a safety device that is referred to as a damping agent and that can pillow the blow from a rear impact. In the Indy 500, the drivers run around the 2.5 mile speedway with almost 230 miles per hour, so that each crash can lead to a serious injury-or worse. The weaker should absorb part of the impact instead of sending everything to the driver's seat.

But the damper is a part that also falls into a decisive rule in Indycar. To try to create a flat playing field, Indycar runs a technical car in which almost all parts and parts are the same for each team. This means that teams are not allowed to change the parts purchased by a single source supplier, as this can achieve a competitive advantage in this case.

In this case, Team Penske is said to have changed the weaknesses to two of his cars (driven by Newgarden and power) because they had an unsightly transition between two parts. The team staff filled the gap and smoothed it to create a flat surface. Although Indycar President Doug Boles said that he believed that the violation did not achieve a speed advantage – “0.0 miles per hour,” he said – does not matter. The rules were broken because the part was changed.

That's it? Is that the scandal? Why are everyone so angry?

Well, here is the thing. At first it didn't seem to be big business. Newgarden and power had already qualified to start the top 12 in the race on Sunday, and Indycar allowed them to keep their positions from last Sunday evening.

But on Monday morning, Indycar changed his melody. It suspended the race strategists for each team, a fine of $ 100,000 and sent the cars to the back of the field – a harder punishment than what the rule book called for.

Apart from the fact that some were not enough because there were soon photographic evidence that the cars had used the illegal weaknesses for at least a year. In order to make things worse, Newgarden's winner of 2024 Auto – which is exhibited in the museum of the route – has a modified damping body within sight. This means that Newgarden has crossed the finish line with a part last year that should have been illegal, but not.

Wait. How have you got through it for so long?

It gets even more difficult here. The IndyCar teams regularly go through the inspection before qualifying and racing. Team Penske cars, as could be seen on photographs, clearly used the modified dampers for a long time. And yet they were only broken on Sunday.

What gives? According to Boles, Indycar's technical inspectors mainly focus on areas of the car that they believe they would support performance. They did not notice this area of ​​the car, said Boles, because it was a security -relevant part.

“Our technical team does not see this,” said Boles. “And this is one of these parts that were only seen on Sunday.

“Is that a Miss? Absolutely. It is a Miss. Is it a part that everyone should be exposed to in every event (and) if you have changed it, you are outside the rules? Hundred percent.”

In order to make things worse, this is not the first time that Team Penske has recently been involved in a fraud scandal.

There was another one?!

Oh yes. But much worse because, unlike it, it actually influenced the performance.

Last year, Team Penske has software available in her three cars, which enabled drivers to use Indycars “Push to Pass” engine boost at illegal times. Push to Passing is said to be deactivated at restarts, but Newgarden and teammates Scott McLaughlin both used him both at the start of the season in St. Petersburg, Florida, and were later disqualified.

All three Penske teams were also issued hard punishments, and it was a very embarrassing situation for Penske. Now a top -class rules of rules have taken place for the second time in so many years.

I am confused. Do officials deliberately look in the other direction?

As Penske himself said Fox Sports on Wednesday, the “optics” of this situation is not good. Here is Team Penske, who won two consecutive Indy 500s last year and dominated qualifying last year by swinging the three cars in the front row. Newgarden, Power and McLaughlin came back in May as favorites and seemed to have cars quickly enough to win. Penske himself has the series and ultimately monitors the office in a sense, and this happened on a route that he owns.

So no, it's not a good view of everyone. But Boles said his inquiries about the office showed that the weaknesses were accidentally overlooked – not on purpose. He is firmly convinced that his technical inspectors have not played favorites with the Penske cars.

But Penske should not be able to question the integrity of himself or Indycar, which is a main reason why he fired his three best team leaders on Wednesday. Now there must also be changes to the technical inspection process.

What will indycar do to restore credibility?

Boles, who has been working as an Indycar president for only three months, promised to spend the rest of this season at the inspection process. He said that considerations are being made to increase the staff, more tools are added that would help to recognize shortcomings, or simply increase the time inspectors that the cars have to look at. (They were only assigned 30 minutes to inspect 12 cars on the day in question.)

A problem on Sunday was that Power's violation was almost missing. While an Indycar inspector noticed the modified damper in Powers Auto and was “95 percent safe”, he was not legal, Boles said that Power's car was still set up for qualification on the pit road. Only after Newgarden's car got through shortly afterwards did the inspector became both cars as illegal and they were pulled out of the line instead of trying an attempt at the Indy 500 -Pole.

In the meantime, Boles and Penske have had discussions about a potentially independent incumbent body in the past six months that would not be under the area of ​​responsibility of Penske's leadership. An independent reigning group would do everything from the technical inspection to the administration of the race from the control tower, but such a change is not imminent.

“I don't make excuses; we made a mistake,” said Boles. “We missed something that is decisive for the way we do the technology, and this is a technical element that is certainly connected. And frankly, nothing is more important than the safety of these cars, even more important than what happens on the race track because we do not want to have injured our drivers.”


Roger Penske has the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar series and the most successful team in the series. “We let people down,” he said to Fox Sports. (James Gilbert / Getty Images)

Let's return to last year's car. Any random Newgarden loses victory?

Boles said the 2024 Indy 500 was considered completely and the car in the museum won the race. At that time it was considered legal. Indycar will not go back and change the result of a race a year ago. It is now in the record books.

“It won the Indianapolis 500,” said Boles.

Indycar will not change the starting field either. Rookie Jacob Abel could not qualify for the race with a legal car, and it turned out that Newgarden made it with illegal cars. But Boles said that Indycar would not bring Abel into the field, partly because the cars of Newgarden and Power would both have been fast enough to do it anyway (since the damping areas were not assumed that they have given an advantage).

Abel, for what it is worth, said Fox Sports that under these circumstances he would not be included in the race anyway.

Is this controversy over?

Well, it depends on what happens on Sunday in the Indy 500. McLaughlin begins the 10th place because his car had no illegal damper (Penke said they turned them through their cars, and McLaughlin had a newer, unchanged) and was certainly able to win the race.

And although nobody ever won from lower than 28, only four drivers have won in the 108-year history of the race of lower than 22. To believe Newgarden and Power that it could do from the 30s from the 30s is wild, but it also seems to be possible. Newgarden in particular has been exceptional at Indy in the past two years; It is not impossible to give him a lightning -fast car and 200 laps to get forward.

Regardless of whether you win, the Nachhall will feel in Team Penske from this incident for a long time.

(Topto by Josef Newgarden at the beginning of this week at Indy 500 Exercise: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

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