Explains: The Penske scandal that shakes the Indy 500

The change in the damping areas included the smoothing or mixing of an area of ​​the part, which could have been a minor aerodynamic advantage by reducing the air resistance and increasing the straight-line speed–even rivals even recognized that the advantage was probably minimal.

The examiners had not noticed the modification earlier at the weekend and drove the cars by qualifying on Saturday and for the following day. But as other teams pointed out to the role, the officials entered.

First of all, the punishment was to remove Newgarden and electricity from the fast 12 qualification session and to place them on the back of this group, causing them to start the 11th and 12th centuries. After further review, Indycar escalated the punishments.

“The integrity of the Indianapolis 500 is of the greatest importance, and this violation of the IndyCar rule of the change of this part and the use of” As delivered “is clear,” said the President of Indycar, J. Douglas Boles.

“The punishment should be more than just starting where the cars could have qualified anyway if they have the opportunity. However, the cars are two of the fastest 33 in the field. In this case, start the corresponding punishment.”

Organizational Fallout

The scandal prompted Team Penske owner Roger Penske, the entire senior Indycar leadership team, including Cindric, who has been with the organization for 25 years.

Penske is the owner of the Indycar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Therefore, the situation has raised questions about conflicts of interest that are firmly rejected by all parties.

Penske denied any participation in incumbent or technical inspections, but admitted that there had been “organizational failures” for which he apologized.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our racing team. We have had organizational failures in the past two years and had to make necessary changes,” said Penske on Wednesday.

“I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization to let them down.”

2024 approval

The scandal became even more serious due to Penske's own proposal that Newgarden's car had the same illegal modifications in 2024.

The photo of the 2024 cars was circulated for at least a year.

When asked by Fox Sports, if the car of the past year had the same modifications, Penske said: “I would say yes. I would say we had nine damping devices that were modified by Dallara at the beginning of 2024 and were shot by cars in the past 15 months.