The Penske Rant - 2025 Indy 500 Edition

Qualifying for the 2025 Indy 500 was incredible. We had Colton Herta's remarkable recovery after a crash during his qualifying attempt, Marcus Armstrong's own recovery in last chance qualifying after a Saturday practice crash, the climactic shootout between Dale Coyne Racing teammates Rinus VeeKay and Jacob Abel for the 33rd and final spot in the race, and Prema Racing's miraculous pole position thanks to rookie driver Robert Shwartzman.

Unfortunately, I don't get to talk about any of that.

Roger Penske's Sunday was a pretty rough one. Scott McLaughlin had a big crash in morning practice, destroying his car and taking him out of contention for running for the pole. In addition, the remaining team cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power were disqualified for failing pre-qualifying technical inspection. This second part is the where things get complicated.

During the afternoon, there was some conflicting information between the IndyCar officials and Tim Cindric, the president of Team Penske, about whether or not the Newgarden and Power cars actually passed inspection, and which of them actually passed inspection. It wasn't until hours after that we got a more complete picture of what happened. Even then, I'm still not 100% sure these are the complete facts, with all the conflicting information.

During pre-qualifying technical inspections for the Fast 12, a potential issue was flagged on Power's #12 car. Despite the issue, the car was allowed to move to the pit lane. Not long after, the same issue was spotted on the #2 car of Newgarden, and the #12 was called back for a closer look. The issue was some kind of adhesive or epoxy used to fill a seam on the car's rear attenuator, part of the rear crash structure. This part is explicitly named in the rule book as a part that cannot be modified in any way. On top of the fact that messing with safety is a great way to have any racing series come down on you hard, the filling of this gap did provide a potential competitive advantage. Any kind of gap or seam will create drag on a race car, so filling the gap on the attenuator provided the Penske cars with an aerodynamic advantage over everyone else.

The #12 team was told that they could make a qualifying run, since they had passed the initial inspection, but that they would fail the post-qualifying inspection if they did. The #12 and #2 teams attempted to remove the filler on pit road, but that itself was a rule violation, as the only changes that can be made on pit road are wing angles and tire pressures. With no way to remediate the issue, Penske chose not to run the #12 car, withdrawing both the #12 and the #2 from the Fast 12.

Cindric and Team Penske claim that the #3 car of McLaughlin did not have the modified attenuator before his crash, and IndyCar impounded the part from the damaged car and confirmed that it was legal. It's still unclear whether any or all of the three cars were modified on Saturday, during the initial round of qualifying.

Some drivers, primarily Pato O'Ward, called for a stricter penalty to be applied to the cars, since it's very likely that they ran these modified attenuators during Saturday's qualifying session. However, IndyCar president Doug Boles claimed that, since the cars passed inspection on Saturday, that no action could be taken other than demoting the cars to the bottom of the Fast 12, and any further action would be after the conclusion of the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend. This meant that the two cars would start 11th and 12th for the Indy 500. While further back than they might have wanted to be, that's still prime starting position.

However, on Monday morning, Boles reversed course on his decision, penalizing Penske further by demoting the #12 and #2 to the back of the field, starting 32nd and 33rd. Since the #3 didn't show up for inspection due to the irreparable damage from the crash, McLaughlin would start in the 10th position, albeit in a backup car.

In case you didn't know, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series are both owned by Roger Penske.

Obviously, there wouldn't be anywhere near this level of scrutiny if it happened to any team other than Penske, but it has to be that way. If he wants to avoid the accusations of preferential treatment, Penske and his team need to be held to a higher, perhaps even impossible, standard. His reputation affects the reputation of the series as a whole, so the rules need to be stricter and the penalties harsher when his team is under the microscope.

This is the second potentially championship-altering rule violation that Team Penske has been involved in over the past two seasons. Unlike last time, where the series came down hard, the initial reaction was very lenient, and it wasn't until outrage started to brew that Boles and the IndyCar executive team decided to backtrack. Even after the extremely harsh penalty that was applied on Monday, the initial reaction is still not a great look.

Roger Penske has absolutely been instrumental in helping the IndyCar Series survive, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic era. However, it's time for him to sell the series and the speedway. The conflict of interest is clear, and this can't go on if IndyCar wants to retain any sense of credibility.

After such an incredible day of motorsports, it's a shame this cloud has to linger over the qualifying weekend.