IndyCar president says qualifying scandal is "devastating" to Roger Penske

On Monday morning, news rocked the IndyCar paddock as the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet of Josef Newgarden and the No. 12 Chevrolet of Will Power were sent to the rear of the field for the 109th running of the Indy 500. Both teams have been fined $100,000 each and their race strategists [Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski] have been suspended.

The reason? An illegal modification to the rear attenuator where a part was filled in and smoothed over in an apparent rules breach. Originally, the cars were pulled out of line for Fast 12 qualifying and were set to start on Row 4, but that has since changed dramatically.

Why McLaughlin wasn’t penalized

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

As for the third Penske car of Scott McLaughlin, which was heavily damaged in an airborne practice crash, series officials did look at the rear attenuator of the No. 3 as well. Speaking to the assembled media at the track, IndyCar and IMS track president Doug Boles explained why he was not penalized in the end.

“We do have the attenuators from all three of these cars,” explained Boles. “The #3 car attenuator from the crash with the crashed wing still attached to it was provided to us, and we still have it. That attenuator was not modified at all. So on Sunday, we can tell you by facts — again, the lawyer in me — that car was presented when it drove at least with an attenuator on the car that met all of the rules of the IndyCar Competition Rule Book. So the #3 car will start in (the) 10th spot, which will be the last car in the Fast 12 that did not get removed to the back of the field. So the #3 car will not have any additional penalties.

Why Abel has no path into the Indy 500 field

Jacob Abel, Dale Coyne Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

The other burning question surrounds Jacob Abel, the only driver who failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Some have argued that he should now have a place in the 33-car field and one of the Penske cars should be pushed out of the event instead. Boles disagrees.

“Transparently, the 33 fastest cars are in the Indianapolis 500,” said Boles. “On Saturday all the cars passed tech. There was not a reason to look at those cars. They got through the cars, so on Saturday that qualification attempt should stand as far as I’m concerned.

“On Sunday is where we’re talking about right now, the facts are that those cars did not meet to qualify in the 12. The rule says, if you get disqualified from the 12, you start 12th and 11th. We’ve gone one step further and put them in the back. Do I feel gutted for Jacob Abel? Absolutely. The guy is running our whole season. I know how important this race is to Dale Coyne. Dale Coyne and I have had arguments after arguments over whether we should guarantee starting spots at the Indianapolis 500. He and I are on opposite sides of that conversation, but in this instance, I don’t think that the result for the 33 cars should be changed.”

Roger Penske’s stance and involvement

Roger Penske, President of Penske Motorsport

Photo by: FIAWEC – DPPI

This is also an awkward position for Roger Penske, who of course owns the cars driven by Newgarden and Power, but also runs IndyCar in its entirety. This is not the first a scandal involving the Penske cars has arisen since Roger took control of the series with the 2024 push-to-pass (P2P) controversy being another unfortunate highlight. So where does Roger stand on all of this? 

“I’ve known Roger Penske for an awful long time, and I’ve gotten to know him really well since November 2019,” said Boles. “I don’t think Roger Penske understands some of the things that might be going on.

“I get the optics challenge, and it’s definitely something we should think about. I mean, how do you manage the optics challenge? A lot of these challenges I think are — while they roll up to Roger at the end of the day, I think they are certainly below him. There are things that happen that don’t ever get to Roger.

“I can tell you that Roger Penske would not condone this. In fact, I had a chance to talk to Roger, and I can tell that this is devastating to him. Nothing means more to Roger Penske than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. He certainly loves racing across the board. This is something that I think he’s going to have to address at some point in time.”

As for who made the final call to penalize Team Penske, Boles explained that it was a group of officials including himself and IndyCar CEO Mark Miles. However, he stressed that Roger Penske “was not involved” in the decision in any way.

“I didn’t sleep at all last night,” said Boles. “You probably can’t tell, but I frankly didn’t take a shower this morning. My hair is a mess. The first thing I did this morning was call Mark [Miles]. Mark basically said the same thing. The two of us sat down and started thinking through what is the appropriate thing to make sure that we’re managing the integrity of the Indianapolis 500?”

Cleaning up the confusing timeline of events

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Boles also clarified the timeline of events, as there were some discrepancies over how this all unfolded. Boles confirmed that officials noticed that the attenuator on Power’s car may have been modified as he went through tech, but they weren’t completely sure. Power’s car made it out to the pit lane, but as more cars went through, they noticed that Newgarden’s attenuator was the only one altered like Power’s. That’s when alarm bells began to ring.

“At that point in time Kevin [Blanch, IndyCar technical director] said to the car chief of the #2 [Newgarden], who was standing with him, will you please call the car chief of the #12 car [Power] and tell him to move the car aside because that attenuator also is illegal,” said Boles.

Boles further explained the events that followed as Penske suddenly started working on their cars in the pit lane, much to the objection of rival teams. “It is not unusual for — it’s not common, but it is not unusual for our technical team to find something on a teammate car and actually go out onto pit lane and inspect a car, a teammate’s car, just to ensure that if they found something on one car, it’s not on the other,” explained Boles.

“So the tech team did the job as they were supposed to. Some confusion happened on pit lane, I think, when members of the 12 car I believe started to grind on the back of the attenuator where it had been modified, which then created — I think some rumors came out of that, but that was really the reason we were trying to think through the facts of that position.”

The Penske team was informed that they could still qualify, but they would likely be disqualified in post-qualifying inspection. “The team chose to pull out of line and take that option versus qualifying and being disqualified for sure as they went through the tech line.”