Key questions answered: Penske penalised for Indy 500 qualifying illegality

Archie O’Reilly
May 19
11 min read

Following a rules breach which saw the No.2 and No.12 Team Penske entries fail technical inspection and denied participation in the Fast 12 qualifying session for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500, both Josef Newgarden and Will Power have been moved to the rear of the field for next Sunday’s race.

Alongside the pair starting 32nd and 33rd, the strategists for Newgarden and Power have been suspended for the remainder of the event. The pair have also forfeited the points gained from qualifying and each entry has been fined $100,000. They will also forgo their chosen race pit boxes and the allocation will be redrawn.

Both the No.2 and No.12 cars were found to have modified their attenuators, which is in breach of IndyCar’s Rule 14.7.8.16. Initially, the cars were classified in the final two positions - 11th and 12th - in the Fast 12 session in order of their quickest four-lap average speed from the opening day of qualifying on Saturday.

The focus on Sunday was to determine the facts surrounding the illegality. Further review took place after the conclusion of qualifying, determining that a harsher penalty for both Newgarden and Power’s entries was warranted.

It is the second successive year in which Tim Cindric (team president and Newgarden’s strategist) and Ron Ruzewski (Power’s strategist) have been banned from the Indy 500 - last year being an internal decision - after Penske were penalised for illegal use of push-to-pass on restarts during the season-opening race on the streets of St. Petersburg in 2024.

On that occasion, the series disqualified Newgarden (the winner in St. Pete) and teammate Scott McLaughlin (third-place finisher) from the race, stripping their points as a result.

McLaughlin has escaped penalty this time as, driving the No.3 entry, he did not partake in the Fast 12 after a heavy crash in practice on Sunday. After his attenuator was impounded, the part was found to be legal and unmodified. Now in a back-up car after his accident, McLaughlin will keep his 10th-place starting spot as a result.

“The integrity of the Indianapolis 500 is paramount and this violation of the IndyCar rule against modification to this part and using it ’as supplied’ is clear,” said series president Doug Boles in an initial statement. “The penalty should be more than simply starting where the cars might have qualified anyway, if given the opportunity.

“The cars belong in the field as two of the fastest 33. However, starting on the tail of the field is the appropriate penalty in this instance.”

Boles’ statement continued on to credit the positive momentum of the series and Indy 500, which is on the verge of a wholesale grandstand sellout, but outlined the importance of maintaining fairness.

“Our intent is to maintain that momentum and discourage teams from putting IndyCar in positions where it calls into the integrity of our officiating and the levelness of the playing field,” he said. “We will do everything we can to make it clear that this is not only the best racing on the planet but racing where the best win under completely fair conditions.”

Boles also spoke to the media following the announcement, where he explained the decisions and a number of key questions were answered…

What actually happened?

This story commenced when the two Penske cars were voluntarily pulled from pit lane when lining up for their Fast 12 runs in qualifying on Sunday.

All of the cars participating in the session went through pre-qualifying technical inspection. When Power’s No.12 car passed through, IndyCar technical director Kevin ’Rocket’ Blanch and his team acknowledged that there may have been a modification to the attenuator, which is an important safety device on the cars.

“Rocket in his head was pretty sure that we had a rule,” Boles said. “But he didn’t have the rule book with him that stated that could not be a modified part. We do, in fact, have that rule.

“The next couple of cars that went through, they looked at the attenuators on those cars. They were clearly unaltered. When the No.2 car came through, the No.2 car had an altered attenuator on it.”

By this point, Power had already rolled to pit lane. But upon finding the same modification on Newgarden’s car, Blanch insisted that the car chief of the No.2 - standing beside him - called the car chief of the No.12 to inform him to move the car aside as its attenuator was also illegal.

Both cars ultimately ended up in pit lane and Newgarden and Power’s teams were informed that they could qualify if they wished but would likely be disqualified in post-qualifying technical inspection.

“Those parts are not legal,” Boles said. “The team could either do that or they had the choice of pulling out of line. The team chose to pull out of line versus qualifying and being disqualified, for sure, as they went through the tech line.”

Why did the No.12 initially pass inspection?

Given an anomaly was spotted on the No.12 and raised initial suspicion, the question is begged: why was it ever allowed to pass through tech?

“As we quickly try and get cars through tech for pre-qualifying so they can get out to the grid and qualifying, 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 teammate’s car, just to ensure that if they found something on one car, it’s not on the other,” Boles said.

“So the tech team did the job as they were supposed to. Some confusion happened on pit lane when members of the No.12 car started to grind on the back of the attenuator where it had been modified.

“Rocket did talk to Kyle Novak, who is our race director, on pit lane to make sure that Kyle Novak agreed with him that we have a rule that says that that part, the attenuator, must be run as supplied. Kyle and Rocket both agreed.”

Boles maintains that the “tech team did a fantastic job” under the pressure of having to get cars through tech in a timely fashion.

But why did the cars ever end up on pit lane given the illegality was discovered and noted?

“Tech does not end once you roll off the tech pad,” Boles said. “The tech does not end even if you have a tech sticker on your car. At all times, cars must follow the rules of IndyCar. Even if somebody might have missed something, which did not happen in this case, we can take a car on pit lane and penalise it for having a part on the car that does not fit the rules.”

Why was the decision changed?

Initially, Newgarden and Power were slated to start 11th and 12th on the publicised starting grid for next weekend’s Indy 500. Teams and drivers even went through the pit box allocation process, which is drawn in order of qualifiers.

“Our rule states that you will start at the back of the qualifying session in which you’re qualifying,” Boles said. “So those cars were qualifying in the top 12 [and] would go to the back.”

But as the night went on after the conclusion of qualifying and more facts were established, Boles felt the initial penalty may not have been sufficient.

“The lawyer training in me said: ‘Let’s make sure we have our facts correct,’” he said. “So spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to understand how we got to the spot where we were. We just wanted to make sure that before we really made any statement, we knew exactly what had happened.”

Boles had initially said any penalties would be announced after the event, as per IndyCar’s regular procedure.

“As you walk away from that and you realise the gravity of this event, it certainly makes you feel like we shouldn’t be treating this like any other event,” Boles said. “We should be treating this like the event that I tell everybody it is. It’s the greatest race on earth and it needs to be treated differently.”

Rule 9.2.1 suggests IndyCar can determine penalties by the gravity of a violation and its impact on the fairness of competition. That is what ultimately made up Boles’ mind.

Boles determined that just dropping the cars to the back of the field was not enough, hence the suspensions, fines, points forfeited and stripping of pit box selection.

“The thing that strikes me the most about this rule is the gravity of the violation,” he said. “This is the world’s largest motorsport event. This event defines who people are.

“We believed that allowing the two cars to start in 12th and 11th, which is a place that they might have actually qualified in had they been allowed to qualify, was not a sufficient enough penalty and did not present an appropriate enough result for the violation.

“[It shows] the importance of ensuring that IndyCar continues to have its integrity and so that we can continue to tech cars and know that when we tech cars and you bring them through, we expect them to be rule followers.”

Who was involved in the decision?

One headline is that Roger Penske, both owner of Penske and the IndyCar Series, was not involved in the making of the decision. It was Boles’ job to inform Penske of the penalties after a discussion primarily with Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles.

Everyone was on the same page when it came to the decision.

“I didn’t sleep at all last night,” Boles said. “I frankly didn’t take a shower this morning. My hair is a mess. The first thing I did this morning was call Mark. 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.

“Roger Penske was not involved in this other than to be told that there would be a penalty and it would be a severe penalty coming his way. We did call Roger to let him know what the penalty was and we called Tim Cindric and we called Ron Ruzewski to let them know what was coming.

“I made those calls. [They were] super difficult. It’s the last thing I want to be doing right now is talking about penalties. Do I want to be having those phone calls? No.”

Is this unfair on bumped Jacob Abel?

One point widely raised is that a completely legal car, Dale Coyne Racing’s Jacob Abel, has failed to make the field of 33 after finishing slowest in Last Chance Qualifying. Meanwhile, two cars found with illegalities have been allowed to start the race.

But according to Boles, because they locked themselves into the field on Saturday, when they passed tech without issues being picked up, nothing could be done. Removing the two Penske cars from the event entirely was “not really” considered.

“To remove them from the event for something that happened inside of the top 12 just didn’t seem like the right result here,” Boles said. “We have gone beyond what our rules say and have moved them to the back of the grid, taken away their points, fined them. We’re suspending two of their personnel.”

Boles has sympathy for Abel but did not feel the rules could be overwritten in this case.

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

“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.”

Were the cars illegal before Sunday?

Maybe the biggest question of all is whether the illegally-modified attenuator was on the car before Sunday. Boles was unable to prove that but it was raised to him in the media conference that a number of teams had spotted the issues pre-Sunday.

Marshall Pruett suggested there was photographic evidence of the modifications even last year. Images have since surfaced of Newgarden’s 2024 Indy 500-winning car allegedly with the illegal attenuator in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

There is definite concern that the illegalities were not found before Sunday if indeed present. Boles was left visibly frustrated that this was not raised to him until after Penske failed technical inspection on Sunday.

“It was found on Sunday so those are the facts,” Boles said. “The facts I know is it was found on Sunday. This penalty is based on what happened on Sunday. I have had teams tell me since last night that they have photos of cars - not just Penske cars, other cars - with things on cars that are not within the rules.

“I’ve asked them why no one has sent anything to me or ever said anything to me about that. So I have never heard that. I know that’s around the paddock but I have never heard the news. If somebody had told me that was the case, I would have gone to Rocket and talked to Rocket and made sure we paid attention to that.”

Boles admitted he does have occasional conversations with Blanch where he has heard from teams about a number of things. But Boles was not made aware of this particular issue.

“I can only make a decision on what I know,” Boles said. “I can only encourage people if there are photos of cars with things illegal on them, they need to tell me. Then I can address it.

“But I can’t address something that happened last year when I wasn’t even in this job and I can’t address something that happened on Saturday if nobody had the guts to come and tell me it was going on Saturday.”

Is there a conflict of interest at IndyCar?

As was the case last year when Penske were found to have illegally used push-to-pass, concerns have been raised about the conflict of interest regarding the common ownership of the team and the series.

Boles did not shy away from the suggestion but was unable to give a direct answer. He did suggest he believes Penske is not aware of everything that goes on within his team given he is not in charge of day-to-day operations.

“I’ve known Roger Penske for an awful long time and I’ve gotten to know him really well since November 2019,” Boles said. “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. How do you manage the optics challenge? A lot of these challenges, 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.”

Boles knows Penske will have to face these issues at some point.

“This is something that I think he’s going to have to address,” he said. “As far as the series goes, we are open to looking at wherever we are. But right now, we have a tech team that did their job yesterday. They found the attenuators. We stopped both of them. We’ve maybe not resolved forever but we’ve appropriately addressed this particular situation.

“It’s hard for me to just immediately give an answer. That’s a big question that we have to spend some time thinking about.”

Can further penalties be expected?

As far as Boles is concerned, the “case is closed” and no further penalties can be expected relating to Penske’s violation on Sunday.

“The only time this case gets opened up again or anything happens again is if somebody comes through tech and is not qualifying on tech,” he said. “It felt to me like the most important thing for us to do today was set the field of the Indianapolis 500.”

A statement has been made and the hope is that teams have been sufficiently warned against flouting the rules.

“This is a clear indication, I hope, to the paddock that we take this seriously, that this is not something that we’re going to continue to allow to happen,” Boles said. “We are going to make sure that the cars on the race track are evenly prepared and fall within our rules.”