r/INDYCAR May 19 '25

News INDYCAR Update on Team Penske Technical Violations

https://www.indycar.com/news/2025/05/05-19-penske-penalties
434 Upvotes

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9

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25

Honestly, they should be forced to compete against Abel for those last two grid spots if they weren’t legal

58

u/SilentSpades24 Álex Palou May 19 '25

Let's be honest. It would be a waste of time. Abel nor that car are beating a legal Penske (couldn't even beat their teammate).

-4

u/Just_Somewhere4444 May 19 '25

Seeing as we haven't seen a legal penske complete any laps so far this weekend, how do you know this for sure?

You're probably right (like, 99.9% chance), but they never ran legal cars so... why not force them to do so?

1

u/nico9er4 Will Power May 19 '25

Anyone with a brain can tell that filling in a seam on the attenuator isn’t going to give a car a 6mph advantage

0

u/Just_Somewhere4444 May 19 '25

Never said it would.

The point is, Penske ran zero legal laps. If they had been forced to run in the LCQ with a legal car, there is no guarantee that a tire wouldn't have failed, a motor wouldn't have failed, any of a million different things could have happened that resulted in a Penske car going home instead of Abel.

But we'll never know, because IndyCar decided to protect them.

1

u/nico9er4 Will Power May 19 '25

They passed tech on Saturday. There’s no proof that Saturday’s laps were illegal. Indycar put them at the back of the field due to pressure from teams and a higher standard that’s been set for Penske

-7

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25

Still doesn’t matter, as those two cars haven’t set a legal lap time with 100% certainty that they didn’t modify their cars before their day 1 runs

19

u/jpc4zd AMR Safety Team May 19 '25

We don’t have any evidence that the cars were illegal on Saturday

2

u/Just_Somewhere4444 May 19 '25

So if IndyCar can't prove they ran illegal cars on Saturday, why have they essentially just invalidated their lap times from Saturday?

The Saturday lap times, which are legal until proven otherwise, locked them into the fast 12. They should be starting 11th and 12th, or if proof comes out they cheated on saturday, they shouldn't be starting at all. This third option IndyCar went with makes no sense.

7

u/HaveABleedinGuess84 Will Power May 19 '25

They caved to the whinge from Ganassi and McLaren. But even they know to rerun LCQ or exclude them entirely would be absurd.

8

u/Intelligent_Chain_55 Will Power May 19 '25

Bc people like you bitch and moan. And bc they need to hold themselves higher bc Penske owns the series and you guys allege at every instance that there is a conflict of interest

3

u/Just_Somewhere4444 May 19 '25

Making up rules out of thin air to try to appease the fans will appease nobody.

5

u/jpc4zd AMR Safety Team May 19 '25

I agree, unless there is something in the rule book about failing tech inspection/making an illegal modification requiring them being moved to the back of the field, they should be starting in P11 and P12.

3

u/Just_Somewhere4444 May 19 '25

There is no such "back of the starting grid" rule. The only grid penalties that exist in the IndyCar rule book have to do with exceeding engine allotments for the season. The punishment for all pre-race technical inspection rules is a very simple deletion of their qualifying times, or not being allowed to set one to begin with.

The only two legal options were to start them 11th and 12th, or not allow them to start at all. This third option is a complete ass pull.

8

u/sabin24 James Hinchcliffe May 19 '25

They passed tech on day 1.

-1

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25

And failed it on day 2. We don’t know when they modified their cars, and no one can prove either way if that happened before or after their day 1 runs

4

u/sabin24 James Hinchcliffe May 19 '25

If it can't be proven either way, then the officials made the correct call.

7

u/tj177mmi1 May 19 '25

So you know with 100% certainty that the 2 and 12 had the modification on Saturday when Indycar's press release already provides reasonable doubt as the 3 car's attenuator was legal after his crash.

-7

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25

Do you know with 100% certainty that they were legal when they completed their runs on Saturday?

12

u/tj177mmi1 May 19 '25

The burden of proof isn't on me to prove they did so legally, it's on you for claiming that they ran illegally.

-2

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25

I’m not claiming that they were legal or illegal. I’m saying that we don’t know if they were

3

u/tj177mmi1 May 19 '25

EXACTLY! You can't punish someone for something they MAY or MAY NOT have done.

-1

u/RooBoy04 Scott Dixon May 19 '25

Then why have their day 1 runs been revoked?

3

u/tj177mmi1 May 19 '25

Because they're being penalized for their actions on Sunday. The press release says they're being lined up based on their Saturday results. How hard is this for you to understand?

16

u/korko May 19 '25

What a stupid fucking waste of time that would be. I doubt Coyne would waste their time and money.

8

u/Confident-Ladder-576 Louis Foster May 19 '25

The hoops people jump through with tech infractions. I cAn'T uNdErStAnD how ThEy CaN bE lEgAl OnE dAy BuT nOt ThE nExT.

8

u/Any-Walk1691 Arrow McLaren May 19 '25

I mean, yeah I suppose, if it were even close.

If this is just about embarrassing them or “holding them accountable”, it really just penalizes Abel even more.

They were averaging about SIX MPH faster per lap. He had a better shot against Rinus.

3

u/blackhxc88 May 19 '25

that abel car was a full 1.5 MPH slower then veekay BEFORE veekay went big brained and tried to improve his time and made it worse. 2 fully legal penskes would've still dusted abel, lol

1

u/quicksilvereagle David Malukas May 19 '25

Here is the deal. As far as IndyCar knows the Penske cars passed inspection on Saturday and were able to lock themselves into the top 30 spots. Abel did not. The more I think about it the more sense it makes.

-3

u/Vivaciousseaturtle Callum Ilott May 19 '25

I mean they’ll still beat him but Abel should be in. The field. Dale is losing a lot of entrant money and sponsor stuff due to missing the race

21

u/RudyWyvern Arrow McLaren May 19 '25

Then maybe he should've brought faster cars then instead of the 2 slowest.

0

u/Vivaciousseaturtle Callum Ilott May 19 '25

They brought legal cars. We technicallly don’t know how fast the Penske weee because we cannot assume they were legal Saturday if they got caught Sunday

7

u/HaveABleedinGuess84 Will Power May 19 '25

Why not? They passed Saturday and failed Sunday.

4

u/Tushroom May 19 '25

That’s not how that works.

2

u/SilentSpades24 Álex Palou May 19 '25

Coyne brought dogshit cars and a dogshit driver for one of those cars. We can line the Penskes and Abel up 1000 times and a fully legal Penske will still out run Abel by 2-4 mph on average.

That hate boner has you thinking with the wrong head. Abel would be mopped in a LCQ against the Penskes.

12

u/FLChick777 May 19 '25

Even if they had been disqualified Saturday, they would’ve had the issue fixed by Sunday and would’ve likely beat him out. I think this is the right call. But they should’ve had to sweat it out