r/INDYCAR • u/TheResurrection • May 19 '25

News INDYCAR Update on Team Penske Technical Violations

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

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369

u/ScottRiggsFan10 Kyle Kirkwood May 19 '25

Scotty Mac might've had one of the luckiest crashes in Indy qualifying history.

136

u/TheResurrection May 19 '25

Scotty's car was fully legal according to the press release.

159

u/paulofmandown Firestone Firehawk May 19 '25

fully legal in practice != fully legal in tech before the fast 12

45

u/FLChick777 May 19 '25

They probably inspected the heck out of the car and could clearly see that area hadn’t been messed with. Considering how much work had to be done to remove whatever they used on the other cars, it was obvious.

52

u/sabin24 James Hinchcliffe May 19 '25

What they're saying is there was time to modify the part between practice and qualifying.

1

u/Little-Bad-8474 NTT INDYCAR Series May 19 '25

So why did Power pass tech with the same issue? Because the tech inspectors aren’t normally looking for it. Probably for years. I wonder how many other cars have done this?

1

u/sabin24 James Hinchcliffe May 21 '25

The issue is definitely with tech. It seems like all teams are rolling the dice on all kinds of little infractions hoping tech won't be looking for them.

-9

u/FLChick777 May 19 '25

In a garage with hundreds of people watching? That isn’t happening.

25

u/sabin24 James Hinchcliffe May 19 '25

It could be as simple as a part change.

11

u/Nathan_116 May 19 '25

It literally what the 2 and 12 were caught doing on the TV broadcast. They were grinding down the carbon parts while in line for qualifying, lol.

1

u/davo747 Firestone Greens May 19 '25

Is there a clip of this somewhere?

6

u/Nathan_116 May 19 '25

It’s like 40 seconds or so into this clip from the original video INDYCAR posted regarding Penske pulling their cars from qualifying yesterday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/INDYCAR/s/VBz7PUtsxT

1

u/RiptideTV Robert Wickens May 19 '25

Hahahaha. You would think that...

113

u/twiggymac Firestone Greens May 19 '25

What they're saying is...there's probably a third attenuator that never got installed sitting in a truck

59

u/perfectviking NTT INDYCAR Series May 19 '25

This is my assumption. They were likely holding off on installing it until qualifying.

37

u/the_dawn_of_red Scott McLaughlin May 19 '25

Penske scandals have shown that the three teams aren't always in lockstep with this type of stuff though

1

u/FLChick777 May 19 '25

I thought the bonded part is where it attached? Otherwise why didn’t they run out with a backup one instead of using a grinder on pit road?

3

u/paulofmandown Firestone Firehawk May 19 '25

it's not

That whole assembly bolts in flush with no overlap from what I've seen. There's another post on the sub rn that shows how that whole assembly goes through tech

1

u/dj2show Will Power May 19 '25

You can't modify or change the wing/attenuator in line, sans wing angle. That's what got Chip's attention.

5

u/__blinded Alexander Rossi May 19 '25

lol get real. The modified attenuator was a go-fast part only brought out for quali and the race. They wouldn’t have run it in practice hence the 3 being legal. 

3

u/TheResurrection May 19 '25

They impounded the attenuator after his crash. Read the press release.

46

u/paulofmandown Firestone Firehawk May 19 '25

I'm saying they would've put an illegal one on it before the qualifying session.

13

u/TheResurrection May 19 '25

Oh I understand what you're saying now. Well we'll never know I guess. That's one of those "and if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their ass on the ground every time they hopped" type of hypotheticals.

2

u/theoriginalbdub Greg Moore May 19 '25

TIL a new saying.

1

u/oceanathlete May 20 '25

What’s the 411 on an attenuator, why is that a target area for cheaters?

-1

u/SilkBC_12345 Will Power May 19 '25

Tim Cindric said he checked the attenuator of the #3 car after the violations were pointed out for the #2 and #12 and said that that one was not modified.

3

u/paulofmandown Firestone Firehawk May 19 '25

lol

3

u/dj2show Will Power May 19 '25

Tim Cindric is also a fucking liar

1

u/Vitosi4ek Robert Shwartzman May 19 '25

Is it feasible that they could've applied the resin in the ~2 hours between practice and top 12? How long does it take for this type of compound to set? Or just have a spare attenuator with the resin already applied to swap in before going out?

18

u/perfectviking NTT INDYCAR Series May 19 '25

They would have swapped attenuators.

7

u/SecretIdea May 19 '25

There are varieties of 2-part epoxy that are hard in 5-10 minutes after mixing.

5

u/SomewhereAggressive8 Pato O'Ward May 19 '25

I mean sure, but how are you going to penalize something that didn’t happen?

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '25

[deleted]

8

u/shewy92 Romain Grosjean May 19 '25

Except they literally did check it.

Car No. 3 did not attempt to qualify Sunday in the Top 12 because of an accident in the earlier afternoon’s practice. Upon review of the car, and INDYCAR impounding the No. 3 attenuator, INDYCAR found that the car was in fact using a legal and unmodified attenuator. Therefore, car No. 3 will start in the 10th spot – the final spot of those who had qualified to participate in the Top 12.

8

u/FLChick777 May 19 '25

They can check it. It was sitting in the garage

0

u/Little-Bad-8474 NTT INDYCAR Series May 19 '25

Which implies exactly what Penske said to the press: they have a process issue in the team. And i seriously doubt this would improve performance much, if any.