Doyel: IndyCar, Barstool's Dave Portnoy are an odd couple made with Roger Penske's blessing

Indianapolis Star

21 hours ago

IndyCar is joining the rest of the country, the rest of the world, by making a complete and craven heel turn – because let's be honest: The heels are flush with cash.
Have you seen the latest? Here it is. Some of you will cheer this. For the rest of you – bless you – please find a barf bag. Because this is gross:
Barstool Sports founder and far-right cretin Dave Portnoy will get the privilege of riding in the Fastest Seat in Sports for the last race of the 2025 IndyCar schedule, the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway on Aug. 31.
Dave Portnoy has built a career on mean-spiritedness and misogyny, and when he's in a really playful mood, on mean-spirited misogyny. And this is who IndyCar – with its TV rankings in the tank – is giving a marquee spot in its final race? Trying to build a fan base that could use a boost from the female demographic?
Brilliant.
Portnoy is here because IndyCar jumped into bed with Fox, and FOX Sports jumped into Portnoy's misogynistic bed, and this is what happens when you lie down with pigs: You get muddy.
In defense of IndyCar owner Roger Penske, it's possible – likely, even – that he's never heard of Dave Portnoy. Penske, age 88, isn't exactly in Portnoy's puerile demographic. Then again, Portnoy is a far-right cretin, and Penske seems to have embraced that movement, and before you go one step farther, understand something:
The U.S. conservative party, at least the one I grew up with, is not the problem. I've voted for Republicans for president, in the past. Gov. Eric Holcomb was my governor here in Indiana from 2017-25, emphasis on my. Was he perfect? No. Neither am I. But he was terrific.
Doyel in 2022: Shooting hoops with Gov. Holcomb on the Governor's mansion's outdoor court!
Now then, back to that thing you read earlier:
Penske seems to have embraced the far-right movement that has bastardized the party of Lincoln. Hey, he has. Trump awarded Penske a Presidential Medal of Freedom during Trump's first term and visited the White House with several members of Team Penske earlier this year, and Trump gives that sort of treatment only to folks who flatter him. You know it, I know it.
Also this: Last month, Penske sold a 33% stake of IndyCar to FOX Corp., which, well. You know.
Now, more facts in Penske's defense: His Penske Truck Rental company rebuked Department of Homeland Security agents for hiding without permission in Penske trucks during a raid of day laborers in Southern California earlier this month.
"Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances," Penske Truck Rental said in a statement posted on X. "The company was not made aware its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this. Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future."
So Penske, or his company anyway, isn't in complete lockstep with Trump.
As for Portnoy, he isn't the disease. He's merely a symptom, a sermon delivered to the IndyCar choir. The IndyCar fan base, I suspect, tilts his way. If I'm wrong – if you're an IndyCar fan who is horrified by the sport's hard lean to the far right – please forgive me. I'm basing that assumption on what I see and hear at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500, where the, um, patriotism runs high. If you know what I mean.
Meanwhile, here's what the far right has done to IndyCar:
Turned the city of Speedway – the home of our Indy 500 – into a joke.
You've heard of the Speedway Slammer, yes? That was the idea conceived by the Department of Homeland Security to add another ICE Detention Center, after Alcatraz Alley in Florida, and put it here in Indiana. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came up with the name, and DHS even came up with a design for the Speedway Slammer: a sporty automobile that looks almost exactly like an Indy car.
No, it was an Indy car. It's an Artificial Intelligence-made picture of a No. 5 car. Know who drives the No. 5 car on the IndyCar series? Pato O'Ward. He's an immigrant from Monterrey, Mexico.
You can't make it up, though I wish most of this stuff was fiction.
More facts in Penske's defense: His people objected to the usage of Indy car imagery.
'We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of (the Aug. 5) announcement,' Penske Entertainment said in a statement provided to IndyStar. 'Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.'
That's all well and good, Penske Entertainment, but I see your statement about 'political issues' and raise you that 33% stake you sold to FOX … and the presence of hateful Dave Portnoy in the Fastest Seat in Sports at Nashville.
Would the Speedway Slammer in Indiana actually be built in Speedway, Indiana? Well, no. It's in Bunker Hill, Indiana – 71 miles north of Speedway. But Speedway Slammer has a ring to it, doesn't it? And since 2016 we're learned the power of a populist slogan in politics, have we not?
Sorry, not sorry, because lots of you insist: Stick to sports! Well, tell politicians to stick to politics. Tell the Department of Homeland Security not to use the fine city of Speedway, Indiana, to money-wash MAGA's cruel immigration agenda.
While you're at it, tell Dave Portnoy that the final race of the 2025 IndyCar season is held at the town of Nashville that's located in Illinois, or the Nashville in Arkansas. Maybe he'll fall for it. Geography, like compassion, isn't those folks' strong suit anyway.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.