Josef Newgarden's 2024 Indy 500-winning car has same modified attenuator Penske failed tech with

Indianapolis Star

19-05-2025

INDIANAPOLIS — The violation that sent Josef Newgarden from third fastest during Day 1 of Indianapolis 500 qualifying on Saturday to a tech inspection violation for altering the attenuator resulting in penalties to start 32nd in the 109th Indy 500 has another layer to it.
A walk over to the IMS Museum, where Newgarden's 500-winning car from last year is on display in the Penske Gallery, showed that the car's attenuator appeared to have had the same seam between two separate sections of that safety device on the rear of the car filled and smoothed over.
It's not clear whether or not the modified attenuator found on Newgarden's 2024 Indy 500-winning car in the IMS Museum was on his car during the race or if it was placed on it after the fact.
IndyStar has requested comment from IndyCar president Doug Boles, the series, Team Penske and Roger Penske, and is awaiting a response from all.
Those illegal modifications on Will Power's No. 12 and Newgarden's No. 2 were found Sunday during pre-qualifying technical inspection, yet both cars made their way onto pit lane, where Team Penske team members were under the impression they'd be allowed to unmodify their cars before making their runs, leading to the clips shown on Fox's broadcast with Penske crew members scrambling around with various tools to remove the seam filler in any way possible.
Eventually, IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch made clear to Team Penske officials that they could make their Fast 12 qualifying attempt with Power's No. 12, but it would almost certainly fail post-session inspection. Team Penske elected to withdraw both cars, at the time believing they would start 11th (Newgarden) and 12th (Power) going off of their qualifying times from Saturday. Scott McLaughlin, the driver of Team Penske's No. 3 Chevy, crashed during early afternoon practice, and his team had already elected to forgo his attempt, for which he was slotted to start 10th.
Monday morning, Boles announced that the cars of Newgarden and Power would be bumped back to the 32nd and 33rd starting spots, respectively, due to the flagrance of the violations. IndyCar impounded the crashed No. 3 car of McLaughlin on Sunday evening, and it was examined further to determine whether it also had the attenuator's seam improperly filled. Boles said Monday that IndyCar deemed the car to have been legal as it was running Sunday afternoon and therefore allowed McLaughlin to hold onto his 10th-place starting spot for Sunday's Indy 500. The Nos. 2 and 12 Team Penske entries also had their strategists (team president Tim Cindric and managing director Ron Ruzewski) suspended for all remaining Indy 500 activities, were each levied $100,000 fines, both had the points related to their qualifying spots (two points for 11th and one point for 12th) stripped and will lose their priority on pit selection for Sunday's Indy 500.
In his news conference Monday morning, Boles was asked his level of confidence of whether both illegal Team Penske cars also had these modified parts on them during qualifying Saturday, and Boles only offered up that they had passed technical inspection. He did, though address the potential need for IndyCar to consider the adoption of an independent governing body outside Roger Penske's ownership that might either run tech inspections or govern the sport, in order to help eliminate the ongoing conflict of interest concerns that again have been inflamed across the IndyCar paddock, with Penske owning IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Team Penske and Ilmor, which builds engines for Chevrolet.