Before Fast 12 qualifying for the 2025 Indianapolis 500, it was discovered Newgarden’s #2 Shell Chevy and Will Power’s #12 Verizon Chevy were running with prohibited modifications to the attenuator.
There were suspicions that the 2024 race winner had the same modification, and those were validated by journalists who visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum where the car is on display.
Although most stopped short of stating for a fact that the 2024 car raced with the modification, team owner Roger Penske confirmed last year’s race winner had run out of legal specification.
“I would say this – yes,” Penske told US broadcaster Fox Sports when asked about the illegality of the offending car.
What is an attenuator?
An attenuator or rear impact structure is a part commonly seen on single-seater race cars, commonly made of carbon fibre.
On an IndyCar, it acts as the rear wing support and crash structure that helps in the event of rearward crashes.
What did Team Penske do?
Off the back the 2023 season and following analysis, a bulletin was issued by Dallara in January, 2024 that required teams to return their attenuators to the chassis supplier to be modified in an effort to optimise and strengthen them.
Part of that process included new panels bonded to the outside of the attenuator. According to one report out of the US, a theory as to why the illegal seam was added by Team Penske to the attenuators was due to aesthetics over a so-called unsightly lip.
Although not confirmed, it is entirely possible Team Penske thought the attenuator was among the 16-part list of items where blending is allowed.
That part of the rule book (14.7.8.16.1) lists items included but not limited to the roll hoop cover, sidepods, structural front sidepods, and refueling panels. However, the attenuator is not on that list and must be run as supplied by Dallara.
“I would say we had nine attenuators that were modified by Dallara back at the beginning of 2024 and those had been rotated through the cars over the last 15 months,” Penske explained.
Photos have circulated online showing Team Penske cars at other events, including last year’s Indianapolis 500, with the attenuator modification.
Some of those photos show Scott McLaughlin’s record-breaking pole position winner with the modification.
A mixed batch of attenuators acquired across 2024 and 2025 meant some had the modification while others didn’t. McLaughlin’s car, for example, did not have the modification at this year’s Indianapolis 500, but Newgarden’s and Power’s cars did.
“We also had newer ones that we bought, and those have been in the same batch, and that’s why you see [Scott] McLaughlin didn’t have an issue with his car,” Penske added.
“From my perspective, when you think about the attenuators and what happened there, my question to you is, what would we do?
“We know that this situation was not right from the standpoint of the officials on Sunday, but when I go back to 2024, that car was taken apart piece by piece in detail following the race, and it was said to be completely legal for the win.”
How did IndyCar react?
IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boules said he spent a lot of time speaking with Dallara and series technical delegates to understand the situation.
Amid claims that other IndyCar teams had alerted series officials of a breach by Team Penske, Boules said he was not aware of any allegations prior to this year’s Indianapolis 500.
Because the attenuator is primarily a safety device and not performance-related, Boules said there was less scrutiny by technical officials on that specific part.
“The purpose of the attenuator on the car is for safety. There’s no other reason for that attenuator other than for safety,” Boule explained.
“So that attenuator has been modified (by Dallara and IndyCar) three times over the last few years in order to make the cars safer in a rearward impact.
“Over that time, when the first attenuator came, Dallara has tested that through crash testing to figure out how they could make sure that that attenuator crushes at the right rate.
“So in January of 2024, when the current attenuator rule came out, that attenuator was homologated, and basically that means when it comes from Dallara you cannot change it. You cannot change it at all.
“The reason we do that is a safety reason, because if people modify that part, it could make it more stiff or less stiff, harder to crash or less harder to crash, and therefore could change the real purpose of that piece of the car.
“The purpose of that piece of the car is to create an energy absorption when that part of the car hits the wall backwards. It’s absorbing as much energy as it can in the right time frame as it can so that we reduce the amount of energy that ends up in the drivetrain that ultimately ends up driving through to the driver.
“It’s there to protect the safety of our driver. That’s why it comes out as a homologated piece that cannot be changed because we don’t know if a team changes it, if that, in fact, changes its ability to do its job. So that’s what the piece of that was.
“On parts that are specifically designed for safety, our team and tech does not, on a regular basis, look at those, and this is one of those parts that was not looked at until it was seen on Sunday.
“Is that a miss? Absolutely, it’s a miss. Is it a part that everybody should be exposed to at every event, if they’ve changed it they’re outside of the rules? 100 percent.
“What I do know, and I’ve heard it from… in fact I started hearing it on Monday from team owners and others, that it had no real performance impact, and the reason it hasn’t been looked at over the last several years as much as we scrutinize the things that we do know have a performance impact is because it doesn’t have such.”
Will Josef Newgarden keep his 2024 Indy 500 win?
The undisputed illegality of Newgarden’s race winner prompted questions to Boules, who confirmed there would be no retroactive disqualification.
Boules also confirmed there would be no changes to other results earlier this year where the team ran out of legal specification.
“It won the Indianapolis 500,” said Boules.
When pressed further on any changes or investigations, Boules reiterated: “No, Sir. It won the Indianapolis 500.”
Boules stressed that the issue was safety-related and likely did not benefit the team’s performance.
“I think the penalty that we imposed is a pretty steep penalty for what happened,” said Boules.
“It was a safety violation. I think, again, if you ask most in the paddock – I don’t want to speak for everybody because I’m sure somebody may disagree – but even publicly, people have said this had a 0.0 mile per hour impact on that car.
“Just as an example, had the car come through on Saturday and we had seen it on Saturday, what would have happened is the team would have missed their guaranteed starting spot or qualifying spot that they would have had on Saturday morning and they would have been given the opportunity, like other teams do when they don’t pass tech, to go back and put a proper part on that car and go qualify.
“There’s not anyone that will tell you that that car really was not going to make the race. I feel very comfortable that the 30 fastest cars are the cars that actually had an opportunity to be locked in as we left Saturday. So at this point in time, we’ve done the investigation with that, and we’re moving on.”
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