Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward inherited a race win in the 2024 IndyCar season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg when Team Penske's Josef Newgarden was found to have illegally utilized the push-to-pass button on restarts when no other teams had access. Scott McLaughlin was also disqualified from third place after the discovery was made six weeks later.
Just over a year later, Team Penske have seemingly been caught cheating again.
This time, they made illegal modifications to the attenuators on Newgarden's No. 2 Chevrolet and Will Power's No. 12 Chevrolet before they were supposed to make qualifying runs in Sunday's Top 12 qualifying session for the 109th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
They officially violated Rule 14.7.8.16, regarding unapproved body fit on the rear crash structure (attenuator). These cars had seams filled to smooth the airflow going over them, thus giving them an aerodynamic advantage, and the rules are clear that modifications to this part are not permitted.
Considering the fact that the discovery was said to have been made by a rival team, rather than in technical inspection itself, O'Ward was among those who believed that Team Penske got away with it on Saturday and therefore never should have advanced to the Top 12 to begin with.
He unloaded on the team during his post-qualifying media availability, noting that they should have been forced to qualify via the Last Row Shootout since they probably hadn't qualified legal cars on Saturday.
O'Ward said what everybody else was thinking.
It really is pathetic. But that's exactly what a lot of people have come to expect from Team Penske anymore.
In fact, there are reports that other teams have pictures of the team doing the same thing last year, when Newgarden passed O'Ward to win the race on the final lap.
If it is true that Newgarden won in an illegal car, then O'Ward's anger is even more justified, especially since we are at a point now where revoking the win wouldn't do much good for anybody. That certainly isn't how O'Ward wants to become an Indy 500 winner.
And as it turns out, IndyCar, specifically newly appointed president Doug Boles, the longtime president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, agrees with O'Ward's sentiment on Team Penske's tactics.
Though the two illegal cars did technically pass inspection on Saturday, speculation remained that the very same violations had simply gone undetected. To send a message that cheating will not be tolerated, Newgarden and Power were sent to the back to the Indy 500 starting lineup.
McLaughlin's car was reportedly not found to have violated the same rule, so after destroying his care in pre-qualifying practice, he had been slated to start 10th, ahead of Newgarden in 11th and Power in 12th, based on Saturday speeds.
But now Newgarden is set to in 32nd place; no driver has ever won from lower than 28th, and Newgarden is still going for the race's first ever three-peat. Power is set to start in 33rd, marking his second last row start since 2021, when he actually did participate in Bump Day.
Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski, meanwhile, will have to wait until 2026 to see if they can become the first pair of team officials to receive Indy 500 three-peat suspensions.
The 109th running of the Indy 500 is set to be shown live on Fox from Indianapolis Motor Speedway starting at 10:00 a.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing"!