As qualifying for the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 gets underway this weekend, it's impossible to ignore the shadow cast by one of the most dramatic scandals in recent IndyCar history—a controversy that erupted exactly one year ago and forever changed the relationship between Team Penske and the series.
May 18, 2025, started with promise but quickly descended into chaos. The Top 12 qualifying session for the 109th Indianapolis 500 was about to begin when Team Penske found itself in the eye of a storm. Already reeling from a violent airborne crash involving 2024 pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin during practice—an incident that sidelined him from qualifying—the Penske camp faced an even bigger problem.
Minutes before the session was set to start, Penske mechanics were spotted frantically working at the rear of their cars in the pit lane. Rival teams immediately took notice, and the tension in the air was palpable. The source of the commotion? A technical inspection had revealed a body fit violation on the rear attenuator of Josef Newgarden's No. 2 car. Will Power's No. 12 car had the same issue, though it wasn't discovered until a re-check. The team's impulsive attempt to fix the problem on the spot—right there in the pit lane—only made matters worse.
"There was a body fit violation on the rear attenuator," IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch explained at the time. "As quick as this process happens, we ran them through tech, we got everybody in line and then prior to qualifying, they decided that they would just pull out of line."
What followed was pure chaos. With Team Penske's deep ties to the series—the team's owner, Roger Penske, also owns IndyCar itself—the optics were devastating. Fans and rivals alike were outraged, especially given that this came just one year after another major Penske scandal involving illegal push-to-pass software. To make matters worse, photos quickly surfaced from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum showing the same modification on Newgarden's winning car from the 2024 Indy 500. The images clearly showed the seam between the attenuator parts filled and smoothed—a modification that appeared to have been on the car for an entire year.
According to sources who spoke with Motorsport.com at the time, the backstory only deepened the intrigue. Team Penske had started receiving updated attenuators from Dallara in early 2024, and team leadership was reportedly unhappy with the aesthetics of the new glued-on panels. What seemed like a minor cosmetic concern spiraled into one of the biggest controversies in modern IndyCar history—one that reshaped how the series approaches technical inspections and how fans view the sport's most dominant team.
As the green flag waves for the 110th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the lessons from that chaotic day in May still echo through the paddock. For fans and collectors, it's a reminder that in motorsport, every detail matters—from the cars on track to the gear you wear in the stands.