Epoxygate Is A Black Mark For The Indy 500

An exciting and historic Indy 500 Qualifying Weekend was marred by controversy when the 12 car of Will Power and the 2 car of Josef Newgarden were discovered to have an illegally modified part on their cars.

Immediately there was much clutching of pearls and donning of tin-foil hats at the news that the sport's most successful team was 'back to their cheating ways' and ruining the very sport they (periodically) dominate.

Not so fast. What exactly was done? Why was it done? How long had this been going on? Does any of it matter?

First off, what did they do? Body fit is one of they key factors that separate the great teams from the also-rans. Each team runs a spec chassis, all being functionally identical, provided by Dallara. When every car is essentially the same, the small details come into focus. The IndyCar rulebook lays out an exhaustive list of every body part that can be modified- shaved, sculpted, augmented, or realigned and the attenuator is not on that list.

What is the attenuator? The attenuator is a carbon fiber box that attaches to the bottom of the rear wing supports and extends rearward from the back of the gearbox. in the event that the back end of the car crashes into the wall the attenuator breaks apart, dissipating some of the energy from the impact and lessening the forces placed on the driver, reducing injury.

Dallara first updated the design of the attenuator in 2023 but after further testing it was decided that the new design was not strong enough so teams ran the previous design for the remainder of 2023.

For 2024 Dallara reintroduced the new design with some added layers of carbon fiber to the outside of the attenuator with a different weave and an odd “S” shaped ridge where the reinforcement stopped. Former Penske driver and current owner/driver with Meyer Shank Racing Helio Castroneves was quick to theorize that Team Penske added epoxy to smooth out this seam for aesthetic reasons. Whispers to that effect have also come from the Penske camp but not in any official statement.

I’ll admit, this explanation will seem ridiculous to an outsider but anyone who knows Roger Penske knows that aesthetics and professionalism mean almost more to him than winning.

Back in the 70’s, while other teams were wearing blue jeans and grease stained t-shirts, Penske’s crew wore matching button-up shirts and slacks. While other teams towed their cars to the track on flatbeds or in rusty horse trailers, Roger’s cars arrived in beautifully painted team haulers. So much of the look and feel of modern racing was pioneered by Roger Penske.

If you need further proof of this obsession notice that Team Penske and only Team Penske wrap their suspension components in chrome vinyl to match their brilliantly polished wheels.

So what? Intent doesn’t matter, they cheated, right? No. They did not.

Cheating is a pretty weighty word that has been thrown around a bit too carelessly. Team Penske absolutely modified a part that is not allowed to be modified. That is a rules infraction with a very specific punishment but cheating is not just a simple breaking of the rules, cheating requires an unfair advantage and the intent to gain from it.

I may only be a humble armchair aerodynamicist but I don’t see any competitive advantage to the modified attenuator. The attenuator sits in possibly the most turbulent air anywhere around the car, the nexus point of the diffuser exit from the floor and the air coming over the car that is disturbed by the exhaust exits, the suspension arms, and the rear wing assembly. Smoothing a surface that only varied by the thickness of a shell of carbon fiber will have no measurable effect on the car’s drag coefficient.

So Team Penske broke a rule for non-competitive reasons and gained no advantage. Knowing this, does the punishment fit the crime? It did.. until it didn’t.

Let’s consult the rulebook. In reference to cars that qualified in the top 12 positions on day one of qualifying but cannot participate in the Fast 12 for any reason the procedure is clear:

8.5.13.2.6.5 Any Cars not able to begin or complete a required Qualifications attempt shall be ranked at the rear of the “Top 12” group in order of Day 1’s Qualifications times.

Simple, clear and concise; and that is exactly what Race Director Kyle Novak and IndyCar President Doug Boles did.

The 3 car could not participate because of a crash in practice and the 2 and 12 were disqualified from that session so they were placed 10th, 11th, and 12th respectively on the starting grid. Procedure followed. Justice served.

But there were murmurs through the paddock, rage on social media, pitchforks were sharpened and gallows constructed in turn 3. The mob was out for blood and they wouldn’t need to wait long to get it.

At 11:15 Monday morning J. Douglas Boles President of IndyCar buckled to pressure from irate team owners and announced in a press conference that the 2 and the 12 would start the race from the back of the field.

Make no mistake, the well rehearsed outrage from the Ganassi, McLaren and Rahal camps has nothing to do with safety or fairness; “Epoxygate” is just the latest political football in their quest to take some shred of power away from Roger Penske and add it to their own.

The optics are not great. Roger Penske owns IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Team Penske. To say there is a conflict of interest is puting it mildly but for the most part things have gone smoothly and everything has seemed above board. Roger has been a great steward of all three properties and the series is stronger for it.

The lone exception was the opening race of 2024 at St. Pete where two of the Penske cars somehow had access to Push-to-Pass on starts and restarts when the function should have been locked out. One of two things happened; the ECU was not re-flashed after an off-season test and the drivers mashed the button out of muscle memory and over aggression or Team Penske, engineering masterminds,  executed the most obvious and ham-fisted cheating attempt possible. Both options seem equally unbelievable.

Regardless of what led to the misuse, IndyCar dropped the hammer and vacated Newgarden’s win and McLaughlin’s 3rd place finish. Team Penske was effectively eliminated from championship contention and their drivers branded as the villains of IndyCar.

The Team Penske villain arc closely mirrors the New England Patriots of the 2000’s and 2010’s. Success breeds envy and an aching desire to watch the mighty fall. The Patriots were also plagued by cheating scandals both real and imagined. To further stretch the analogy, Chip Ganassi has been the Aaron Rodgers to Penske’s Tom Brady for the past 35 years and anything Chip says needs to be filtered through that lens.

Zak Brown is relatively new to the scene especially this side of the Atlantic but he has reached a place of prominence very similar to a young Roger Penske in the 80’s. His comments reek of F1 political sniping but thats to be expected. Zak Brown is an American and a piece of his heart belongs to IndyCar, he may turn out to be the future leader of the sport but in his 5th year stateside with no championships and no Indy 500 wins he doesn’t have the same weight to throw around that he does in Woking.

Graham Rahal is straight up not having a good time. He hasn’t won a race in his last 129 attempts. Not since at least World War II has an IndyCar driver gone winless for more than 100 races and ever won again. Indy is a perfect microcosm of his struggle, fighting tooth and nail to even make the field of 33 for the last 3 years. I’ll stretch my football analogy even further, if only to lighten the mood. Graham Rahal is Dak Prescott.

I feel it necessary to point out that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was raided by the FBI last September and we still don’t know what, if anything, was found. Supposedly a recent hire from Andretti Global brought with them some proprietary information, effectively stolen. I say this not to perpetuate the mudslinging, just to highlight that racing is a dirty business and no one’s hands are clean.

Epoxygate has given these men license to restart the debate over bringing in an outside governing body to sanction IndyCar. This would likely mean the exact same IndyCar officials moving offices half a mile down 16th street to USAC headquarters. What will this change? Absolutely nothing except their paychecks will no longer say Penske Entertainment on them. Instead, Roger will have to write one big check to USAC.

But this has never been about change, it has always been about optics even when the series, the speedway, and Vision Racing were all owned by Tony George.

For once, I agree. For the sake of fair treatment, for the sake of optics, IndyCar should be governed by an outside organization. I say this not for the benefit of  Ganassi or Rahal or Coyne or anyone else. This week has proven that Team Penske will not be treated fairly so long as series officials feel the need to overcompensate for being paid by a company owned by Roger Penske.

The sad fact is that history will forever judge Epoxygate by the severity of the punishment and not by the impact of the infraction. You can't un-ring that bell.

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The 109th Indianapolis 500 airs on FOX Sunday at 10:00AM ET