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Detroit grid penalties for two Honda drivers
Honda’s string of reliability woes with its NTT IndyCar Series engines in 2024 has hit two of its drivers at an unexpectedly early phase of the season.
With the series’ engine lease and usage rules calling for each entry to receive four motors for up to 10,000 miles of competition each season, the need to go to a fifth engine (or more) is treated as a breach of IndyCar’s regulations. Going beyond the four motors is considered an "unapproved engine change" and comes with a six-position grid penalty for the driver and, once the fifth motor is installed, that entry is no longer eligible to score points for its engine supplier in the manufacturers’ championship.
In 2022, IndyCar’s first penalty for exceeding the four engines came towards the end of July. In 2023, it took place in early August. The announcement of fifth-motor penalties for Kyffin Simpson with the No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing and Graham Rahal in No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on May 31 are the earliest in memory.
To date, five points-paying IndyCar races have been held in 2024, with the non-championship event at The Thermal Club counting as the sixth. Twelve races remain on the calendar.
Marshall Pruett
The 2026 season marks Marshall Pruett's 40th year working in the sport. In his role today for RACER, Pruett covers open-wheel and sports car racing as a writer, reporter, photographer, and filmmaker. In his previous career, he served as a mechanic, engineer, and team manager in a variety of series, including IndyCar, IMSA, and World Challenge.
Read Marshall Pruett's articles
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