IndyCar president Boles explains Penske qualifying illegalities

IndyCar Series president Doug Boles met with the media at 8:15pm on Pole Day to walk through the process that led IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch to deem the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy of Josef Newgarden and the No. 12 Penske Chevy of Will Power as being in an illegal state of specification prior to the Fast 12 qualification session.

But before going through the step-by-step process shared by Boles, it’s worth noting that according to the series’ president, IndyCar won’t levy any fines or penalties on the cars owned by Penske until after the Indy 500 is run in seven days’ time.

“At the end of every event, we look at violations and rule violations that take place in each event, and that's it, and that's the point in which we will decide if there are other penalties that will go along with that,” Boles said. “You've seen that before in the past with financial fines and other things. It is not something that we deal with in the middle of the racing weekend, and likely here, we don't deal with it in the middle of the race. We will deal with it following the Indianapolis 500."

On the run-through of what happened in tech where the rear crash structures – the attenuators – on the Nos. 2 and 12 were found to be illegally modified with the use of a filler to blend and smooth the airflow along the sides, here’s what Boles said:

“Took a little bit of time here,” he said. “But I think what I want to do is just walk back through sort of the investigation and the understanding that I tried to get from the whole incident. So I'm going to start back at the tech garage, where all the cars that were in the Fast 12 started. As the cars roll through tech, obviously a lot of things get inspected. The No. 12 car did go through tech, and as it was in tech, ‘Rocket’ – Kevin Blanch – who leads our tech team, did notice something on the No. 12 car, on the attenuator, that they weren't sure about. Rocket believed that it was likely an issue.

“But because we were trying to get everybody out and get them going, he allowed them to go ahead and go on out [so] the next couple of cars [could] through. There were two or three cars that came through in between the No. 12 and the No. 2. When the No. 2 came through, the attenuator on the No. 2 was identical to the No. 12, and at that point in time, Rocket knew that we had something we had to adjust to, or at least address. He did say to the crew chief of the No. 2 car at that point in time to please call (team manager) Kyle Moyer right now, who was with the No. 12 car, and tell him to hold the No. 12 car, because we were going to take a look at the attenuator.

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“I did ask Rocket – I said, ‘So is it a unique situation? Or can [it] happen where you send a car through, and later see a teammate's car with something on it that you believe is not consistent with the rules, and then go back out and see them on pit lane and actually do something?' And he said, ‘Yes, absolutely, that does happen.’ So from the moment you get to tech, and anytime after tech – even if you've passed tech – scrutineering can come. You still have to follow the rules, so that is not unusual. It doesn't happen often, but is not unusual for that to happen.

“So at that point in time, Rocket was 95 percent sure that we had a rule that said you cannot modify the attenuator. We do have a rule, rule 14.7.8.16, which actually tells you which parts in the car you can modify, which body parts you can modify. Then taking a look underneath that, the dot-two of that rule, says that if it's not listed here, you cannot modify that. So the rule so that the attenuator falls under [says] that cannot be modified. So at that point in time, as Rocket's on pit lane, he did say to Kyle Moyer at that at that point, 'Look, you've already presented. You're here. You've got two options: The first option is you can go ahead and qualify, and in [post-qualifying tech] I'm going to impound eight cars. If your two cars are in the top six ... in post qualification technical inspection, you will fail or you can withdraw the car.'

“The team chose to withdraw the car and not race the car, or not not qualify the cars, which then only meant we had to impound six cars at that point in time. ... Both were found in tech by our tech team. The first one, as I said – the No. 12 car – was allowed to roll out until it was seen on the No. 2 car. It was there until Rocket was 100 percent sure that there was a rule that said you cannot modify the attenuator on that car.

“And then, as I said, [he] had the conversation with Kyle Moyer on pit lane, the team has was given the option to qualify and likely fail technical inspection for attenuators that were not legal, or withdraw the cars at that point in time. The team chose to withdraw the cars at that point in time. Per the rule, because of the top 12, those cars will start at the back of the top 12. That's what our rule calls for, and that's where those cars will start. They will start in the order of their qualifying time from yesterday, including Scott McLaughlin's car, because essentially, he failed that qualifying technical inspection by not showing up.”

Asked if the illegal attenuators were affixed to the Penske cars prior to Sunday, Boles said, “All I can tell you is, it was found today.”