IndyCar's IOB unveiled, featuring the same trackside officials as before

After announcing the formation of an Independent Officiating Board (IOB) in May, Penske Entertainment took the next nine months to devise and fund a structure that would usher in a new era of sovereign governance for the IndyCar Series. And like The Who’s song ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again,’ the picks to lead race control and technical inspection fits the line ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’

With the first race of the 2026 season ready to run on Sunday, the IOB has revealed the trackside leadership members, who were hired by the board comprised of Ray Evernham, Ronan Morgan, and Raj Nair, to be the same people who presided over IndyCar races before the IOB was established.

Through the non-profit IndyCar Officiating company that was formed by Penske Entertainment and is funded by Penske Entertainment, IndyCar race director Kyle Novak, who joined the series in 2018, has been hired by the IOB to perform the same role and was also appointed as VP for IndyCar Officiating.

Race stewards Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis, who joined IndyCar as race stewards in 2016, have been hired by the IOB as race stewards for IndyCar Officiating.

Kevin “Rocket” Blanch (main image), IndyCar’s technical director and head of technical inspection, who joined in 2003 and was at the heart of May’s attenuator dramas that ultimately led Penske Entertainment to cede control of its race officiating and create the IOB, has been hired to perform the same roles for IndyCar Officiating. Blanch has a new ally in Nick Allen, Colton Herta’s former Andretti Global chief mechanic, as technical inspection manager.

“The officiating in IndyCar is not broken; in fact, racing series around the world could learn from its procedures and operation,” Morgan said. “At this point, our opinion is that independent IndyCar Officiating should be framed as a sensible evolution when it comes to general process. By providing and overseeing additional support, transparency and added separation between officials and series management, we firmly believe that IndyCar Officiating is primed to be successfully implemented for the 2026 seasons.”

On December 11, IndyCar announced a number of IOB-related items, including the selection of Evernham and Nair as the teams’ choice for the board and the inclusion of the FIA in the IOB, which appointed Ronan Morgan as its oversight representative.

The Dec. 11 communication also announced the establishment of a new role, the Managing Director of Officiating (MDO), and the start of a search to hire an MDO who would “report directly to the independent board” and “will be charged with full officiating oversight – including the hiring of personnel for race control and IndyCar technical inspection – and responsible for enforcing the IndyCar and Indy NXT rulebooks as written by IndyCar.”

In Monday's announcement, IndyCar confirmed that IndyCar Officiating has been unable to hire an MDO in the two-plus months since it began the search, which also means the hiring of the aforementioned staff was performed by the IOB, which will run IndyCar Officiating onsite at St. Petersburg and for however many races in the future until an MDO is chosen.