IndyCar teams and drivers hit the streets of downtown Detroit next week for the city’s annual Grand Prix. That will come after this weekend’s running of the Indianapolis 500 — known as the world’s largest single day sporting event.

However, there’s a cloud over this year’s race, as the team and series owned by Detroiter Roger Penske are embroiled in scandal. The issue stems from an illegal part found on two of the Team Penske cars during Indy 500 qualifying last weekend.

Despite the discovery, other teams complained they had notified officials of the rules breach weeks ago. It was even found that the Team Penske car Josef Newgarden drove to victory in the 2024 Indy 500 has the same illegal part on it as it sits in the speedway’s museum.

Compounding frustrations among competitors, this isn’t the first time Team Penske has been caught in a technical scandal. It was discovered last year that the team had illegally mapped a button on the steering wheel to give the cars more power.

Like this year’s infraction, that rules breach wasn’t discovered until after Team Penske used it in competition.

The underlying frustration is that Roger Penske owns Team Penske and owns the IndyCar Series, which staffs all of its officiating in-house. It’s left competitors frustrated about possible conflict of interest when it comes to upholding rules.

The two cars found with illegal parts will start from the back of the field at this weekend’s Indy 500 and Roger Penske has fired his IndyCar team’s senior management. But questions about the integrity of officiating in the IndyCar Series still exist.

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