McLaren Racing chief Zak Brown said tꦛhe scandal that has embroiled Team Penske ahead of the Indy 500 “raises questions over the integrity” of its decision-makers.

Penske was found to have illegally modified the rear accentuator on the cars of Josef Newgarden and�🎀� Will Power during qualifying on Sunday, sending shockwaves down the paddock.

Neither Newgarden nor Power took part in the Top 12 shootout after Penske pulled both cars from the grid in the wake of the c♛ontroversy.

IndyCar was forced to issu🐈e a raft of penalties against Penske on Monday, with each entry being fined $100,000 and their respective strategists🎃 being suspended for the rest of thꦫe month.

Further, Newgarden and Power have been sent to the back ofꦺ the grid for the 109th running of the race, dealing a big blow to their c🌜hances of adding another win to their respect🍌ive tallies.

Any scandal involving Team Penske is given extra weightage, with team boꦿss Roger Penske also owning I♏ndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, thus creating a potential conflict of interest.

Brown, the boss of the rival Arrow McLaren team, suggested that Penske🎀 had intentionally modified the rear accentuator on Newgarden and Power’s cars, saying it cannot be an “honest mistake”.

“What a shame this cloud will continue to hover over our great race until everything is fully resolved,” Brown told The Ass𓃲ociated Press.

“I’m very concerned, as are my fellow team owners, to find that Team Penske has been found with a multi-car major technical infringement f🧔or the second time in two seasons.

“In racing you can sometimes have mechanics who make miscalculations and you can sometimes have manufa🐼cturing issues that can all lead to honest mis🅠takes. 

"I don’t believe that’s what happened here or last year, which raises questions over th🐓e integrity of the decision-making within that team.”

Rivals teams have been left to wonder168澳洲5最新开奖结果: if Penske got away with✃ smoothing out the seams on Newgarden and Power’s cars on the opꦏening day of qua🍷lifying.

Brown did not blame IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch for any alleged negligence but feels the series needs to do a better job of spotting any technicalꦐ violations. 

“It’s clear IndyCar needs more depth and technical resources to examine and spot violations, flagrant or not,” Brown continued. “While I a🌳ppreciate and support IndyCar’s position to move those two cars to the back of the field, there obviously remains a question mark regarding their compliance on 🅰Saturday.

“If it turns out this technical infringement was on their cars when they qualꦏified Saturday, then it’s incredibly unfair that Jacob Abel and his team were bumped b꧃y non-compliant cars.

“However, I have complete confidence in Roge🍒r Penske’s commitment to look at that situation and to ensure that any such wroꦕngs are righted.”

This is the second time in two years that Penske 💙has been caught in a cheating scandal after it was found that all three of its driv🐬ers, including Scott McLaughlin, had the push-to-pass boost available to them at race starts and restarts in the 2024 St Petersburg race.

Th✨is was down to an illegal software that Penske was using, and it resulted in IndyCar disqualifying both race winner Newgarden and podium finisher McLaughlin from the race. Power escaped sanction as he didn’t use the P2P button in𓄧 any restricted zone.

The latest controversy has led to further calls for IndyCar to separate the officiatingꦍ proce🦂ss and let an independen𝐆t body run the regulatory side of the series.

In response to the drama, recently-appointed IndyCar pres🌸ident Dough Boles explained that Roger Penske has a lꦚimited role in the day-to-day running of the championship.

He also revealed that Roger Penske was ‘devastated’ to hear that his team h𝓰ad been caught running an illegal part in quali💙fying for the Indy 500.

“I don’t think Roger Penske understands some of th😼e things th🐼at might be going on,” Boles said.

“I get the optics challꦡenge, and it’s definitely something we should tജhink about.

“While (issue📖s) roll up to Roger at the end of the day, I think they are certainly below him. There are things that happen that don’t ever get to Roger.

“I can tell you that Roger Penske would not condone this. In fact, I had a chan꧋ce to talk to Roger, and I can tell that this is devastating to him.

"Nothing mean📖s more to Roger Penske than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. This is something that I think he’s going to have to address at s𒊎ome point in time.”

Penske issued a state💝ment followin🌼g Monday’s sanctions.

“We accept the penalties issued today by the IndyCar Series whiওch are due to a “body fit” violation that occurred prior to the q🙈ualifying session yesterday,” it stated.

“We are disappointed by t𒉰he results and the impact it has on our org🥀anization.

“We will make🅰 further announcements later this week related to per⛎sonnel for the upcoming Indianapolis 500.”