NASCAR’s judgments may have worked fine for them, but they haven’t always gone down well with the garage and fans. Their officiating history is not short of controversies, whether it was the 2013 “Spingate” Scandal at Richmond, or something as bizarre as Dale Jr being penalized for saying ‘sh-t’ on TV post-race in 2004. They have faced a lot of criticism in day-to-day officiating as well, which includes issues like how the yellow line penalties on superspeedways are often given unfairly or are biased. Whether NASCAR has learned from this or not, IndyCar surely has.

Roger Penske’s IndyCar officiating gets a revamp

Recently, Roger Penske-owned IndyCar made a huge announcement ahead of the 2026 season. The series will now have an independent, non-profit officiating system in place, run by three board members. And one of them includes a veteran from his rival team, Hendrick Motorsports.

Ray Evernham, the HMS icon, is one of the board members who will share the table with former Ford executive Raj Nair and FIA representative Ronan Morgan. Evernham and Nair were selected via voting between the IndyCar owners, the ones who are charter members. While Morgan was selected via the Federation Internationale de I’Automobile (FIA).

INDYCAR Officiating Inc. is the official name. As the board is a non-profit one, it will appoint a Managing Director of Officiating (MDO) and establish an annual budget for itself.

While the three race members will take care of the overall officiating, the managing director will report directly to them. And nobody, whether IndyCar or Penske Entertainment, can interfere in their decision. The MDO will also be responsible for hiring staff for race control and technical inspection. FIA too, will only appoint this person and do nothing else beyond that.

Evernham, former crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports, played a key role in Jeff Gordon’s career. Together, they won three Cup Series championships. Evernham was also responsible for Dodge’s return to NASCAR when he was handling Evernham Motorsports.

The other board members also have a rich connection with the sport. Raj Nair has 30 years of experience at firms like Singer Group, Inc., Multimatic, Inc., and Ford. All Ford programs, whether in NASCAR or IMSA, were under him when he was the CTO and executive VP of Ford’s product development.

Speaking of Morgan, he brings his 50 years of motorsport experience, donning many hats in the industry — as an official, promoter, organizer, or competitor. Not just NASCAR, he was the sporting manager of the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2009 to 2021, too.

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What NASCAR and F1 can pick from IndyCar’s move

IndyCar used to have an in-house officiating board, recruited by Roger Penske. However, this could very easily be seen as a conflict of interest, so an independent board was necessary. Unlike IndyCar and Formula 1, NASCAR operates with a different system. The stock car racing series makes use of race directors, track officials, and advanced data systems to manage races. All decisions and sanctions are made from a central race control tower, with the help of technology and officials who make technical calls. Though it’s similar to IndyCar’s previous setup, where the control is still internal.

Meanwhile, in Formula 1, they operate under a race steward system. The FIA appoints these officials to interpret and enforce the regulations. However, the biggest drawback is that there has been a lack of consistency because the stewards are mostly volunteers. As such, there is no proper payment plan in place for these officials. Owing to the inconsistencies, drivers have called for permanent stewards.

In fact, Mercedes driver George Russell said, “Somebody’s got to stick their hand in their pocket to pay the stewards the correct amount. It would be to have consistent stewarding over the course of 24 races. At the end of the day, it’s a job. These people…it’s a multibillion-dollar sport. We shouldn’t be having volunteers having such great power in certain roles. So somebody’s got to pay for these people, in my eyes.”

Maybe what is happening in IndyCar now is a step in the right direction. A step that both NASCAR and F1 can look up to.