“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams.” Roger Penske, IndyCar Series owner, said these words for his team’s wrongdoing are materializing at present. In less than a year, Team Penske has been charged with twin scandals and the second time set off a major storm in the IndyCar Series. The fallout of that is still ongoing, with a veteran declaring measures for his own team.

McLaren Racing, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, has been in the spotlight for its NASCAR crossover. Kyle Larson’s second ‘Double’ attempt may have gone up in smoke, but McLaren’s CEO is no less determined to protect the ‘integrity’ that Penske’s team endangered.

Yet another consequence of Roger Penske’s scandal

Well, the response first came from the team owner himself. After last year’s St. Petersburg ‘push-to-pass’ scandal, Team Penske became embroiled in another controversy just ahead of IndyCar’s crown jewel event. This time, the cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power were discovered to have modified attenuators. The drivers got rear-grid starting positions, and Roger Penske fired his three top executives: president Tim Cindric (with the team since 1999), managing director Ron Ruzewski, and general manager Kyle Moyer. Presently, McLaren CEO Zak Brown just implemented a measure of his own.

Zak Brown has introduced a “whistleblowing hotline” for his employees to flag when they’ve been asked to do something that “isn’t right”. This is a direct influence of whispers that Roger Penske pulls some strings on the IndyCar paddock. So, Brown and McLaren Racing team principal Tony Kanaan are trying to ensure transparency. Brown said, “What I’ve done with the team, and I’ve reiterated it now, is: here’s how McLaren goes racing, here’s what’s acceptable, here’s what’s not acceptable, and here’s a whistle-blowing hotline. So if your boss tells you to do something that you know is not right, here’s my phone number or here’s Tony’s phone number.”

What is more, Team Penske was not the only organization that came under fire recently. Andretti Global also invited penalties for modifying parts that are purposefully protected in the rule book. Prema Racing was pinged for a front-wing infraction with an incorrectly sized part. Hence, Zak Brown is getting more serious about securing McLaren’s integrity. He continued his stress on heightened technical inspection. He said, “Obviously tech’s the big conversation, so I think we need both a lot more investment in tech and technical inspection…We need templates, we need lasers, we need videoing. We need investment in that so you can do a better job looking back, looking forward.”

Measures for integrity are clearly turning up strongly. Yet amidst Roger Penske’s controversies, other developments have hit a pause.

IndyCar may need to wait for an upgrade

We all know how active NASCAR is in upgrading its cars. Currently, the stock car racing series drivers wheel the Next-Gen car, introduced in 2022. In IndyCar, on the other hand, the championship is still using the 2012 chassis. Both engine manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda have not signed contracts beyond 2026. While Chevrolet expressed its commitment to the sport, Honda got cold feet in light of the recent scandals. In April, series owner Roger Penske confirmed the new car would come in 2027. But now the date has been pushed back even further.

In a recent media briefing in Detroit, McLaren chief Zak Brown was vocal about the need for a new chassis. He even blamed the older model for the recent spate of penalties. He said, “I understand we’re waiting on the engine formula which will drive what type of car you need, but I think at the end of the day, we’ve done a lot of band-aids on this car, and it’s why it weighs so much. It’s not fast enough, etc, etc, do a better job of integrating the hybrid. I think when you just start bolting everything on, you end up with a big, heavy, and then, unfortunately, some teams are innovating via engineering a very old car, because that’s the only way you can find more pace out of it.”

Clearly, the path to improvement has got more complicated due to Roger Penske’s slew of scandals. However, the intentions are there, so let us see where the IndyCar Series goes from here.