The Top 12 qualifying session for the Indianapolis 500 was much more dramatic than it was meant to be on account of a couple high profile disqualifications.
As the cars were lined up in pit lane preparing to qualify, the Team Penske crew had the rear wing of Will Power’s car removed.
The team was doing emergency work on the rear attenuator, which supports the uprights and rear wing assembly.
According to those on the ground, it seems the team had made illegal modifications to the attenuator.
Other team members were justifiably angry to see such large-scale work being done on pit lane, and complained to IndyCar officials.
The crew worked quickly on pit lane with angle grinders among other tools to attempt quick fixes to bring the car into compliance, but it was too late by that point.
IndyCar refused to let Power’s #12 and Josef Newgarden’s #2 entry take the track after making such adjustments after technical inspection.
The two drivers will join their team-mate Scott McLaughlin on the fourth row, after the driver of the #3 suffered a hard crash in practice and did not have a backup car ready to go in time.
It is not understood how the cars initially were released from technical inspection and allowed to join the others on pit lane.
Nor is it yet understood how the modifications were discovered on pit lane.
McLaughlin will start from tenth for next weekend’s race, alongside Newgarden and Power in 11th and 12th.
The other nine cars in the Top 12 session were allowed to complete their runs as scheduled, with David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, and Marcus Ericsson failing to advance and locking in the seventh, eighth and ninth positions respectively.
Felix Rosenqvist posted the fastest four-lap average of the group at 232.523 MPH. He will return with five others for the Fast 6 shootout for pole in just over an hour.
Update: Team Penske president Tim Cindric explained the issue and how it was discovered.
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