Alex Palou has been penalized after his car was found to be out of compliance following the Indianapolis 500.
IndyCar Officiating found that the car broke two specific rules relating to the front wing dimensions.
By those rules, “the front wing must not measure less than 8.300 inches when set at any angle, while installed on the IndyCar technical inspection fixture.”
As a result, Alex Palou has been penalized five driver points, the #10 entry has been penalized 10 entrant points, and Chip Ganassi Racing has been fined $10,000.
Palou is allowed to retain his seventh place result, and no finishing positions are adjusted due to the infraction.
The penalties are quite lenient, especially considering multiple other recent penalty announcements have come with a complete disqualification from the event.
As part of the announcement, IndyCar Officiating stated that “the non-compliance was the result of an assembly error and not an intentional modification.” That assessment is seemingly the basis for the lack of harsher punishment.
Shortly after the penalty was announced, Chip Ganassi Racing released a statement accepting the penalty and pinning the problem on a part failure.
“During technical inspection following Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, a part failure was discovered in the front wing assembly of the No. 10 car,” read the statement.
“The failure caused the wing to fall out of compliance with IndyCar’s technical parameters post-race, resulting in a $10,000 fine and a 5-point penalty in the championship standings.
“Chip Ganassi Racing did not attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the race, and accepts this penalty.”
Palou retains the points lead following the result, and now sits 37 points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist, the newest winner of the Indy 500.
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