INDYCAR, the sanctioning body of the IZOD IndyCar Series, announced today a penalty stemming from post-race technical inspection of the June 8 Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The No. 3 Team Penske car driven by Helio Castroneves was fined $35,000 and docked 15 entrant points for not complying Rule 14.6.6.14 (Underwing).
Penske Racing has since released a statement with regards to the penalty.
“Obviously we are very disappointed that the No. 3 car did not pass post-race inspection after Saturday’s race at Texas,” Tim Cindric, Penske Racing President, said. “The rule in question (14.6.6.14) states that the diffuser exit must measure 7.600”. After the race, ours was 7.575” because we neglected to tighten the braces that position the rear of the diffuser following pre-race inspection. The way Helio’s car raced was in no way advantageous as a lower diffuser height actually adds drag and reduces downforce. To ensure this is the case, we ran this configuration in the wind tunnel on Monday morning and found that the No. 3 car actually raced with three pounds less downforce and one pound more drag than what it would have had if we tightened the underwing braces properly.”
Castroneves won the race in Texas to take over the points lead, which is now is only seven points ahead of Marco Andretti.
