Copyright RACER
Penske Entertainment has arrived at two major decisions related to its move to an independent officiating structure in 2026. After hosting a delegation from FIA during its August IndyCar event at the Milwaukee Mile and exploring how the Paris-based sanctioning body and other external entities like the SCCA might handle the governance of its races and oversight of its technical inspection team, IndyCar’s parent company has chosen against outsourcing the solution. RACER has learned the formation of the independent board will move forward as a brand-new creation by Penske Entertainment. It will be comprised of a three-person tribunal who will liaise with Penske Entertainment, but function with autonomy over race control and race tech officials. In a meeting held this week, team owners were told of Penske’s plans to fashion the board, which will serve as the independent managers for the array of racing officials. RACER understands the three board members have not yet been selected, but once they’ve been identified, they’ll conduct a private search to hire a lead administrator to handle the day-to-day running of the new organization and who will report to the board. Speaking to RACER on Wednesday, a series spokesperson confirmed its “commitment to independent officiating is firm, and direct planning and preparations are underway.” Calls for Penske Entertainment to distance itself from ruling over IndyCar Series races while company owner Roger Penske competes in the IndyCar Series with his three-car Team Penske program were made immediately after Penske bought the series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway leading into 2020. Those calls were rejected until May of 2025 when two of Penske’s cars were found to be fitted with illegally modified attenuators (rear crash structures) during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. It was the second rules breach for which Team Penske was penalized in a 13-month span, and as IndyCar president Doug Boles presented an escalation in penalties for the attenuator issues which were raised by IndyCar’s technical inspection team, he also affirmed the series’ intent to remove any perception of a conflict of interest between the series’ owner and those who are paid by Penske Entertainment to police the legality of his cars and judge the on-track actions of his drivers. Although Penske Entertainment will continue to pay for all of the race control and race tech officials, the independent governing board was conceived to sever managerial ties between Penske, IndyCar, and the officials. Once the board and their lead administrator are in place, everyone from the race director to the head of technical inspection will report to the board and its leader instead of IndyCar’s president or senior VP of competition and operations. As the next racing season gets underway, the routine functions inside race control and race tech are meant to happen in a normal manner. As Boles told RACER in August, “This board will not be sitting in race control or standing out around tech, helping call penalties, real time. Operationally, you're still going to have a race director, you're still going to have the tech team, all of those components as we know them. I don't think you're going to see that drastically change. It's going to be the way that it's led, and the way that it's clearly independent from any influence from the IndyCar Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or its ownership.”
