INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — IndyCar is exploring the creation of an independent governing body absent of any Roger Penske employees in the wake of the Team Penske cheating scandal ahead of the Indianapolis 500.
Penske owns three-car Team Penske, IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. On Wednesday, he fired his top three racing executives after two of its cars were found to be illegal ahead of the second round of Indy 500 qualifying.
It has since been shown that the spec part Team Penske had modified on the cars of two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power had been done so for some time. Both Newgarden's winning car from his 2024 victory that is displayed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum and the one he took to the White House last month have the same modified part.
Rival teams claim they have photos of the Penske cars with the modifications dating some time, and others have claimed they told IndyCar technical inspectors the Penske cars were not legal.
“We want to ensure that we have an officiating entity that has no ability for folks to say it’s got influence from Roger Penske," said Doug Boles, named president of IndyCar in February while already holding the title of president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Since IndyCar caught Newgarden and Power's cars Sunday — with help of complaints from rival teams — the fellow competitors have alleged the Penske cars get preferential treatment because they are owned by Penske. They have also questioned how it wasn't discovered Saturday when Penske's three cars locked into the race, and are publicly wondering if the cars were legal at the time.
Optics of favoritism have dogged Penske since he purchased all things Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020 because everyone who runs an arm of his organization is paid by Roger Penske. Late Wednesday, new IndyCar president Doug Boles, who is also president of the speedway, said there is an evaluation of bringing in outside governance in the future.
“We have been working very, very hard to create an entity, an officiating entity, and by officiating I mean race control and tech inspection and an entity that is completely removed from anything that has to do with Penske entertainment, or Roger Penske or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the IndyCar series,” Boles said.
Boles also said one of the reasons the cars were not caught with the illegal modification is because the change had been made to the rear attenuator, a safety piece that is prohibited from being altered because it could compromise its abilities. Therefore, the part isn't routinely checked because IndyCar inspectors assume teams want their cars to be safe.
“Our team and tech does not, on a regular basis, look at those, and this is one of those parts that was not looked at until it was seen on Sunday,” Boles said. “Is that a miss? Absolutely it’s a miss.”
NASCAR is governed by the France family, which owns the series and most of its track. Race control and the competition department are NASCAR employees. NASCAR does not field any cars.
Formula 1 has an independent governance in the FIA. F1 owns only the commercial rights to the series, while the FIA has full control of how the series is governed.
Boles and many teams said the modification likely gave the Penske cars — which are already among the fastest in the field — little on-track advantage.
“I started hearing it on Monday from team owners and others, that it had no real performance impact, and the reason it hasn’t been looked at over the last several years as much as we scrutinize the things that we do know have a performance impact is because it doesn’t,” Boles said. “I’m not making an excuse for the fact that a rule was violated. In fact, you should see in the decision we made on Monday that we took it seriously. It is a safety element.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Visitors to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum watch the "Starting Grid Experience" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
President of Team Penske Tim Cindric, left and driver Josef Newgarden wait for the start of during practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
The winning car that Josef Newgarden drove to victory in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 is shown in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.
Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.
The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.
The latest:
Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.
As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.
Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.
Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”
As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.
Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.
Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.
“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.
He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.
Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.
The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.
Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.
The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.
Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”
The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.
Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”
Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.
“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.
He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.
The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
