INDYCAR: Series Hands Out $275,000 In Post-Indy Qualifying Fines

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Series Hands Out $275,000 In Post-Indy Qualifying Fines

The IZOD IndyCar Series adds to its bottom line after nearly two dozen fines from last weekend's Pole Day and Bump Day activities were levied.

Marshall Pruett | Posted May 21, 2012

Even the Indy 500 pole-sitting team was hit with a fine. (Photo: LAT)

The pursuit of the $100,000 prize for earning pole position at the Indianapolis 500 came with a hefty buy-in price for some teams over the weekend as the IZOD IndyCar Series revealed it had levied a total of 18 fines ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each.

All together, INDYCAR, the sanctioning body for the series, was set to take in $275,000 for the rule-bending actions carried out by its teams. Unlike other racing series, no loss of points or suspensions were attached to the infractions.

The most common penalty found as cars crossed the tech pad prior to making qualifying runs involved trying to reduce rolling friction at each wheel by retracting the brake pistons into the brake calipers.

With the entire 33-car field using the spec Dallara DW12 chassis and identical carbon brake kits supplied by Brembo, the search to find the tiniest advantage was too great to ignore for 11 teams, who ran afoul of Rule 8.2.3.3., which states, "Retracting the brake pistons into the caliper by any method is prohibited."

By pressing the brake pistons back into the bodies of the calipers, the minute friction that exists between the carbon brake pads and discs--even when they are not being used--is eliminated, and over the four-lap, 1-mile qualifying run, any efforts to reduce friction will pay dividends on the the stopwatch.

The pole-sitting Team Penske No. 2 car of Ryan Briscoe, No. 4 Panther Racing car of JR Hildebrand, Nos. 5 and 8 KV Racing cars of E.J. Viso and Rubens Barrichello, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi car of Scott Dixon, Will Power's No. 12 Team Penske car, Justin Wilson's No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing entry, Nos. 25, 26 and 28 Andretti Autosport cars of Ana Beatriz, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the No. 64 Fan Force United car driven by Jean Alesi all contributed $15,000 apiece to IndyCar's fine jar.

The stiffest fine--a solid $50,000--came out of the Fan Force United team for another infraction.

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