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IndyCar announced on Tuesday that Helio Castroneves' team received penalties due to an issue with the underwing on his race-winning car last Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.
During post-race technical inspection at Texas, the No. 3 Team Penske car, driven by Castroneves, did not comply to rule 14.6.6.14 in the 2013 IndyCar Series rule book. It states, "the exit of the underwing height is 7.600 inches with a tolerance of plus 0.050 inches and minus 0.000 inches."
The team was fined $35,000 and docked 15 entrant points for the rules violation.
Penske Racing president Tim Cindric explained the problem with the underwing in a statement issued by the team.
"Obviously, we are very disappointed that the No. 3 car did not pass post-race inspection after Saturday's race at Texas," Cindric said. "The rule in question (14.6.6.14) states that the diffuser exit must measure 7.600 (inches). After the race, ours was 7.575 (inches), because we neglected to tighten the braces that position the rear of the diffuser following pre-race inspection.
"The way Helio's car raced did not provide any advantage 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 scored his first victory of the season as well as his record fourth win at Texas. He put on a dominating performance by leading 132 of 228 laps. With the victory, Castroneves took a 22-point lead in the IndyCar championship standings.
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