IndyCar gets new technical inspection truck and tools
Penske Entertainment has purchased a new technical inspection trailer that will be run by its new Independent Officiating Board (IOB) and the regulatory compliance staff who will work for the Penske-funded IndyCar Officiating Incorporated (IOI).
“The tech truck that goes down the road for the entire tech team is brand-new this year,” said IndyCar President Doug Boles. “Our (IndyCar) folks will transport it and get it there and turn it over at the end of the day, once it's set up, to the tech team and to the IOB to manage.
“It still will be owned by us, but it will be completely run by the IOB. I'm excited that we had planned on doing this even before we got to the IOB side. So this is a nice thing as they kick things off to go into a season with a brand-new truck.”
The tools used for technical inspection are not expected to undergo significant change in 2026 or '27 as the current Dallara DW12 chassis enters its final seasons of service.
But as the new-for-2028 Dallara IR28 is readied for debut, Boles wants to have laser scanning technology – a staple in domestic series like NASCAR and IMSA to measure and verify bodywork and dimensional legality of various components – in play as standard equipment for the IOB to deploy.
“Scanning is one of the areas where I think we have an awful lot of opportunity,” Boles said. “As you know, following the Indianapolis 500 we impounded four cars – or the tubs and the crash structures – because as much as anything, we wanted to learn what's going on, figure out the reliability of the tub. Basically, we took those tubs and crash structures and compared them to the three other cars that came in with them. So we compared all four cars to each other.
“We compared them to the CAD (computer-aided design file) that Dallara has for the build of the Dallara car. And we also built up a brand-new tub and a brand-new crash structure and compared it to that. So as I said, it was as much anything for us to learn what's going on with the tubs and learn how reliable they were.”
Achieving reliable and repeatable scanning results have proven to be a challenge with the DW12 due to its age and numerous configuration changes the spec chassis has undergone since its introduction in 2012. As DW12s were involved in heavy crashes during the first few seasons of use, IndyCar and Dallara implemented mandatory offseason updated to the tubs where additional side impact cladding was applied to the cars and other annual safety improvements were made.
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