Penske flexi-wings?

UPDATE The rear wings that failed on Penske Racing’s Indy cars late in last weekend’s race in Milwaukee were made by the team and within Indy Racing League guidelines, chief steward Brian Barnhart said today.

Barnhart said Roger Penske’s team, which fields cars for Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr., had a failure with its aluminum wing pillar.

Standard Dallara wing pillars are made out of carbon fiber. Teams are allowed to make their own pillars out of aluminum, and Barnhart said several teams do.

“(There was) no tinkering," he said. “They were completely legal." Indy Star

06/03/07 A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, If you needed any further proof that Roger's NASCAR involvement is "rubbing" off on his IRL program now that the teams are under one roof (after all rubbing is racing) all you need to do is tune into ABC to see Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. suffer structural rear wing failures within 10 laps of each other. The funny part is that this never happens to anyone else. Unless of course you have a flexible rear wing assembly that bends at a given speed. I wonder what would happen if such a system failed – oh wait we don't have to wonder. We saw it today! Will the IRL have enough character to punish one of their main teams? I doubt it. Woof! Molly Dog