If you’re setting up a new immigrant detention center in the Indiana capital, why not link it to what the city is most famous for? That, at least, was the apparent idea at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which marked the opening of its “Speedway Slammer” with a doctored image showing an IndyCar racer in front of the facility. That hasn’t gone down well with Roger Penske and his IndyCar series. More from Headlight.News.
IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward and his own No. 5 car.
It must have seemed like a logical connection to the creative minds promoting the new “Speedway Slammer,” the new immigrant detention center the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has set up in Indianapolis. After all, Indiana’s capital city is far better known for its Indianapolis Speedway and the race series it’s inspired.
That led the federal agency to post a doctored image of an IndyCar with the acronym “ICE” plastered all over it in front of the new holding facility.
That’s triggered a sharp pushback from the Penske organization, as well as Pato O’Ward, the Mexican driver who happens to drive the No. 5 car ICE chose to use for its image.
Penske pushback
The real Indy, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency already operates a detention center in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” As it accelerates its controversial policy of arresting and detaining suspected undocumented immigrants, ICE has been seeking additional space. It’s formed a tie-up with the Indiana Department of Correction giving the feds access to an existing prison about 70 miles away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That apparently was close enough for ICE officials.
An image posted on social media site X by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem featured an IndyCar plastered with the ICE logo in multiple places. Noem’s post used the image of the car in front of the new detention center to announce the new “Speedway Slammer.”
That didn’t go down well with the Penske organization which said, “We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of yesterday’s announcement,” in a statement first published by Automotive News. “Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our (intellectual property) not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”
“A little bit shocked”
Pato O’Ward.
The Penske organization wasn’t alone in its surprise. Whether intentional or not, the ICE promotion used as its template an IndyCar racer with the number “5” on it. It just so happens that the car bearing that number is driven this year by Pato O’Ward, who just happens to be the only Mexican driver in the IndyCar series – where he is currently second in total points for the 2025 season.
“It caught a lot of people off guard. Definitely caught me off guard,” O’Ward said, according to the Associated Press. “I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means. … I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.”
“I haven’t really read into it too much because I don’t think I want to,” O’Ward added.
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A second run-in with Penske
This is at least the second time ICE has had a run-in with the Penske organization.
Earlier this month the Los Angeles Time reported that masked and unidentified ICE agents staged a raid outside an LA Home Depot where a number of allegedly undocumented immigrants were arrested and tossed into the back of a van the agency had gotten from Penske Truck Rental.
That generated a response from Penske Truck Solutions, one of Roger Penske’s many business operations, advising the agency that, under no circumstance should passengers be transported in the cargo compartment.
“The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today’s operation and did not authorize this,” Penske Truck Rental said in the statement.
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