Former Formula E race director joins IndyCar

Scot Elkins becomes the new general manager of IndyCar officiating, within the IndyCar Officiating structure, created at the end of last year.

Native to Indiana and 56 years old, Scot Elkins will thus return to the peloton of the car American, where he had notably been active in the final years of Champ Car, where he served as technical director of the championship from 2005 to 2008. In his role as director general of officiating, Elkins will act as a liaison between IndyCar Officiating, the three-person panel (Raj Nair, Ray Evernham and Ronan Morgan) responsible for making decisions regarding the sporting regulations, and the IndyCar teams, in race direction, or at the technical inspection level.

The panel was created last December, following numerous suspicions within the paddock, with the aim of completely separating the "arbiters" responsible for the proper implementation of the sporting and technical regulations from the Penske empire. Since Roger Penske acquired IndyCar in 2019, all those in charge of the regulations were contractors for Penske Entertainment, the parent company created to manage IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While the absence of conflicts of interest was a crucial issue for "The Captain," the multiple cheating scandals involving his team in 2024 and 2025 ultimately necessitated the creation of a completely independent body.

"IndyCar officiating already has a truly unique advantage: race control and technical control teams that excel in their field and have earned the deep respect of this paddock."Elkins said. “In collaboration with the Independent Officiating Committee, our mission is to build upon these foundations to bring greater transparency and consistency to a system upon which this sport and its competitors depend. Having worked in some of the most respected motorsport series internationally and here in North America, I have seen firsthand what world-class officiating looks like, and it looks like IndyCar. Growing up in Indiana with the Indy 500 being a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I couldn’t be prouder or more motivated to serve this sport.”

Elkins' appointment comes just days after the Long Beach race, where IndyCar Officiating had to make its first decision following a software bug that enabled push-to-pass during the California race. Half the field was able to use the push-to-pass system on a restart, where it is normally prohibited.

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