Indy 500 champions Josef Newgarden and Will Power were hit with a major penalty less than a week before the green flag drops for the race.

The Team Penske drivers will be forced to start in the rear of the field over modified attenuators, the IndyCar Series announced on Monday. The team strategists for both drivers were suspended for the race.

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"The integrity of the Indianapolis 500 is paramount, and this violation of the INDYCAR rule against modification to this part and using it ‘as supplied’ is clear," IndyCar President J. Douglas Boles said in a statement. "The penalty should be more than simply starting where the cars might have qualified anyway, if given the opportunity. The cars belong in the field as two of the fastest 33; however, starting on the tail of the field is the appropriate penalty in this instance."

IndyCar said Newgarden and Power will forfeit qualification points, and they were fined $100,000.

"The positive momentum around the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and the Indianapolis 500 has been on a steep crescendo over the last several months, and we want it to be clear that our intent is to maintain that momentum and discourage teams from putting INDYCAR in positions where it calls into the integrity of our officiating and the levelness of the playing field," Boles added.

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"As we look to the remainder of the week and the race this weekend, we will do everything we can to make it clear that this is not only the best racing on the planet but racing where the best win under completely fair conditions."

IndyCar said an illegal filling was found in the seams of the attenuator, according to FOX Sports.

Team Penske President Tim Cindric said Sunday the modification was performed to make the vehicles sleek and not to give it an advantage.

"In our eyes, it’s not a performance advantage but at the end of the day, if they don’t like the seam being filled, they don’t like the seam being filled," Cindric said via FOX Sports. "You’ve got to do what the inspection process is and conform to that."

Newgarden won the Indy 500 in 2023 and 2024. Power won the race in 2018.

Each driver will now have to pull off stunning racing to get to the front and possibly win the race.

The Indy 500 will be broadcast May 25 on FOX with pre-coverage starting at 10 a.m. ET. It will also be available to stream live on FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.

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Scottie Scheffler was pumped after securing the first PGA Championship of his career.

Scheffler threw down his hat onto the green at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina, as he celebrated winning the major tournament with an 11-under par. He went over to his family and hugged his wife, son and parents as they congratulated him.

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The adrenaline must have carried over to the Wanamaker Trophy celebration. Scheffler lifted the piece of hardware a little too awkwardly, and the lid of the trophy fell from the top and hit the ground.

He laughed it off, as did the rest of the fans who watched the ceremony occur.

Collin Morikawa had the same blunder when he won the PGA Championship in 2020.

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"They told me it’s heavy. They didn’t tell me the lid comes off," the golfer said Wednesday before the tournament began, via Golf.com. "But it is way heavier than you expect. And then they tell you to lift it over your head."

Scheffler shot a final-round 71 to secure the third major victory of his career.

He had a rough first few holes and allowed Jon Rahm to get into contention. However, he locked in while Rahm fell off the pace on the back nine.

"This back nine will be one that I remember for a long time," Scheffler said. "It was a grind out there. I think at one point on the front I maybe had a four- or five-shot lead, and making the turn, I think I was tied for the lead.

"So to step up when I needed to the most, I’ll remember that for a while."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Team Penske teammate Will Power will have to start from the final two spots on the grid Sunday after their teams were penalized for violating the rules during qualifying weekend.

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ESPN star Stephen A. Smith weighed in on Monday about why Catilin Clark’s hard foul on Angel Reese became a major story of the sports weekend.

Clark’s foul under the basket came after Reese pushed off of an Indiana Fever player to secure an offensive rebound. Clark fouled the Chicago Sky forward in order to prevent an easy two points. Reese let Clark have an earful over the foul. 

Clark’s personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul.

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The two WNBA stars downplayed the foul in their postgame press conferences, but it still became a hot topic of debate because of the history the two young athletes have.

"First Take" host Molly Qerim asked bluntly whether the story of Clark and Reese becoming "trending news" was because it was women being physical with each other or was it because it involved a Black and a White player.

"It’s not about Black and White – it’s about that White player and that Black player," Smith said of Clark and Reese. "Why? Because of the history they had before they came to the WNBA. If Angel Reese was never in Caitlin Clark’s face taunting her the way that she did, mimicking what Caitlin Clark was doing to numerous opponents in route to the Final Four and then LSU and Angel Reese busted their you know what at that particular moment in time and Angel Reese was in her face chirping at her the way that she did, it would have never gotten to this point.

"I have never deemed that to be a bad thing. I love that kind of confrontation. I love that kind of heat. But there are White folks in America had a problem with Angel Reese coming at ‘The Chosen One,’ Caitlin Clark, that way. And because of that, they’ve acted with a level of vitriol. How do we know that? Because Angel Reese came back to college following year and one of the things that reduced her to tears was the vitriol that she was receiving from around the country because were hating on her because of her elevated popularity and the fact that she had gone at Caitlin Clark that way.

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"Now, we come to the WNBA. No fault of Caitlin’s at all. But in the end, because of her greatness and because people were resistant to accepting the way I have articulated on many occasions, you have people using that as an excuse to throw vitriol at other people. In the end, here’s what I say, that’s what’s contributed to Angel Reese becoming a household name, along with the fact that she’s a rebounding demon … but that’s elevated her level of popularity."

Smith pointed to the rivalry Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson had in the NBA. It started at the college level and blossomed into the NBA.

He drew a comparative racial line between the NBA greats and young WNBA stars.

"What I would say all of y’all is this … no matter how great Michael Jordan was obviously, it started with Bird vs. Magic. Yeah, you can talk about Showtime vs. Boston, but that White superstar losing in that national championship game to that dude called Magic at Michigan State when (Bird) was at Indiana State and him coming into the NBA," he said. "They constantly made the Finals, and they owned most of the 80s in terms of the two teams, respectively. The bottom line is, it contributed to elevate the popularity. 

"So, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, embrace this. It’s OK, because all y’all doing is competing."

Indiana won the first of five games against Chicago. Clark had a triple-double and Reese had a double-double.

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