A social media post from the Department of Homeland Security that contained an AI image of an IndyCar to promote a proposed detention center in the state of Indiana has been taken down.
DHS touted the “Speedway Slammer” on Tuesday as part of a “partnership with the state of Indiana to expand ICE detention space by 1,000 beds” at the Miami Correctional Center. In the image, a No. 5 IndyCar had the ICE acronym all over the car.
The IndyCar Series immediately spoke out against the use of its car in the promotion. The series said it was “unaware” that DHS was planning to use the image of an IndyCar as part of the announcement and that it was “communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”
As of Friday afternoon, the URL leading to the post with the image of the IndyCar on X, formerly known as Twitter, was showing the post as removed. The post is also not seen among the posts that are shown on the main feed of the DHS account.
The deletion came after DHS initially pushed back against IndyCar’s protestations. In a statement on Aug. 6, DHS said in a statement that “An AI generated image of a car with ‘ICE’ on the side does not violate anyone’s intellectual property rights.”
The IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is owned by billionaire Roger Penske. The business tycoon and longtime motorsports team owner was at the White House in April as President Donald Trump honored Team Penske’s drivers.
The tweet with the IndyCar was not the only thing from DHS that drew a rebuke from a Penske company this week, either. ICE agents emerged from the back of a Penske box truck as part of a raid at a Los Angeles-area Home Depot, prompting Penske Truck Rental to state that it would “reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future."
The car in the AI image shared a number with Pato O'Ward, the driver of the No. 5 car for Arrow McLaren. O'Ward is the only Mexican driver in the IndyCar Series and is one of the series' most popular drivers.
He was asked about the post on Wednesday while doing a promotional appearance for IndyCar's race in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in 2026.
“It caught a lot of people off-guard. Definitely caught me off-guard,” O’Ward told reporters on Wednesday via 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.”
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