Jim France, the owner of IMSA and NASCAR, has come under scrutiny once again after Roger Penske’s star driver Laurens Vanthoor made headlines with his post-race remark. The remark has since sparked a wave of reactions from fans online. 

The Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America was nothing short of a chaotic, controversial, dramatic six-hour race. However, the major talking point of the race came during the fifth hour of the race when Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr and Cadillac Whelen’s Jack Aitken made contact at Turn 6.

This spun Nasr into the gravel and beached him, bringing out the caution. The Penske Porsche driver managed to get back in the race. But what followed was the controversial moment, as the contact was deemed incidental and the officials did not penalize the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen.

This decision prompted Penske Porsche Motorsports driver Laurens Vanthoor to take to his social media and indirectly call out the France family. 

"Who is the owner of the #31 Cadillac actually?" Laurens Vanthoor wrote on his X account. 

To put it into context, Action Express Racing is owned by Jim France. Due to sponsorship reasons, the team is forced to race under the name of Cadillac Whelen. 

As for the X post, it quickly caught the attention of motorsports fans. 

Motorsports fans call out Jim France and Co. after controversial penalty decision at IMSA 

Under the X post shared by Laurens Vanthoor, many fans from across the motorsports community quickly shared their thoughts on the Cadillac Whelen not being penalized.

For one fan, the penalty was enough to point out why NASCAR fans opposed the idea of a France family-owned team in NASCAR. They wrote, 

"And this is why everyone freaked out at the idea of the France family owning a Cup team."

One fan didn't hold back, accusing the IMSA officials of favoritism towards the France Family. They commented,

"IMSA needs an independent race control ASAP."

Another fan further recalled a similar incident that took place earlier in the race where No. 40 V-Series. R of Jordan Taylor and Louis Delétraz picked up a drive-through penalty for blocking the race. They wrote, 

"The 31 also got a warning for the same exact infraction the 40 got a drive through.  The France family obviously has no shame.  If the BoP didn’t make it obvious enough.  8 straight podiums and still 13kg lighter than the Porsche."

A fan even brought IndyCar into the picture to suggest that the tables could have been turned if Jim France's team did that in IndyCar, which is owned by Roger Penske, who also fields a team in the series. They commented, 

"I wish France Family was in IndyCar Penske would've returned the favour well"

The Porsche Motorsports North America account reposted the video of the incident on their X account and reacted to the incident with three angry emojis. 

What did you think of the incident? Let us know in the comments. 

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco