IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward and series officials were shocked by a social media post from the Department of Homeland Security that touts plans for an immigration detention center in Indiana dubbed “Speedway Slammer," and includes a car with the same number as the only Mexican driver in the series.
“It caught a lot of people off guard. Definitely caught me off guard,” O’Ward said Wednesday. “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.”
The post Tuesday included an image of a IndyCar-style vehicle with the No. 5 that had “ICE” imposed on it multiple times similar to the display of a sponsor. It appeared to be a computer-created image, with the car on a track and a prison-like building in the background.
