Josef Newgarden has been disqualified from the season-opening race in St. Petersburg – which he won – according to the IndyCar Series.
Newgarden’s Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin was disqualified from third and Penske’s Will Power was penalized with the loss of 10 points after determining Team Penske, owned by IndyCar Series owner Roger Penske, violated the push-to-pass rules.
Who got first place in the end? Second-place finisher Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren.
‘Disable the Push-to-Pass System’
How this all took place is pretty incredible. Normally, the push-to-pass system is not even available in this type of race.
Racer explains:
“IndyCar’s longstanding practice in its road and street course races is to disable the push-to-pass system, which gives drivers an extra shot of 50hp or so, prior to starts and restarts. The system only becomes active when the series enables the buttons on the steering wheel to command the engines to deliver the extra power. During last weekend’s event in Long Beach, the series found the three cars from Team Penske were able to bypass that software restriction and use push-to-pass at any time.”
Makes sense, right? IndyCar suspected something was up last week during a warmup session.
“An extensive review of data from the race on the streets of St. Petersburg revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts,” the statement continued. “According to the IndyCar rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line. It was determined that the No. 2 and the No. 3 gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 did not. Additionally, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the streets of St. Petersburg race.”
Push-to-Pass Was Used
So there are really two components here. First, the push-to-pass system was illegally available. That shouldn’t have happened.
But far worse is that the team used push-to-pass illegally.
IndyCar president Jay Frye said the following, “The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do. While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, IndyCar discovered the manipulation during Sunday’s warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Beginning with this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation.”
Team Penske issued a statement through president Tim Cindric:
“Unfortunately, the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars.”
“This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted,” Cindric added.
Cindric also admitted that Newgarden and McLaughlin chose to use the illegal access to push-to-pass power. Both Newgarden and McLaughlin used it on restarts.
Cindric added. “Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar.”
Do you think the penalty is severe enough?
