IndyCar has disqualified Josef Newgarden from the season opening race at St. Petersburg on March 11 because Team Penske manipulated its push-to-pass system during the race.
Teammates Scott McLaughlin was also disqualified from his third-place finish and Will Power was assessed a 10-point penalty. Additionally, all three teams were fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the race.
Team Penske owner Roger Penske owns both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series but left the management of the team to president Tim Cindric upon making the acquisitions in 2019.
Due to the penalties, Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren, who originally was scored second, has now been promoted to first and declared the winner.
For road and street courses, IndyCar makes use of an overtake assist program that gives drivers a brief burst of around 50 horsepower, which can be used to defend or promote passes. But the system only becomes active only once race control enables the buttons on the steering wheels
Overtake assist isn’t available to drivers until their car reaches the designated start-finish line on any given track.
Over the weekend during the Long Beach Grand Prix, IndyCar found that the three cars from Team Penske were able to bypass the software restrictions and has access to overtake assist at any time. The series determined that Newgarden and McLaughlin used overtake assist before it was allowed, thus the disqualifications, and while Power did not, his system featured the override, which is why he was issued a points penalty.
From a series release:
“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. 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.”
IndyCar president Jay Frye says the issued was corrected before the race on Sunday, which was won by Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.
“The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do,” Frye said. “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 attributed to Cindric, who cited an oversight stemming from recent tests of the winter hybrid engine extension platform.
“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,” Cindric said. “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 conceded that Newgarden and McLaughlin made the choice to use overtake assist even before it was allowed by the series, which begs the question of if the team knew they had such an advantage in advance of the race.
“The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin, both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated IndyCar rules,” Cindric added. “Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar.”
As a result of all the penalties, Scott Dixon now leads the standings by two points over Colton Herta and 12 points over Alex Palou. Newgarden had a 14 point lead over O’Ward but falls to 11th and McLaughlin is now 29th.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.