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IndyCar disqualifies Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin from St. Pete podium finishes

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7 months ago

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IndyCar disqualifies Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin from St. Pete podium finishes

Team Penske’s pair of podium finishers from IndyCar’s St. Pete season-opener have been disqualified — with its third entry docked 10 points — after IndyCar officials deemed the team to have violated rules around the use of its push-to-pass system for the race held 45 days ago.

Josef Newgarden, St. Pete’s dominate winner from pole who led 92 of 100 laps, and Scott McLaughlin, who finished 3rd, have free-fallen out of the top-10 in IndyCar’s early title race with the penalties, which subsequently awarded Pato O’Ward and Arrow McLaren the victory — both the driver and the team’s first since July 2022 at Iowa.

IndyCar says it first discovered a possible rules violation during Sunday morning’s warmup for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, which led to a deeper investigation.

“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 series’ release Wednesday morning read. “According to the IndyCar rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line.”

In a statement posted to X, Team Penske president Tim Cindric explained that the team had not removed the push-to-pass software it had been using during preseason hybrid testing ahead of the season-opener that allowed for early deployment, leading to the rules violation. During the $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club two weeks after St. Pete, drivers were allowed to engage push-to-pass immediately upon starts and restarts, so after the violation wasn’t detected at St. Pete, Long Beach would’ve been the next logical chance for IndyCar’s technical inspection crew to discover the inequity.

IndyCar’s review determined that Newgarden and McLaughlin both gained a competitive advantage from early use of push-to-pass during starts and restarts at St. Pete, while Will Power did not — leading to his No. 12 entry only being docked 10 points, from a championship standpoint. Interestingly, with Power moving up two spots from 4th to 2nd (and gaining 8 points in the process), he only lost two points in totality, compared to where he was sitting post-Long Beach.

“Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar,” the end of Cindric’s statement read.

The team’s namesake, Roger Penske, owns the IndyCar series.

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