Josef Newgarden’s victory in the season-opening IndyCar race at St. Petersburg has been overturned, with Pato O’Ward now declared the winner.
Team Penske, which fields Newgarden’s car, was found to have manipulated the push-to-pass system during the race. This gave Penske drivers an unfair advantage on starts and restarts.
In addition to Newgarden’s disqualification, his teammate Scott McLaughlin, who finished third, has also been disqualified. Will Power, the third Penske driver, has been docked 10 points. All three Penske entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the race.
‘The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do,’ said IndyCar President Jay Frye. ‘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.’
Team Penske President Tim Cindric said in a statement that the team ‘accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar.’ Cindric said that the team’s push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been following hybrid testing.
The disqualification is a major blow to Newgarden, who is in a contract year with Penske. He has fallen from first in points to 11th with the disqualification.
New technical inspection procedures will be in place for this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park to deter similar violations.
