Opening round of the season 2024 IndyCar season, Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, took place on March 10, a month and a half ago. So when IndyCar officials announced the disqualification of the Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden And Scott McLaughlin, as well as the 10-point penalty for Will Power on Wednesday morning, which was something of a shocker. Apparently the Team Penske drivers were caught violating the “Push to Pass” rule. The vehicles in question were found to be unregulated during the start-up process last weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prixat that time Data from St. Pete approved.
The rules that Team Penske was determined to have violated are listed below:
- Rule 14.19.15. A Push to Pass authorization indicator will be sent via CAN communication from the timing and scoring beacon on the Vehicle to the team data logger. This signal must be delivered to the ECU intact and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Events.
- Rule 14.19.16. Race Starts and any Race Restarts that occur before a white flag lap or before three minutes remaining in a Timed Race Event will cause the Push to Pass system to be disabled and will be activates for a given Vehicle once that Vehicle reaches the Alternate Start /Destination Point.
According to IndyCar, Team Penske manipulated the passing system in such a way that Newgarden, McLaughlin and Power could use the Push to Pass button at the start and restart of the race, where they were prohibited. From the data, it was determined that Newgarden and McLaughlin gained a competitive advantage from P2P fraud, while Power did not, resulting in the penalties being allocated as they are.
“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 warm-up session in Long Beach and immediately addressed it to ensure all cars were in compliance with 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 prevent this violation.”
Since Newgarden was eliminated from the race lead, Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward inherit the race victory. Newgarden will also lose all points associated with winning the race, removing him from the championship lead and leaving this weekend’s winner Scott Dixon on top of the points.
It is not uncommon for a driver to be deprived of a race victory, and is especially rare this late in the season. When it comes to punishing a team, especially one owned by the same man who owns the series, Roger Penske, it is extremely important that the series be objective and transparent throughout the process. Kudos to Frye and his team for analyzing the situation and making the tough choices.
