Josef Newgarden has been disqualified and stripped of his victory in the first round of the IndyCar season in St Petersburg. This decision has handed Pato O’Ward his first series victory since 2022. Newgarden had won the race from pole position, with his teammate Scott McLaughlin finishing third. However, both drivers were disqualified because they used push-to-pass on restarts, which is against IndyCar rules. The push-to-pass software on the Penske cars had not been changed since the hybrid test at Sebring, leading to this issue.
Will Power, another driver in the race, has also been penalized with a deduction of 10 points. However, he was not disqualified because he did not use push-to-pass on a restart. Power effectively only loses two points due to the net gain in position he received as a result of his teammates’ disqualification. The revised race result in St Petersburg is as follows: 1. O’Ward, 2. Power, 3. Herta, 4. Palou, 5. Rosenqvist. In terms of the championship points, Dixon is currently in first place with 79 points, followed by Herta (-23), Palou (-12), O’Ward (-15), and Power (-20).
Prior to these penalties, Newgarden had been leading the championship standings after a win and a fourth-place finish in the first two races. However, as a result of the disqualification, he now plummets to 11th place in the championship, 45 points behind the leader. McLaughlin, on the other hand, is currently in 29th place with only five points due to a gearbox issue that forced him to retire from the Long Beach race.
Team Penske president and Josef Newgarden’s strategist, Tim Cindric, acknowledged the mistake and accepted the penalties imposed by IndyCar. He explained that the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been following the hybrid testing in the Team Penske IndyCars. This led to the deployment of push-to-pass on restarts during the St Petersburg Grand Prix race, which was against the rules. Cindric expressed Team Penske’s acceptance of the penalties and their commitment to ensuring compliance in the future.
The penalties were not issued immediately after the race in St Petersburg. It took over a month for IndyCar to discover the infraction, which occurred during the warm-up session at Long Beach. An extensive review of data from the St Petersburg race revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system, allowing certain cars to use push-to-pass on starts and restarts. According to the IndyCar rulebook, the use of overtake is not allowed until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line during championship races. The #2 and #3 cars gained a competitive advantage by using push-to-pass on restarts, while the #12 car did not. As a result, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the St Petersburg race.
IndyCar President Jay Frye has announced that a new inspection protocol will be implemented to prevent such violations in the future. Frye emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the IndyCar Series championship. The violation went undetected in St Petersburg but was discovered during the warm-up session in Long Beach. Immediate actions were taken to ensure compliance for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The new technical inspection procedures will be in place starting from the race at Barber Motorsports Park.
While Team Penske has the option to appeal the penalty, it is unlikely that they will do so based on Cindric’s statement accepting the penalties. O’Ward, who had a collision with his teammate Alexander Rossi in Long Beach resulting in a drivethrough penalty and a 16th-place finish, has now been propelled to fourth place in the standings, 15 points behind the leader. This revised result not only ends O’Ward’s win drought but also marks a significant achievement for his McLaren team, as none of its drivers won a race last season.